The Public Attorney’s Office in the Brazilian State of Alagoas is suing Walmart for US$55 million over labour rights abuses in the state.
According to the Alagoas Public Attorney’s Office, complaints and statements taken from workers show that the Walmart group of stores humiliates employees, does not respect working hours of staff, and does not provide adequate health and safety equipment.
U.S. President Obama signs the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” Executive Order that will help to improve the lives of millions of Americans.
Global unions, led by the International Transport Federation, are supporting the relief effort in Gaza by donating funds to send truckloads of medical supplies to the war-torn territory.
The ITF is coordinating the union-led effort after more than 1,200 deaths since the beginning of an assault by Israeli forces in July.
With the help of the Gaza Bus Drivers Union, the ITF has already sent one truck into Gaza, where the materials have been donated to the UNWRA relief fund and a Jordanian organisation that operates a mobile ambulance service in the Palestinian territory.
After over 100,000 people signed a petition calling on Matalan to pay its share of compensation to survivors of the Rana Plaza factory disaster, Matalan have agreed to pay up
UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings has told the Financial Times that higher wages are key to global growth.
Responding to news that Germany's Bundesbank has backed unions to bargain for higher wages, Jennings called on other European Central Banks to follow suit.
In a letter to the financial broadsheet, the UNI chief wrote:
Germany’s Bundesbank, Europe’s largest central bank, has sensationally changed tact and backed the push for higher wages to boost the flat-lining Eurozone economy.
Jens Ulbrich, the bank’s Chief Economist, joins an ever-growing list of global leaders calling for widespread pay rises to fend off the crippling effects of failed austerity and low inflation and to crawl back the falling wage share in national wealth.
The Kenyan Graphical and Packaging Union KUPRIPUPA has won union recognition and collective bargaining at 12 small to medium sized packaging plants across the country giving the union around 700 new members. In most companies, negotiations for the first collective agreement are underway.
Andy Snoddy Head of UNI Graphical and Packaging said “On my recent visit to Kenya, I was really pleased to see the progress that has been made. It shows what can be achieved if a union focuses on organising. I look forward to seeing even more progress over the next few months.”
An immediate cesasefire is the only response to escalating death toll
Members of UNI Post & Logistics affiliate FNPL-UMT Morocco will strike July 23-25 to ensure their colleagues in two subsidiaries of Poste Maroc are treated fairly and can freely exercise their trade union rights.
For months, FNPL have negotiated with Poste Maroc and the Moroccan government to ensure that newly-hired workers in Barid-CASH and Barid-MEDIA are covered by the existing collective agreement for all postal workers. Poste Maroc have denied the rights of these workers to be represented by FNPL and have subjected them to low pay and a precarious employment situation.
After Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon was voted the worst boss in the world at the ITUC conference in a May, Stephen DeMatteo, Head of UNI Post and Logistics, and Ingo Marowsky, General-Secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation, spoke to Radio Labour about the importance of an integrated global approach to tackling worker rights at Amazon.
