20 November 2019
‘EFFAT is standing at a crossroads.’ This opening statement from the EFFAT ( European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism) Action Plan that was adopted in Congress preceded a list of reasons including, ‘numerous challenges caused by the introduction of new technologies, climate change, neo-liberal policies, the rise of nationalism and capitalist greed, all of which are...
14 November 2019
On 13 November, at the ILO’s head offices in Geneva, Inditex Executive Chairman, Pablo Isla, and the general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, Valter Sanches, signed the agreement extending the 2007 Global Framework Agreement (GFA), which sets out monitoring mechanisms to ensure the Spanish textile group’s suppliers uphold international norms and which establishes a Global...
23 October 2019
In May 2019, Bolloré, a French transportation, communications and logistics conglomerate announced its intention to shift its headquarters and transform its status to a Societas Europaea (SE), a European legal status facilitating business operations across Europe. In parallel, Bolloré’s financial subsidiaries, Financière de l’Odet and Bolloré Participations, as well as its...
17 October 2019
The right to disconnect is the “new fight for the eight-hour workday,” declared Christy Hoffman General Secretary of the international union federation, UNI Global Union, during the launch of a campaign on this theme led by UNI Global Union’s Professionals & Managers (UNI P&M) section. The campaign will be rolled out worldwide with the help of the first-ever guide for unions to negotiating measures for digital disconnection that reflect business realities and personal situations and that ensure...
17 October 2019
On 17 October the Belgian multinational materials technology and recycling group renewed, for the third time, its global framework agreement on sustainable development that it signed with the international union IndustriALL Global Union and the different Belgian trade unions. This latest version that covers 10,000 workers globally holds stronger measures for workers’ health and safety (with notably a right to refuse or stop work and a paragraph on violence and harassment) and supply chains (especially regarding...
15 October 2019
On 07 October, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) together with the Scandinavian multinational cooperative Arla Foods (comprising 12,500 milk producers and 19,000 employees across the globe) signed an agreement to anticipate and combat sexual harassment at work. In it is an explicit affirmation of a zero tolerance policy as well as details on a very real willingness by Arla Foods to collaborate with the IUF both globally...
10 October 2019
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and an international trade union alliance have combined forces to call on the European entity of US transport and logistics company XPO, with its European headquarters in France, to comply with its legal duty of vigilance in relation to human rights. According to the trade unions,...
2 October 2019
On 12 September 2019, global utilities group SUEZ signed a new European agreement on professional equality that applies to almost 61,000 staff working across all its subsidiaries Europewide. The agreement targets a continued increase in the number of females employed and affirms its zero tolerance policy in terms of wage discrimination and sexual harassment, as well as making a commitment to match paternity leave remuneration conditions with those for maternity leave (c.f. article No. 11355). In an interview with...
27 September 2019
A seven-month campaign that seeks to demonstrate the positive impact of collective bargaining is in the offing. On Thursday 26 September, the trade union federation IndustriAll Europe launched its Together at Work campaign, which aims to underline the benefit of collective bargaining to society as a whole and not just workers covered by collective deals. Speaking in front of a crowd of around 50 people, who came together for the campaign’s unveiling, Luc Triangle, general secretary of the union organisation –...
18 September 2019
On 17 September, the international trade union federation, the IUF, along with French hotels group AccorInvest announced their signing of a global agreement fighting sexual harassment at work. The agreement was officially signed on 15 July 2019 and it both sets out its zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment as well as recognizing the role trade unions and collective bargaining in eliminating sexual harassment from the workplace. The agreement covers all persons employed by the Group and operating on behalf of...
