Netherlands: FNV and Allies summons Unilever to court
Planet Labor, March 11, 2009, No. 090262 – www.planetlabor.com
China: the end of an era for white collars
ars is the focus of this third chapter of our series of reports on “China and unemployment”. In control on the labor market, these employees are forced to lower their wage expectations...
Italy: the government is banking on large infrastructure works to revive the economy
banking on large infrastructure works to revive the economy. The interministerial committee for economic planning, gathered on Friday, march 6, gave around 17.8 billion euro to create about...
Spain: unions and employers fail to renew their agreement on collective bargaining for 2009
o renew the interconfederate agreement on collective bargaining (ANC) for 2009. This agreement was easily renewed every year since 2002 to define the general framework of sectoral or company...
Great Britain: lowest wage agreements in ten years in the manufacturing sector
According to the EEF’s regular pay survey of its 6,000-strong members within the engineering, manufacturing and technology industries, the average level of wage increases in the manufacturing...
Italy: controversy at the CGIL on the platform to renew the collective agreement in the food industry
is consulting workers on the separate agreement on the reform of the conventional system (see our dispatch No. 090080), its food federation (Flai-CGIL) agreed with the other two federations, the...
Great Britain: code of practice on remuneration policies in banks
he bonuses awarded in banks with high losses, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) proposes a code of practice on remuneration policies for employees. This code is currently subject to...
General Motors Europe: towards 3.500 job cuts at Opel
rmaker, GM, Opel’s employees are going to have to make major sacrifices to save their firm. Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of GM Europe – GM’s European subsidiary and Opel’s...
Brazil: new wage cut agreements in the metal and mining sectors
soared in January – from 6.8 to 8.2% – Brazilian unions accepted new agreements to cut wages and working time to avoid redundancies. (Ref. 090242) Vale Rio. Negotiations between the...
Belgium: mailmen fight for decent wages and labor
en on strike for three days, until today, March 4, to ask for an increase of their status and express concern over the evolution of their job and the way the company is preparing for the...
Ireland: ICTU threatens general strike
Tensions between the country’s largest union and the government have been brewing for weeks, leading up to a proposed suspension of last September’s national wage agreement (see our dispatch...
Germany: Deutsche Telekom and Ver.di call on a mediator to clear up their payroll differences
the fourth round of wage negotiations, the Deutsche Telekom phone company, and the Ver.di services union decided, on February 28, 2009, to launch a conciliation procedure and asked Henning...
Italy: the Council of Ministers approves the bill on the reform of the right to strike
0% of union members must vote for it. Failing this, if the strike call is voted by at least 20%, it will be necessary for them to obtain approval by 30% through a “prior compulsory...
General Motors Europe: European mobilization to save Opel and Saab
s of the American firm mobilized throughout Europe to protest against the announced restructuring. Opel/Vauxhall and Saab’s employees are the main targets, while GM is planning drastic cuts...
Germany: in western Germany, the textile industry threatens with warning strikes
at the 3rd negotiation round of February 26, 2009 was “intolerable”, the IG Metall union (metalworkers), which demands a 5.5% wage increase for employees in the textile and clothing...
Brazil: legal battle on dismissals within the Embraer aircraft company
for one week the 4.270 dismissals announced by the third aircraft manufacturer in the world, Embraer, until the conciliation meeting with unions. They ask the government to nationalize the...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
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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...
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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...