Spain: Correos signs collective agreement
On April 5th, unions and management signed the new agreement regulating, until 2013, the working conditions of over 60,000 employees in the postal company.  The agreement includes the 3rd...
Areva: interview of Philippe Vivien, Group HR manager, about the European agreement on forecasting and anticipating employment and competences
Philippe Vivien.  No, it doesn’t.  It is our second negotiation around a theme that is complicated and polymorphous.  Our first negotiation was on professional equality and it is true that this...
Great Britain: new social conflict in engineering construction industry
At the beginning of March, a one-day strike took place at the BP Hull site on Humberside where a multi-million pound bio-ethanol fuel plant is being constructed. After lengthy discussions with...
France: interview of Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the French metalworkers’ union federation, FTM-CGT
Philippe Martinez.  The current economic and social crisis got us thinking about the need to quicken concrete collaboration on a certain number of determined issues, including manufacturing issues...
Italy: broken negotiations on the national insurance collective agreement cause several mobilizations
“Strong and clear” employee support to unions’ platform: this is how Giuseppe Gallo, Fiba Cisl general secretary, qualified the national strike of March 28th with a 90% turnout.  The strike...
Italy: interview of Maurizio Landini, Fiom-CGIL general secretary
Maurizio Landini.  The crisis we are going through is more severe than in other parts of Europe.  Youth unemployment amounts to nearly 30% and precariousness has reached unprecedented peaks in...
Germany: new improvements of the apprenticeship market “thanks” to the decline in birth rate
Better professional prospects for young people.  As an introduction, Mrs. Schavan reminded that there was a close relation between businesses’ economic health and the situation on the...
Romania: tense negotiations on the reform of collective industrial relations
”Pretence of dialogue” according to unions.  After a fierce first round on the reform of the Labor Code, it seems the fight is starting up stronger than ever between unions and the Romanian...
Germany: Verdi calls for 6.5% increase for the 2.9 million commerce employees
The social partners in Hessen opened, in early march, collective negotiations in retail trade.  Mid-march, they were followed by the social partners in Bade-Württemberg.  Their colleagues in...
Italy: tough negotiations ahead for the renewal of the national banking collective agreement
With over 1,000 participants, the round table on “Emergency national collective agreement” organized by the Fabi on March 29th on the priorities of the platform for the renewal of the sector’s...
Netherlands: threat of conflict in the light metal industry
Negotiations are at a standstill in the Metaal & Techniek industry, which employs 330,000 people in 30,000 different businesses.  No one came to the last meeting planned within the framework...
Belgium: interview of Nico Cué, general secretary of the MWB-FGTB Wallonia-Brussels Metalworkers’ Federation
Nico Cué.  In Belgium, we negotiate collective agreements at cross-industry level.  The starting point is a report by the Central Economic Council (Conseil Central de l’Economie, CCE), composed of...
Netherlands: postal businesses promise to hire 80% of their current daily mailmen
An agreement in principle was reached in the postal sector on April 1st: Selekt Mail, Sandd and VSP Netwerk, the delivery subsidiary of TNT Post (the former public post) agreed to hire, with a...
Italy: unitary transport strike paralyzed cities across the country
“Homologous and nearly total mobilization.”  Unions declare an average turnout of 100% in Naples and Benevento, 95% in Genoa, Imperia and Turin, 94% in Venice and Mestre, 90% in Rome, Bari...
United States: United Auto Workers ranks grew by 6% in one year
In 2009, there were only 355,191 members, the lowest level since the 1940s, when the union was created.  This number was well below its peak of 1.5 million members in 1979.  Bob King, new UAW...
Areva: new European agreement on forecasting and anticipating employment and competences
To prepare employees to anticipate and manage their career evolution, the group commits, with this agreement, to provide employees with visibility on evolutions within careers and professions via...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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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