A joint letter (click here for Turkish and English version) sent by the Council of Global Unions and ETUC strongly condemns an article added at the last moment to the new trade union bill. The article states that in workplaces with less than 30 employees discrimination or dismissals arising from union activity will go unpunished.

UK singer/songwriter, Billy Bragg has always been a strong advocate of workers rights and while he was touring down under, he leant a voice to the campaigns of two IUF affiliates.

For the past two years Coca-Cola Philippines has aggressively imposed a new personal performance system on thousands of workers, effectively replacing wage bargaining rights with arbitrary individual wage increases and a series of penalties including zero wage rises and termination in just 6 months.

As the world plunges deeper into a food crisis, a small number of wealthy investors, investment funds and transnational companies are grabbing more of the world's farmlands, and the water that goes with it, leaving everyone else with less, or none at all.

The Ontario Labor Relations Board ruled on September 27, following an unprecedented 40 months of hearings, that management of the French-based Accor hotel group consistently engaged in illegal activity in its efforts to thwart union representation for workers at the company-owned and -managed Mississauga Novotel. The suit was brought by Local 75 of the IUF-affiliated UNITE HERE.

Today the IUF-affiliated Milk Food Factory Workers Union stepped up its demand for improved working conditions at the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Horlicks factory in Nabha in Punjab state in northwest India. The union, representing 1,650 members, is demanding 105 new permanent positions be created to reduce excessive workloads in manufacturing and milk collection.

IUF affiliates in Australia and New Zealand are fighting a Kraft edict that no wedding rings shall be worn in their factories. While food workers are accustomed to removing jewellery for food safety and health and safety reasons, the sacred wedding ring is normally exempt. But Kraft policy states if the rings can’t be removed, they must be cut off.  Food companies normally deal with the issue through the requirement to wear gloves or an x-ray sensitive adhesive band.