The recent arrest and harsh treatment by US police of India's Deputy Consul General to the US for alleged visa fraud, underpayment and concealing the exploitation of her domestic worker triggered sharp protests from the Indian government and an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries. But the government of India, according to a press release and call for action by the International Domestic Workers Federation, has missed "the underlying issue - that of the abuse and exploitation of a domestic worker by a senior official."

Workers at the Legoland theme park in Günzburg in the south of Germany continue to fight for a collective agreement (see previous stories) and against company attempts to dismiss the democratically-elected works council chairman, Nikolaus Lauter.

Since December 3 the Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU) has been holding rallies in front of the Incheon Hyatt Regency to protest the abusive treatment of women janitors. Since this department was outsourced women janitors have been employed under new work contracts without notification and paid for only 6 of an 8-hour shift.

On December 18, 1990, the United Nations' General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The Migrant Workers Convention entered into force in 2003, becoming a binding international treaty. It is considered one of the core human rights instruments. Yet to date it has been ratified by only 47 UN member states – none of them major receiving countries for migrants, and none of them members of the OECD, the club of wealthy countries.

In response to the lethal police assault on striking oil workers in the western Kazakhstan town of Zhanaozen two years ago, democratic trade unions immediately called for the establishment of legal institutions to protect and encourage the expression and resolution of labour disputes on the basis of democratic representation and genuine collective bargaining. Now the authoritarian government of Nursultan Nazarbayev is moving to establish total state control of the country’s trade unions.

Transnational cereal maker Kellogg's has locked out 220 members of the IUF-affiliated BCTGM since October 22 at its factory in Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to force union acceptance of a plan to radically increase the use of casual workers. With this plan all newly employed workers would be employed as casuals with no guaranteed hours at significantly lower pay and benefits, effectively transforming over time the entire employment structure at the facility. The company calls this "The New Workforce of the Future".

CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO KELLOGG'S!

December 16 marks the two-year anniversary of the brutal police assault on striking oil workers in the western Kazakhstan town of Zhanaozen which left 17 people dead. Of the thirty-seven workers tried, 7 remain imprisoned today.

Hotel and restaurant workers in Curitiba, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Parana, have been on strike since November 30 against the employers' refusal to increase wages. Employers' representatives have not only refused to negotiate in good faith but have also appealed to the tribunal to prevent protesters from holding noisy actions in front of hotels and restaurants.