On October 10, thugs accompanied by members of the army and police again attacked striking packing house workers on picket lines at Sumitomo's Sumifru Philippines Corporation (Sumifru) operations in Compostela Valley in Mindinao. The union has been on strike since October 1 over the company's refusal to engage in collective bargaining negotiations for more than a decade.

UNITE HERE members at Marriott hotels in 5 more U.S. cities have joined the growing national strike, which now brings the number of strikers to 7,700 at 23 hotels. On October 8, 2,700 union members walked off the job at Marriott-operated hotels in Hawaii.

More than 4,000 members of UNITE HERE are now on strike at Marriott hotels in 3 U.S. cities in support of their demand for jobs that are safe and enough to live on. Union members are also preparing for possible strike action at Marriott in other cities across the country after members overwhelmingly voted to authorize strikes if bargaining fails.

400 Nestlé workers from across Germany travelled to Vevey, Switzerland, for a mass protest at Nestlé headquarters on October 2 against measures threatening the employment of some 600 workers in Germany.

Mondelez worker Milkhi Ram was killed on September 21 while operating a moulding machine in the company's Baddi, India plant. His death followed a wave of massive workforce reductions accompanied by a "voluntary separation scheme" initiated by Mondelez India management, which workers were pressured into accepting.

More than 4,500 members of the Finnish Food Workers Union (SEL) will take strike action at 15 workplaces on October 3 in support of their demand that the government withdraw its proposal to strip protection against dismissal from workers at companies with fewer than 20 employees.

An international union delegation including Atra Narwanto and Lutfi Arifiyanto, the victimized leaders of independent unions at Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia, is currently meeting with IUF affiliates representing Coca-Cola workers in Canada.

Following successful protests and meeting with student groups in Atlanta (see more here) IUF members from Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti shared their experiences of The Coca-Cola Company's human rights failures in their countries with IUF members working at Coca-Cola in Boston and Philadelphia and student civil rights groups in Atlanta.
 

IUF affiliates in JDE's Italian operations will be striking on September 28 to protest the elimination of 57 jobs with the announced closure of JDE's Andezeno, Italy facility.  FLAI-CGIL, FAI-CISL and UILA-UIL have issued a joint call for JDE to enter into immediate negotiations and to reconsider the company's decision to transfer production and make 57 workers redundant.

Housekeepers and valets at the Hotel Be Live Experience in Lanzarote (Canary Islands) ended their ongoing industrial action on September 6 with a vote in favor of a pre-agreement that establishes a negotiated framework for reducing the intolerable workload on housekeepers, guarantees more hours to valets and establishes more permanent positions.

A large rally on September 18 in front of Cargill's Istanbul head office, with participants from 22 trade union, civil and political organizations, showed the wide support for the fourteen workers and members of IUF affiliate Tekgida-Is who have been continuously protesting since they were dismissed over 150 days ago while organizing a union at Cargill in Bursa-Orhangazi, Turkey.  

Led by the IUF, unions representing Coca-Cola workers around the world held a spirited demonstration on September 13 outside The Coca-Cola Company-sponsored conference on business and human rights at the company's global headquarters in Atlanta.