Violence against banana unions in Guatemala is escalating. On May 26, Joel Hernandez Godoy, finance secretary of the IUF-affiliated banana workers union SITRABI, was shot dead by a gunman on motorcycle while driving through the village of Cristina to the union headquarters in the town of Morales.

Three union activists have been dismissed from their employment at KFC in Thailand after they established a union and sought to bargain a collective agreement with KFC management. The Thai ministry of labour approved the registration of the Cuisine and Services Thailand Workers Union after over 200 workers  signed and submitted a proposal seeking to negotiate with the company to improve wages and working conditions.

Global food manufacturer H.J. Heinz on May 26 announced record full-year (fiscal 2011 ending April 30) results. Sales in the fourth quarter increased by 6% over the previous year and profits rose by 16%. Net income resulted in earnings per share rising from 60 to 69 US cents. Investor appetites were unappeased – they wanted 72 cents a share. So Heinz announced the elimination of 1,000 jobs.

The updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises were officially adopted in Paris on May 25, opening up new potential for unions to make use of the procedures.

The second UK House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee appointed to examine the consequences of Kraft's Cadbury takeover has just published its report (available online here). The conclusions echo union concerns but could go further.

On April 26, Basile Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité (whose food and hotel section is affiliated to the IUF), was arrested at his Abidjan home and forcibly taken into detention. The union office was sacked, and many union officers have gone into hiding.

Kraft unions around the world have condemned the brutal suppression of permanent employment for long-serving employees at the company's biscuit factory in Vantaa, Finland, where 24 permanent workers have been handed dismissal notices. Nineteen of the dismissed have been told they can return to employment… on a call-in basis with no guaranteed hours.

The Turkish government has filed criminal charges against 111 union leaders, members and supporters which carry prison terms of up to 5 years in connection with a 2010 demonstration in Ankara. The Ankara action was in support of 12,000 workers made redundant overnight following the privatization of the state tobacco monopoly TEKEL.