National industrial relations
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Germany: the metallurgy sector avoided a strike in extremis
After a marathon 22-hour negotiation, the IG Metall union and the Sudwestmetall employers' organization agreed, on November 12, 2008, in Sindelfingen - in the Bade-Wurttemberg pilot region -on a...
12 November 2008
Italy: important participation to the national transport strike to support the negotiation of a single collective agreement
Over 80% of employees in the rail transport sector and local public transportation took part in the national 24-hour strike which paralyzed Italy on November 10, 2008. Unions are asking the...
12 November 2008
United States: a bill favoring union establishment could change the social landscape
Here is our first layover in the United States mentioning the Employee free choice Act (EFCA,) supposed to reverse the decline of American unions. The latter set this law as their priority, since...
12 November 2008
Belgium: unions denounce legal appeals against picket lines
Can employers bring to court the appeal to pickets to prevent companies from accessing customers or workers? The question is being debated in Belgium after the blocking of several companies...
12 November 2008
Germany: the IG Metall appeals to young people again
For the first time in ten years, the main sectoral union in Germany has managed to consolidate its size. There has even been a 5.7% increase in memberships among people under 27. This radical...
10 November 2008
Cuba: labor law reform establishes the “pay according to results” system and removes the salary limit
The Cuban government is to introduce wage incentives within national corporations to develop the economy. Traditional egalitarianism is now considered obsolete. The maximum salary will be...
10 November 2008
Austria: 4.2-4.5% increase in one year for 170.000 metal and mine workers
The agreement reached by the social partners in the metallurgy and mining sector, presented in the night of November 5, 2008, sparked off a controversy among employers. Overall deemed positive, it...
10 November 2008
Italy: Alitalia’s autonomous unions mobilized against the Cai’s refusal to continue bargaining
This week will be decisive for the takeover of the Italian airline Alitalia by the consortium of Italian investors, Cai. After the Cai's chair declared the end of social negotiations, the...
10 November 2008
Spain: in the absence of support from the social partners, the government postpones some measures to boost employment
The crisis is causing social dialogue to crumble as the government is trying to face the rapid unemployment increase. The social partners answered with a burst of criticism to the proposition the...
10 November 2008
Spain: unions protest against job cuts and want public powers to step in
The opposition to the layoff plan presented by Nissan for its site in Barcelona has become unions' symbol. They protest against staffing cuts ("EREs" - expedientes de reducción de empleo) which...
7 November 2008
Germany: the train drivers’ union GDL satisfied about the temporary writing off of the partial privatization of the Deutsche Bahn
Bonus if the privatization
succeeds. With the
threat of recession in Germany as a background and the new debate on managers’
remuneration (see our dispatch No. 080811), the announcement in...
7 November 2008
EDF: European trade unions at the EWC want a wage increase
In a joint press release, nine trade unions with representatives within the EWC of the French energy group EDF (158.640 employees, over 105.000 of which in France) launched a petition in favor of...
7 November 2008
Freudenberg: the German group is revising its global framework agreement
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) announced that it bargained to improve the international framework agreement it signed with the German...
7 November 2008
Italy: the CGIL union has a plan to get out of the crisis
“To get out of
the crisis, we are going to need new rules, all the rules we failed to set over
the past fifteen years. But we mostly need new values and a new liability ethic”
declared Gugliemo...
7 November 2008
Germany: DGB unions agree on the reform of their central organization
After several months of bargaining between the eight member unions of the German confederation of trade unions - DGB - an agreement was reached to reform the organization. The reform will spread...
7 November 2008
Germany: the IG Metall threatens employers to strike as of November 17
In spite of the ongoing debate over the methods of the union, which is asking for an 8% increase during a crisis, the IG Metall is holding on and presenting employers with an ultimatum. If no...
6 November 2008
Our mind news
Crédit Agricole is to adopt stricter rules on remote work from mid-March onwards. The rules will be tightened for employees, but the maximum number of days working remotely will remain unchanged.
29 January 2026
The three representative trade unions at Orange France have until 10 December to validate an agreement on gender equality, work–life balance and anti-discrimination measures. While the text...
8 December 2025
In 2025, for the first time, the universal registration documents of major European companies contain the sustainability reporting required by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive...
31 October 2025
Candice Guillot, group director of employee experience and HR performance at Talan (7,000 employees), outlines for mind RH her vision and strategy for introducing artificial intelligence at the...
20 October 2025
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...
21 January 2026
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...
15 January 2026
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...
16 January 2026