19 May, 2010Organizing the electronics industry has long proven to be a difficult challenge for trade unions. Unionization rates remain extremely low in an industry where precarious employment is rife and labour abuses abound. To make matters worse, the electronics industry has been one of the hardest hit by the economic crisis, bringing job losses and additional downward pressure on pay and conditions. But at IMF's recent conference for the ICT, Electrical and Electronics industries on 'Organizing, Trade Union Rights and Sustainability', IMF affiliates reasserted their commitment to organizing electronics workers and improving their working conditions.
19 May, 2010According to official data, in Russia, a country with a population of over 140 million, in 2009 there was a grand total of one strike. Of course, this reflects not the actual situation, but rather the unjustifiably strict legal requirements for holding strikes. The unconvincing figures from the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) conceal the real story of labour conflicts: hundreds of collective disputes, a multitude of clashes with management and government, which both are often prepared to go to any lengths to destroy active and combative unions.
23 September, 2009From October 3 to 10 metalworker unions from Australia to Zambia are taking action against the use of precarious employment.
23 September, 2009Workers rally at Opel plant in Antwerp demanding no to the closure of plants and no to forced redundancies.
23 September, 2009With a rich history of struggling to improve the lives of working people, the Thai labour movement is at the forefront of the global campaign to move temporary workers to permanent positions.
23 September, 2009IMF holds 2nd seminar on Union Building and Collective Bargaining aimed at strengthening union building efforts around the world.
