Germany: agreement in the industrial cleaning sector
On 18 October, social partners in Germany’s industrial cleaning sector announced that they had reached an agreement to renew the framework collective agreement which regulates, among other...
United States: agreement struck with GM for large pay rises but three sites are still set to close
Officials at the United Automobile Workers, the American trade union, have finally reached an agreement with the leadership of General Motors. However the 200 union leaders who met on Thursday 17...
18 October 2019
Finland: SAK, the country’s main union confederation, puts forward proposals addressing technological developments
In spring 2019, Finland’s government announced as part of its program that it would be changing labor legislation in order to better protect workers. Legislative drafts are formulated within...
18 October 2019
UNI Global Union launches a global campaign for the right to disconnect from work
The right to disconnect is the “new fight for the eight-hour workday,” declared Christy Hoffman General Secretary of the international union federation, UNI Global Union, during the launch of a...
17 October 2019
Umicore: global framework agreement renewed on sustainable development
On 17 October the Belgian multinational materials technology and recycling group renewed, for the third time, its global framework agreement on sustainable development that it signed with the...
17 October 2019
ARLA Foods: global framework agreement signed with the IUF combatting sexual harassment at work
On 07 October, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) together with the Scandinavian multinational cooperative...
15 October 2019
Portugal : soon to be approved UGT affiliated bank & insurance sector union seeks to also advocate for workers in third party service provision
The SBSI union (Banking trade union for the south and the islands) has established a new trade union body by way of merging UGT affiliated bodies representing Banks in the Center of the country...
15 October 2019
Ireland : Financial Services Union calls for legislation on the right to disconnect
The Financial Services Union called on 10 October – on World Mental Health Day – for a law that would grant workers the right to disconnect. The union for workers in the financial...
Italy : collective agreement in power sector renewed with several innovations
Social partners in Italy’s electric power sector signed a draft deal to renew their collective agreement on 9 October. The agreement applies to some 50,000 workers, including employees of Enel...
11 October 2019
Germany : agreement at Postbank allows workers to choose between more free time and more money
The trade union Verdi and the negotiators for German retail bank Postbank announced, on the morning of Thursday 10 October, that they have reached a compromise on the renewal of the company...
Yet again trade unions mobilize the French Corporate Duty of Vigilance legislation on human rights to challenge a multinational corporation
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and an international trade union alliance have combined forces to call on the European...
10 October 2019
Germany: faced with industry sector upheaval, the IG Metall body seeks to strengthen co-management as well as the collective agreement system
During the IG Metall national congress held in Nuremberg between 06 and 12 October, Jörg Hofmann, the head of Germany’s biggest 2.3 million member strong trade union, was voted in for a second...
10 October 2019
Spain: a first ICT sector trade union created for Catalonia
‘One can't be all things to all people'.  The sentiment of being inadequately represented by major trade union federations that tend to favour the most influential sectors within their...
9 October 2019
Germany : amid problems renewing the industrial cleaning sector agreement, the IG BAU union accuses companies of profiting from the situation
With the industrial cleaning sector’s social partners unable to successfully conclude collective agreement renewal negotiations that commenced at the start of August and that will affect 650,000...
9 October 2019
Argentina : record salary increase for the banking sector
In the throes of economic recession, and amid widespread uncertainty, Argentina’s banking sector has just signed a ‘Super-agreement’, or ‘Record-agreement’ that updates and revalues salaries...
9 October 2019
Germany : German Trade Union Confederation presents an atlas of collective agreement withdrawals
While Germany’s trade unions may have, after many years of painful restructuring and reform, succeeded in stemming a membership slide, the same cannot be said for companies that continue to...
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...