Great Britain: new Unite leader Len McCluskey wants to launch a campaign in 2011 to save the Welfare State
The day he was officially appointed Unite general secretary (see our dispatch No. 100825), he told the media: ‘[W]orking people are under massive attack now.  This government is expecting them to...
Portugal: unitary general strike of Wednesday November 24th qualified of the “biggest ever”
Numbers.  Unions said about 3 million people adhered to the paralysis of Wednesday, November 24th, out of 5.5 million active people.  With this number, they declared that the strike was a perfect...
Germany: BASF grants job security to 33,000 employees until 2015
Social partnership at the heart of modernization.  After Siemens, which offered its German employees employment guarantee tacitly renewable, now BASF is giving 5 years of job security (January 1...
Romania: slight minimum wage increase
After months bargaining, the Romanian government finally increased minimum wage, from RON 600 to 670 (approximately EUR 143 to 160). This is more than the IMF recommended but less than what...
Italy: unitary agreement for the renewal of the national collective agreement in ceramics
After five months bargaining, ceramics unions, who presented three separate platforms, reached a unitary agreement for the renewal of the sector’s CCN, which expired on June 30th.  Valid from July...
Germany: IG-Metall wants to “strike at” the renewable energy sector
Businesses locked on the issue of collective agreements.  The warning strikes organized these past few days by the 180 employees of Solibro, subsidiary of Q-Cells, one of the world leaders in the...
United States: two-tier wage scales gain traction
Harley Davidson.  Harley Davidson’s management organized the first round of negotiations.  Motorbikes sales, for $35,000 (about €26,000) a piece, slowed down during the recession the market is 40%...
24 November 2010
Italy: Agenquadri general executives’ association renews CGIL affiliation pact
“The union needs project managers and executives, and project managers and executives need the union.”  It is with this slogan that the CGIL and Agenquadri, the general association of project...
Great Britain: Tesco chain stores introduce overtime booking system
With some 340,000 staff in employed in its 2,500 stores, Tesco is the biggest private sector in Britain and has in effect created its own form of an internal labour market. Thus, its frontline...
23 November 2010
Great Britain: Len McCluskey becomes the new general secretary of the biggest union in Britain, Unite
This represents a decisive victory for the left, albeit a divided left, for the total left vote was 153,000 votes (McCluskey plus Hicks) while the combined rightwing and centre-left vote was...
Italy: pharmaceutical-chemistry social partners reach national agreement on CSR guidelines
Federchimica and Farmindustria for employers and Filctem-CGIL, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil for unions (which signed the CCN in pharmaceutical-chemistry) signed, on November 18th in Milan, within the...
22 November 2010
International: auto unions adopt a resolution on collective bargaining
Soaring precariousness. Delegates from 13 countries met earlier this month to discuss the situation of auto workers.  In a resolution, they point to the worsening working conditions in the sector...
22 November 2010
Germany: renowned economists and research institutes belie the theory of a striking lack of skilled workers
A censored study?  Are German businesses facing a penalizing shortage in skilled workers or not?  Since this summer, businesses, employers’ organizations and some economists (see our dispatch No...
19 November 2010
Netherlands: Dutch people are the European champions for time spent in transportation to go to work
Traffic jams have become a national issue, and an electoral argument for the last general election.  Twice a day (at 8 am and 5 pm), the country is paralyzed, notably the west, in Randstad, a...
18 November 2010
United States: interview of Lowell Turner, professor of Comparative Labor Relations at Cornell University on the French union movement
Lowell Turner. It was pretty exciting to see millions of people in the street. There is a push toward austerity budgeting across Europe and America. But, when governments try to take away...
GDF Suez: interview of Bernard Parmantier, industrial relations director of the group, on the global agreement on fundamental rights, social dialogue and sustainable development
n framework agreements, one on health and safety at work and one on GPEC (Jobs and Skills Management Planning), GDF Suez is going ahead with international bargaining. The group announced, on...
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
France: austerity measures proposed in social security financing bill for 2026
Limits on sick leave, the end of social security exemptions for apprentices, and the introduction of additional birth leave: the 2026 social security financing bill, presented to parliament on 14...
16 October 2025
2
Netherlands: ING cites AI as it plans to cut around 950 jobs
Dutch bank ING has informed the employment agency UWV that it may cut around 950 jobs by 31 December 2026. In its notification on 20 October, the lender said the planned reductions stem partly...
30 October 2025
3
United Kingdom largely retained within scope of EWCs despite Brexit, study shows
A study published this month by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, the French trade union research organisation, examined how the involvement of British representatives in European...
4
Romania: collective agreement extended to entire insurance sector
On 3 November, Romania’s National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue approved the extension of the collective labour agreement signed on 23 May by the Confederation of Employers in the...
5
Italy: new collective agreement for managers in tertiary sector
On 5 November, the ManagerItalia union and the employers’ association Confcommercio renewed the collective agreement for managers in Italy’s tertiary, distribution and services...
6
Germany: legal battle at Tesla ahead of works council election
The Frankfurt/Oder labour court has postponed a mid-November hearing in the case between the IG Metall union and Michaela Schmitz, employee representative and head of the works council at the...