14 avril, 2011Mobilisation in the Netherlands toward strike action won 330,000 metalworkers a 25-month labour agreement in the small metals and electric-technical sector. The pay package of 4.45 per cent exceeds Dutch inflation and is expected to set the pace for national contracts in the coming weeks in automotive and the big metals sectors.

13 avril, 2011Two weeks after a pair of Norwegian unions, together with ICEM and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) signed a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Norsk Hydro ASA, two workers' representatives of the aluminium and energy company's board of directors journeyed to Pará state in northern Brazil to brief workers and trade union leaders there.

11 avril, 2011The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and its Hungarian member organizations held a Euro-demonstration on April 9 in Budapest. The European trade unions marched to say no to austerity and for a more social Europe, with fair wages and quality jobs.

11 avril, 2011National action against increasing precarious employment of young workers in Italy took place on April 9, throughout Italy, with the slogan "il nostro tempo è adesso. La vita non aspetta" (Our time is now. Life doesn't wait).

21 avril, 2011At a two day international conference for shipbreaking workers, IMF affiliates called for building stronger unions of shipbreaking workers, developing a global strategy to organize, establishing a strategic link between shipbuilding and shipbreaking workers and building an international network to protect workers' rights and improve living conditions.

20 avril, 2011In an historic ruling on voluntary homicide, ThyssenKrupp's CEO for Italy was sentenced to 16 and a half years in prison on charges related to the deaths of seven workers in December 2007 at a steel plant in Turin, Italy.

19 avril, 2011IMF calls on affiliates to send solidarity messages of support to the 1,200 workers represented by the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (NUMSA) that have been subjected to a lockout by Bridgestone South Africa since 22 March 2011.

19 avril, 2011The latest issue of Metal World looks at the importance of organizing in different countries, describes trade unions responses to the global jobs crisis, reports on trade union networks as a means to ensure an equal playing field for workers and profiles Peta Thomson and Stephanie Eastcott, promoting better women's participation in trade unions.

17 avril, 2012Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), an ICEM affiliate, conducted a two-week tour of activities in Switzerland in April, educating trade union colleagues on the grave violations of work rights abuses by Holcim Cement of contract workers in India's Chhattisgarh region.

16 avril, 2012These contracts deny workers the internationally recognised rights to the freedom of association and collective bargaining, impose long working hours, low pay, poor working conditions, abusive treatment and little access to health and maternity benefits and pensions because they are not permanent employment contracts.