Great Britain : social conflicts might multiply and become more radical
History of social conflicts. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the trade union membership has been dropping; consequently, collective bargaining has been declining. However, this trend does not...
Germany : the employers of the chemistry industry blame the trade unions’ “multi-risk insurance minded” mentality and want to freeze the wages
«On the one hand, IG BCE wants more secure jobs and a recruitment guarantee for the apprentices and on the other hand, more money”. This is not compatible, particularly in these difficult...
Great Britain : focus on the conflict between British Airways and Unite
On top of this, BA’s labour cost base has always been higher because as a former nationalised industry (until 1987) with an effective monopoly as the national carrier, and compelled by law to...
Germany: Coca-Cola Germany rules out economic layoffs until the end of 2012
Increased competition. “After the threat of massive warning strikes and extremely complicated negotiations, we managed, a) to maintain jobs and b) to conclude guidelines for five collective...
Areva: interview with Maureen Kearney, European Works Council Secretary and Dominique Chevalier, Bureau Member
Dominique Chevalier. We were already opposed to the sale of T&D to Alstom. When we learned that what was planned differed from what had been initially announced, i.e. that the sale of T&D...
Austria: the Confederation of Austrian Unions keeps loosing members
16,400 fewer members last year, is the 2009 evaluation of the evolution of the size of the seven sectoral unions representing 1.22 members. In spite of these dreary results, the ÖGB doesn’t see...
Germany: Easyjet employees will have German labor contracts as of this summer
On February 18, 2010, Ver.di called on Easyjet’s German employees to take part in a warning strike between 5:50 and 10:30 am at the airport of Berlin-Schönefeld. This movement led to 16 flights...
Luxembourg: tense tripartite negotiations
Employers’ claims. Created in the 70s in the middle of the European steel crisis, these “crisis” negotiations take place within a “national coordination committee” which will render its...
Italy: CGIL announces 5,746,167 members, with a majority of pensioners
“We’re the biggest social power in Italy, and excluding us from negotiations and agreements goes against a majority of workers and pensions” said CGIL general secretary Gugliemo Epifani when...
France: multi-industry agreement on harassment and violence at work about to be signed
A concrete framework to fight against harassment and violence at work. During their last meeting on the subject on March 26, the trade unions (CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, FO and CGT) and employers’...
Great Britain: minimum wage increase and action on default retirement in the 2010 budget
Default retirement. The Chancellor confirmed that the government is decided to scrap or raise the retirement age (currently 65). The final decision will be made this summer. Some employers and...
Italy: energy and oil social partners reach a unitary agreement for the renewal of their CCN
After electricity (see our dispatch No. 100211) and rubber and plastic (see our dispatch No. 100246), the social partners in oil and energy (Filcem-CGIL, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil for unions and...
Germany: new step towards the introduction of sectoral minimum wage in surveillance
High wage increase in eastern Germany. Verdi says this collective agreement will first benefit security officers in new Länder, who will see their wages increase of nearly 33%. With these new...
Sweden: new agreement for industry and chemistry employees and executives questions usual negotiating schemes
New agreement for employees and executives. On March 20, Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer announced that they reached an agreement with employers in the industry, chemistry and new technologies...
Germany: Lufthansa pilots threaten to strike again after Easter
This time concerned with not raising the public’s hackles like in February, Cockpit said that the four-day strike would be after the Easter break, between April 13th and April 16th. The union...
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...