On February 20 members of the Grenada Technical & Allied Workers' Union at Grenada Breweries voted to end a conflict that saw them locked out of their jobs since Christmas period last year. The Company was not able to break the determination of union members who displayed exemplary strength, unity, discipline and maturity throughout the struggle.

Production at Tate & Lyle's Amylum Starch Corporation in Adana, Turkey halted on March 5 when members of the IUF-affiliated Tekgida-Is launched an unlimited strike after 6 months of fruitless negotiations for a first collective agreement at the plant.

Workers across South Africa responded to COSATU's call for a national strike on March 7, bringing tens of thousands of people onto the streets in dozens of cities. The action has been described as the largest planned protest in the post-Apartheid era.

Following legislation last year which criminalizes workplace protests, the struggle for  independent trade unions in Egypt received another blow when on February 26 Kamal Abbas, general coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Worker's Services (CTUWS) was sentenced in absentia to six months imprisonment for "insulting a public officer" during the 2011 International Labour Conference in Geneva.

Developments in the Baltic countries rarely make the news, but the UK press has given extended coverage to global brewer Carlsberg's use of a court decision declaring beer an "essential service" to block strike action at its Lithuanian brewery.

In the midst of an unprecedented, nearly month-long series of hearings at the Ontario Labour Board involving unfair labour practices at three Accor Novotel hotels in the province, Accor continues to wage war against the fundamental rights of those who staff their branded hotels.

On International Women's Day, women workers at Nestlé are fighting discrimination and unequal treatment.

No progress has been made for more than a decade in closing the gender pay gap, according to a recent report by the ITUC (Frozen in time: Gender pay gap unchanged for 10 years)