Workers at Coca-Cola Indonesia fighting for independent and democratic unions have again confirmed their confidence in union leaders victimized by management. At a general membership meeting on February 5, Lutfi Arifiyanto was re-elected chairman of the independent SBMCC, the union of workers at Coca-Cola Indonesia in Bawen, Java.

Thanks to a sustained mobilization by Irish unions including our affiliate SIPTU, new legislation restricts employers from offering contacts with no specified minimum hours and strengthens protection for workers on variable hours, bringing greater protection and regularity on working time and pay.

Two recent decisions by an Amsterdam court mark a victory in the ongoing fight for worker rights in the 'platform economy'. According to the court, Deliveroo's elimination of employment contracts and the legal transformation of couriers to self-employed status last year had not altered the fundamental relationship of authority and dependence: the couriers remained in an employment relationship as defined in Dutch law.

The IUF and Spanish-based Meliá Hotels International have signed an agreement on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, the first such agreement between the IUF and an international hotel chain.

Over 500 production, maintenance and sanitation workers at the General Mills facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa will now be represented by the IUF-affiliated RWDSU/UFCW following elections on January 9 in which a majority voted for union representation.

Four members of the IUF-affiliated KUDHEIHA who worked at the DUSITD2 hotel complex in Kenya's capital Nairobi were among the victims of the January 15 terrorist attack which killed at least 21 people. Hospitality workers again find themselves in the front line of such attacks.

Following on the visit to the UK by an international IUF Coca-Cola 'Zero Rights' delegation, campaign meetings were held in Ireland with the IUF-affiliated SIPTU, with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and with organizations representing high school and older students.

A new paper from the IUF Food Processing Division explains how and why ‘Behaviour-based safety’ programs are designed to shift responsibility for maintaining a safe workplace from employers onto workers, how they undermine solidarity and organization based on collective bargaining and how unions can fight back against them.

An international IUF delegation highlighted the ongoing human rights attacks by Coca-Cola in Haiti, the Philippines, Indonesia, Ireland and the USA with activities in the UK and in Ireland in December.

Organizing and mobilizing young workers is a key task for all IUF affiliates.

Commitment and solidarity have resulted in a comprehensive agreement covering workers affected by restructuring.

The IUF-affiliated 3F (United Federation of Danish Workers) is organizing to bring under a collective agreement a group of fast food restaurants in Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens many of whose primarily young workers are employed under precarious conditions and denied basic benefits including pension contributions.

Fair Trade USA, in response to organized pressure, has revoked the fair trade certification for melons sold in the US produced by Irish fresh fruit giant Fyffes on their Suragroh plantations in Honduras. Suragroh-Fyffes workers have faced continuous retaliation for joining STAS, the Honduran union organizing workers on fruit, sugar cane and palm oil plantations.

Police acting on the orders of local authorities have destroyed the solidarity camp continuously maintained on public space since October 12 by union members at the Hotel Tharabar Gate together with family members and supporters. A union march to the regional government authority protesting this attack was then dispersed and 13 trade union members were arrested.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) workers in the Netherlands and their union FNV have a new collective bargaining agreement following two effective 24-hour strikes in Joure and Utrecht on November 19 and November 22.