ThyssenKrupp: IG-Metall union wants to help the American USW union settle in the German steel plant in Alabama
Bullying measures.  This conflict isn’t new.  For several years now, the IG-Metall has been blaming the German steel giant (180,000 employees, €42 billion in sales in 2009/2010) of “riding...
International: creation of a trade union federation dedicated to telecom and information technology
On October 20th, in Mexico, about 170 representatives in the sector validate the merger between UNI Telecom and UNI IBITS, the two branches of the international service union, UNI Global. The new...
Great Britain: unions diversify strike tactics
In mid-October, Unison members at Barnet council in London held a second one-day strike against the proposed contracting out of services and job cuts. In order to get their message across to the...
Italy: Lombardy strikes deal with major universities to promote high training apprenticeship
Roberto Formigoni, President of Lombardy, signed, on October 18th, with the headmasters of the ten biggest universities in the region (Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano Bicocca, Università...
21 October 2011
Germany: anticipating coming difficulties, the social partners and the Democratic Party are asking for the extension of short-time working measures
Quick appeal to short-time working.  In two different declarations, the heads of German employers and trade unions asked that the Merkel administration extended the period during which businesses...
21 October 2011
Spain: union and employers’ organizations strike deal to unfreeze sectoral collective bargaining
tive agreements have been frozen for several years. Therefore, the UGT and Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) unions and the CEOE and Ceypme employers’ organizations signed an agreement to...
Germany: Airbus signs “Agreement for the Future” with job security until 2020
the Airbus social partners in Germany announced that they finally stroke a “complementary” collective agreement on working conditions and the organization of labor. After months of...
Germany: the crisis of bonuses Opel gave its works council revives the debate on the remuneration of employee representatives
Infringement to the WC Act.  It all started with an article published on October 15th in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily (FAZ) headlined: “Opel bribes employee representatives.”  The...
20 October 2011
Portugal: unions call for a general strike on November 24th against 2012 austerity measures
d to join forces against austerity and are calling for a general strike on November 24th. This date overlaps with the last reading of the tentative 2012 budget before the final vote on November...
GDF Suez: EWC renders negative opinion on the partnership with the CIC Chinese Sovereign wealth fund because of doubts on the CSR compatibility of the fund’s investments
stments a subject for EWCs? In any case, the EWC of GDF Suez rendered, on October 13th, a negative opinion on the plan to open the capital of its Gas exploration business (“Exploration et...
Austria: launch of collective negotiations for 520,000 trade employees
d in the Austrian trade on Wednesday, October 19th for 520,000 employees (280,000 for retail trade alone). The renegotiation of the biggest collective agreement in the country is arriving the day...
Spain: businesses say 2010 labor market reform is ineffective
85% of the people surveyed believe that the measures of the labor market reform, adopted in 2010 (see our dispatch No.  100669), brought about no significant changes to working conditions, and 60%...
United States: former Wall Street banker advises American letter carriers union
Letter Carriers (NALC) asked Ron Bloom, restructurings expert, to help with the revitalization of the US Post Office. (Ref. 110627) In the US, the NALC recently hired Ron Bloom, restructurings...
AXA: interview of Guillaume Floquet and Daniel Vaulot, respectively Deputy Head of AXA Group Human Resources and EWC secretary, about the European agreement on anticipation
group to sign an agreement on the anticipation of change. Guillaume Floquet and Daniel Vaulot, respectively Global Head of Human Resources and Secretary of the European Works Council, are telling...
Austria: metalworkers get a 4.2% wage increase
aining, the metal social partners announced, this morning (October 18th), that they agreed on an average 4.2% wage increase for the sector’s 165,000 employees. It will come into force on...
Germany: IG-Metall Conference calls for “green new deal” and “new labor culture”
all union federation ended last Saturday with, notably, a speech from Chancellor Angela Merkel. The meeting was an opportunity to celebrate the newfound health of a union whose membership is going...
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
France: social partner talks extend far beyond contractual terminations
After a false start on 3 December, French social partners resumed talks on 7 January 2026 on potential changes to the unemployment insurance agreement, including the rules governing compensation...
12 January 2026