Italy: short margin for ‘yes’ vote in the consultation on the agreement renewing the banking collective agreement
Strong ‘no.’  The rejection of the agreement renewing the banking CCN signed in January (see our dispatch No.  120046) started within the left wing of the Fisac-CGIL, led by former leader Domenico...
Argentina: unions support the nationalization of the YPF oil company
A historical claim for Argentinean unions.  “YPF is becoming Argentinean again” said Hugo Moyano, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT)...
Italy: employers and unions demonstrate in Rome today to demand measures to stop the wave of economic suicides
Peak of economic suicides among jobseekers.  Indeed, Latium was the region where the number of suicides soared in 2010: +27.3 percent as opposed to +3 percent in Lombardy, which still remains the...
18 April 2012
Norway: new agreement in manufacturing
Influential agreement.  Fellesforbundet is the most important private sector union in the LO confederation with about 151,000 members.  This is why the Norsk Industri employers’ organization is...
Enel: EWC agreement renewed
Transnationality.  The agreement signed on December 16 by Enel’s management, the EWC and the EPSU and EMCEF union organizations contains the definition given in Directive 2009/38 which provides...
Portugal: shipyard staff gives summer holidays up to face production peak
Flexibility.  The Workers’ Committee (CT) of the Viana do Castelo shipyard (ENVC) signed the company agreement maintaining production for August 2012.  Usually, the shipyards are closed for two...
Italy: unitary CGIL, Cisl and Uil mobilization asking for solutions to the “tragic” consequences of the pension reform
Poste Italiane (which “expelled” nearly 5,000 seniors through the “family incentive,” i.e. the father or mother leaving their job with the promise that their child would get it), Alitalia (almost...
13 April 2012
Great Britain: Unite tries new campaign style at Mayr-Melnhof Packaging and Tulip
Unite members at MMP were sacked and locked out in mid-February after undertaking a number of one-day strikes over the company’s method of selection for the redundancies and the terms being...
Germany: IG BCE chemistry union and Technikum temporary work agency create the first training fund for all agency workers
A company agreement… open to all sectors.  The creation of the first Continuous Learning Fund for agency workers in Germany isn’t the result of sectoral negotiations with numerous partners but of...
12 April 2012
United States: minimum wage as a new campaign theme
The minimum wage increase is an increasingly popular theme in the American presidential campaign.  Representatives from different labor unions (Service Employees International Union, Restaurant...
Italy: new Peroni agreement characterized by flexibility and telework
One of “the best company agreements in the sector” is how Pietro Pellegrini, Uila-Uil national secretary, qualified the agreement.  The latter was signed in the night of April 5 between Peroni...
Germany: 6.5 percent increase for construction staff
Pilot agreement for the country.  The agreement signed on March 30 by the social partners in Hessen for a 6.5 percent wage increase in the sector of construction and construction material...
Netherlands: FNV union rejects pay freeze called for by the government and employers
The police are already waiting for the strike but civil servants are not the only targets of the Act in the offing imposing a freeze in all sectors for 30 months.  And unions were not consulted...
Sweden: new provisions on “emergency overtime” in the energy industry
wage increase, the new agreement signed on March 24 between the SEF union (Svenska Elektrikerförbundet) and the EFA energy employers’ organization (Energiföretagens...
10 April 2012
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
What readers clicked on the most last month.
What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
Oliver Dietrich (IG Metall): “The advent of AI can be a means of deepening social partnership within companies”
In Germany, trade unions want to influence how AI is deployed in companies. Oliver Dietrich is an AI project manager at the regional office of the IG Metall trade union in North Rhine-Westphalia...
2
EU: social partners split over competitiveness and action on job quality
The European Trade Union Confederation and BusinessEurope have published their response to the consultation document on the European Commission's upcoming EU quality jobs initiative. The two...
4 February 2026
3
Germany: collective bargaining negotiations begin in chemical industry
Collective bargaining talks in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries are due to open this week, covering nearly 580,000 employees across around 1,700 companies. With the sector facing...
3 February 2026
4
Germany: standoff over national plan to boost collective bargaining
Under the EU Adequate Minimum Wages Directive, Germany is required to produce an action plan to boost collective bargaining coverage. That plan has stalled, however, after being blocked by the...
9 February 2026
5
Italy: new generational renewal agreement penned at UniCredit
The agreement signed on 30 December by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest banking group, with the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions aims to continue generational...
6
ENI incorporates just transition and AI into global agreement
On 13 January, Italian energy group ENI renewed its global agreement on international industrial relations, corporate social responsibility and the just transition with Italian unions CGIL, CISL...
5 February 2026