Over 1,000 people came to the Nowera Nuddy tea estate on March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day 2011. With more than 18 months of struggle to resolve a dispute that started over the right to maternity leave, women on the estate know first- hand the importance of campaigning for their rights in the workplace.

The Dublin Labour Court has recommended that five SIPTU members removed from the payroll of the Davenport Hotel in Dublin for refusing to accept a cut in their minimum wage should be reinstated and their previous pay rate restored.

On October 18 last year – 4 days after the last of 33 Chilean miners emerged from over two months underground at the San Jose copper mine – President Piñera pleged in an interview  to overhaul the country’s mine safety structures and ratify ILO Convention 176 on mine safety within 90 days. Nearly 5 months later, none of this has happened.

The final discussion on an ILO Convention for Domestic Workers will take place June 1-17 at the International Labour Conference in Geneva – and union action is crucial to ensuring adoption of a strong instrument. Although important battles were won in the discussions last year, the essence of the draft Convention - to provide domestic workers equal rights with other workers – was challenged by employers and some governments, including the EU.

Over nine years of union struggle at Karachi’s upscale Pearl Continental Hotel received a major boost on February 26 when the provincial Labour Court ordered union General Secretary Ghulam Mehboob, Joint Secretary Basheer Hussain and 18 other union members and officers reinstated in their jobs.

Members of the IUF's Irish affiliate SIPTU at the Davenport Hotel in Dublin have mounted protests after being taken off the roster for refusing to sign new contracts reducing their national minimum wage rate by almost €1 an hour.

The outgoing Irish Government  pressed through legislation allowing for the minimum wage to be reduced, but gave assurances that this could not happen without the consent of workers affected.

The IUF and Amnesty International have teamed up for action on International Women’s Day 2011 to highlight the situation of Zimbabwe farmworkers and the exiled leader of their union, Gertrude Hambira. Members and officers of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) have suffered continual intimidation, harassment and violence by Zimbabwe police, ruling party thugs and ‘war veterans’ because of their work defending the rights of farmworkers.

Workers from Moldova's bankrupt Glodeni-Zahar sugar company are now blocking rail and truck transport in a desperate effort to defend their meager patrimony. They have not been paid their wages since June 2009 and will receive no benefits after years of service if they do not succeed.