Germany: IG-Metall sets employment as its top priority for the coming collective negotiations in the metal sector
New situation calls for new negotiations. Traditionally, metalworking and technical engineering, two key sectors for the German industry with about 3.45 million employees, open bargaining fire...
United States: for the first time in the history of American unionism, there are more unionized civil servants than employees
The average American union member is a civil servant. For the first time since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started looking into these statistics, the number of unionized workers in civil...
Italy: Fiom-CGIL proposes own-initiative bill on union democracy
Reforming union democracy. The campaign to gather the 50,000 signatures required to introduce to Parliament the own-initiative bill on union democracy, initially planned in January (see our...
Germany: more calls for wage moderation even though Germans’ real income is decreasing
Increasing wages, decreasing incomes. At first glance, the evaluation of collectively-agreed wage increases (7.9 million employees) is satisfactory. In average, wages increased of 2.6% in 2009 (3%...
Portugal: negotiations paused between retailing employers and unions
Formal disagreements. The CESP chose to block negotiations with employers because of the latter’s administrative blockades. The union says the employers’ organization tried to get union leaders to...
Austria: banking employees get a 1.36% raise
to go through the four statutory negotiating meetings to reach, on Tuesday, January 19, a wage agreement. The sector’s 80,000 employees will see their salary increase of 0.75% on February 1...
Colombia: 3.64% minimum wage increase after failed negotiations between the social partners
a 3.64% minimum wage increase after the recurrent stalemate of negotiations between unions and employers on the issue. The increase is lower than planned inflation in 2010 – 2%, like in...
Netherlands: FNV union organizes “free public transportation” operation to send a message on the pension reform
The two biggest FNV unions, Abvakabo (civil servants) and FNV and Allies (manufacturing) wanted to raise the public’s awareness regarding the reform of retirement age, discussed on January 20 at...
Finland: chemical and media workers’ union merge, creating TEAM
TEAM (Teollisuusalojen ammattiliitto) has officially been active since January 1, 2010. It is the result of a draft union merger discussed for several years, supposed to bring about the country’s...
Poland: launching of the National Development Committee
ounced during the last social summit in March 2009, the National Development Committee met for the first time on January 7. This structure, which gathers all sorts of experts, will soon look into...
Germany: Ver.di union got nearly 111,000 new members in 2009
Membership drop stopped in 3 areas. Even though its overall size decreased, Verdi’s evaluation is more than positive. Indeed, it presents 2008 and 2009 as the best years in terms of size since the...
Netherlands: FNV and Allies membership is rising again
The Netherlands’ largest union, FNV and Allies, present in manufacturing, currently has the most members since 2001 – the last crisis in the country. The new membership wave can be explained by...
Mexico: 4.85% minimum wage increase sacrificing buying power to save jobs
Once again, Mexican unions lost the battle after the meetings of the National Minimum Wage Committee (CONASAMI), which answers to the Labor Ministry and heads negotiations between the social...
Spain: social partners resume talks on a framework agreement on collective bargaining
Unions. Ramon Gorriz (CCOO) and Toni Ferrer (UGT) are leading the talks. They want to sign an agreement for several years (2010-12). They said they were ready to accept the principle of wage...
Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia: EWCs petition to improve competitiveness and protect jobs in ITC
Respecting competition rules. In the first draft of the petition, the EMF presents the strengths and weaknesses of the European ITC market. It particularly stresses the asymmetry of rules in...
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...