Striking sugar cane cutters from La Cabaña plantation in Cauca valley, North Colombia will this week step up their action by moving their protest to the capital, Bogota.  The workers, members of the IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO, called a strike on March 6 after months of fruitless negotiations with their employer. They are protesting about wage levels being below the local rate, lack of overtime and holiday pay and La Cabana’s continued use of labour providers supplying workers on short term contracts.

The Sodexo IUF global framework agreement was the platform to enable Sodexo workers from La Loma, a mining region of Colombia to gain their first collective agreement. Claims for the collective agreement were first forwarded to the company in February 2012 but at first Sodexo refused to recognise SICO, the workers union. According to the SICO National President Julio Ruben Padilla,the Company changed its mind and negotiated in good faith due to the resistance of the workers, support from the national federation CUT and through the intervention of the IUF.

The IUF has protested to the UK Government about its plans to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) which sets minimum wages and conditions for agriculture.

Finding the Mondelez Screameggs this Easter is easier than ever - the abuses are difficult to conceal, the eggs are out in the open and there's a big basket filled with jumbo Screameggs!

While food manufacturers across Europe are implementing DNA testing programs to discover which species of animals make up their meat ingredients, the root causes of serial food safety scandals continue to be ignored.

The trade union movement in Indonesia has won a landmark success in defending union members' job security and dignity with the March 18 reinstatement of Hyatt Regency Bandung union activists Yudhasari Pardikan and Early Sobari, capping a difficult five-year struggle by the IUF-affiliated FSPM.

The IUF has welcomed the launch in the UK of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom (CTUF). The campaign calls for positive industrial relations legislation to protect trade unions from legal attacks and allow them to operate democratically and protect members.

Union members at the theme park LEGOLAND in Günzburg will go on strike on March, 23rd, 2013. IUF-affiliate NGG and workers are demanding a legally secure collective agreement that should also include a significant increase of starting wages and pay equity in the upper income groups for the 1,100 employees.

The US-based transnational snack foods company Mondelez has consistently refused to respond to communications from the IUF documenting evidence of company abuses. When Mondelez was asked to respond (indirectly) to the IUF by the Resource Center on Business and Human Rights, the company evaded the key issues and made no meaningful reference to international standards. 

Freed from prison on December 22 last year after 18 months' detention, Basile Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité, resumed his union duties on March 9 and announced the union's action plan, including a campaign for an increase in the national minimum wage. At a press conference in Cocody, Basile warmly thanked all those in the international labour movement who fought for his release.

Tough conflicts have marked the IUF engagement with Unilever, but the process has brought tangible results. On the eve of the meeting the IUF and its members at Unilever's Kecap Bango joint venture in Subang, Indonesia secured over 600 new direct, permanent jobs for casual and contract workers after a lengthy struggle.

A peaceful demonstration in front of Atatürk International Airport on May 29 2012 protesting a government attempt to deny aviation workers the right to strike was followed by the brutal dismissal of 305 union members. The proposal to remove the right to strike for aviation workers has since been withdrawn but 305 workers remain without work. ITF affiliate Hava-Is is fighting to get these jobs back.

Last week, McDonald's was caught hijacking a program that's supposed to allow young people to go to the U.S. for cultural exchange programs and professional training. Instead, the fast food giant twisted it into a source of cheap, exploitable labor.