Trade unions from around the world have called on the French-based Accor Group to immediately enter into negotiations to redefine the scope and content of the international trade union rights agreement signed with the IUF in 1995. The call came from the IUF's annual global meeting of member unions in the hospitality, tourism and catering sectors, which was held in Ankara, Turkey May 17-18.

Strike action scheduled to begin at 19 hotels in Sweden's 3 largest cities on early morning May 17 has been averted with the conclusion of a new 2-year collective agreement between the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union (HRF) and the employers association. The conflict had gone into mediation as the strike deadline approached and other unions had announced active support measures.

Iranian teacher union activist Farzad Kamanger was executed in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on May 9, together with 4 other political prisoners. The families have not been allowed to claim their bodies.

We never bought it, so we can't change the recommendation to sell - but we have taken a closer look at the rating put on Nestlé's Creating Shared Value Report 2009 in order to investigate the reporting criteria - and whether they've been met.

Anyone following the UK parliamentary enquiry into the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft could not help but conclude that Kraft was either less than truthful, or incompetent, or both, in its cynical manipulation of false hopes around the Cadbury Somerdale plant previously slated for closure (see Kraft on a Diet after the Cadbury Feast - How Many Union Jobs Lighter?).

Since April 21 hundreds of workers at the Horlicks factory in Nabha in Punjab state in northwest India, have held continuous protest actions against the company’s refusal to grant permanent employment to casual workers employed on a 'temporary’ basis for more than a decade.