Tough conflicts have marked the IUF engagement with Unilever, but the process has brought tangible results. On the eve of the meeting the IUF and its members at Unilever's Kecap Bango joint venture in Subang, Indonesia secured over 600 new direct, permanent jobs for casual and contract workers after a lengthy struggle.

A peaceful demonstration in front of Atatürk International Airport on May 29 2012 protesting a government attempt to deny aviation workers the right to strike was followed by the brutal dismissal of 305 union members. The proposal to remove the right to strike for aviation workers has since been withdrawn but 305 workers remain without work. ITF affiliate Hava-Is is fighting to get these jobs back.

Last week, McDonald's was caught hijacking a program that's supposed to allow young people to go to the U.S. for cultural exchange programs and professional training. Instead, the fast food giant twisted it into a source of cheap, exploitable labor.

According to UN-Women, country data reveals that as many as 7 in 10 women in the world report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. Statistics indicate that violence against women and girls is a universal phenomenon, irrespective of income, class and culture. Forms and manifestations of violence against women and girls include intimate partner violence, early and forced marriage, forced pregnancy, honour crimes, female genital mutilation, femicide, non-partner sexual violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, other institutions and in public spaces, trafficking, violence condoned by the State and violence against women in conflict situations.

FNV Bondgenoten has embarked on a series of actions following a breakdown in negotiations to secure decent transfer conditions for Netherlands Unilever workers scheduled to be outsourced to the catering/services giant Sodexo.

The International Domestic Workers’ Network, IDWN, has been awarded the 2013 AFL-CIO George Meany – Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award. The award, created in1980, celebrates outstanding examples of the international struggle for human rights through trade unions.

Subject to shareholder approval later this year, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian 3G Capital will acquire food giant Heinz for USD 28 billion. It is a private equity buyout with a twist - appropriate for a company which marketed the phrase "57 varieties" - but the impact on Heinz workers will be similar to what workers have long experienced in leveraged buyouts: intense pressure on employment and working conditions as investors seek to wring out the last drop of cash.

Agricultural workers from Unite, will today lobby Britain’s upper house of parliament to urge support for legal measures to stop Coalition Government plans to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB). The Board sets minimum rates of pay and other employment conditions such as sick pay and holiday entitlement for 154,000 workers.