United States: American unions gather to prepare the November elections
A new partnership.  For the AFL CIO and SEIU, these political actions aren’t new.  The two organizations have the support of the Center for Responsive Politics, specialized in lobbying, and the...
Austria: unions demand drastic overtime limit
Talks on flexible working time and the management of overtime in Austria have been going on for over a year (see our dispatches No. 091007 and 100291) and have already greatly tainted the social...
Netherlands: still no coalition three months after the general election
Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PPV) is now setting the political rules in the Netherlands: it seems impossible to govern without it, because of its election results, but equally hard to govern with...
International: metal unions seek to improve strategy in Latin America
The meeting held on August 18 and 19 brought together representatives from the ASMIRA and UOM (Argentina), CNTM-FS and CMN-CUT (Brazil), and SITIMM (Mexico).  Manuel Campos, the IG-Metall...
Germany: IG-Metall demands 6% wage increase in the steel industry
Union says it’s a problem of equity.  Oliver Buckhard, leader of the IG-Metall in North-Rhine Westphalia, explained his union’s requirements by reminding that steel employees gave a lot during the...
Germany: the conditions for a sectoral agreement on minimum wage in regional rail transport are taking shape
After the second bargaining round for collective agreements at the Deutsche Bahn and in the rail industry, it is still impossible to say foretell the amount of wage increases for the 165,000...
Great Britain: Vestas and Linamar, two long conflicts, two different outcomes
In mid-July 2009, Vestas announced the closure of its two plants in the Isle of Wight, employing some 600 workers and citing the restrictive nature of planning laws in Britain as having choked off...
Great Britain: unions are choosing candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party
There are currently fifteen unions affiliated to the Labour Party, comprising some 3.5 million members. The unions are the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef)...
Great Britain: unions divided over the opening of talks with the government
The General Council is comprised of around thirty members of the affiliated unions, some of which have seats automatically because of their size (over 200,000 members) and others from the smaller...
Etex: construction material firm signs health and safety on the workplace Charter
Procedures. Present in many European countries, Etex is a Belgian company specialized in construction materials. In June, it adopted a charter to better protect its workers and the environment...
Italy: Fiom-CGIL central committee elects new national secretariat
Gathered in Rome on July 19-20, the central committee of the Fiom elected its new national secretariat. The latter is composed of Maurizio Landini – general secretary and signatory of the document...
Finland: unions and employers relatively happy with collective negotiations, in spite of the recession due to the financial crisis and many conflicts
Unions are satisfied. The SAK union confederation considered that, in spite of particularly complicated economic conditions, the outcome is quite positive. In the fall 2009, collectively-agreed...
Spain: unions object to the decree-law amending savings banks
Candido Mendez, UGT general  secretary, and Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, his counterpart at CCOO, rejected what they call the “penetration of banking services” into savings banks, in a process which...
Portugal: wage negotiations at Volkswagen’s Lisbon factory (Palmela) in a context of revived production
Raise. VW’s working committee in the Palmela factory (near Lisbon) is asking for a 3.8% wage increase for the 3,000 employees of the factory, with a “limit” €40 increase for all. Negotiations will...
Great Britain: engineering construction industry still boiling
The specific grievances concerned the importation of non-domiciled workers to undertake work in the industry while domiciled workers were without work and on rates of pay below the industry norm...
Italy: supplementary health insurance increasingly wins over wage increases
More and more businesses introduce supplementary health care plans among mutual insurance companies, insurance companies, corporate funds and sectoral funds for their employees. Luxottica, the...
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
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...
5
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
6
EU: banking sector social partners commit to combating violence and harassment
On 15 January, the trade union federation UNI Europa Finance and three employers’ associations in the banking sector signed a joint statement on preventing violence and harassment in the...