wages

Six unions representing 250,000 members working in colleges across England in jobs such as cleaning, catering and admin as well as professional roles are seeking a pay rise of 6% or £1,500 - whichever is the greater - to guarantee the lowest-paid workers a minimum wage of £7.38. However, employers have come back with an offer of 2.5%.

InBev, the world's second-largest beer producer by volume, said on Monday that it had struck a deal with its Belgian workers to end a round of industrial action that had hampered its operations. The company has said in a statement that the agreement was positive for both itself and its workers.

Workers at the hypermarket have been on strike since February the first.

The Grand Littoral branch of Carrefour is the only one in the country to have continued action after the national one-day retail strike. As a result Grand Littoral has been entirely closed for nine of the last eleven days.

The first strike was by workers at the Almoayyed Contracting Group, workers were protesting at salaries ranging from 60 to 85 Bahrain dinars (£82-116) They initially demanded a rise to between BHD 100 and BHD 120. The head of the group countered that workers were in fact being paid 75 to 150 dinars a month, he also claimed that only 300 workers joined the strike.

According to company spokesmen the strike is being observed by 14.2% of workers at GDF (compared to 13.4% November 20th) and 13.5% at EDF (28%). There have been four strikes in the last six weeks, with observance reaching 60% in October. At the demonstration during the last strike a cortege of some 50 liberated EDF vehicules with their numberplates covered took part.

The government had declared the strike illegal and had mobilised hundreds of soldiers to try to keep the railways open over the weekend. This would have been the fourth such strike in South Korea since 2000. The unions have yet to confirm why they cancelled the action, with many workers told while they were preparing pickets only an hour before the official debut of action at 4am

The assistants (AVSs) mostly work supporting disabled students. Of the 21 AVSs present at the first organisational meeting, only 6 worked full time, most of the other being on 3/4 part time contracts.

The 34000 striking workers belong to the GDL union and have refused the 4.5% pay offer already accepted by the two larger rail unions. They have further rejected a seperate offer of a one-off €2000 payment with a 10% rise, a condition of that offer is a two-hour increase in the working week.

Workers are protesting against the two-tier pension system that the company, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, is trying to impose on new workers. Workers had already accepted a freeze on benefits to allow the company to make up pension shortfalls.

The workers are also demanding a salary increase and there are further non-financial demands.

The main demands relate to quality of life. Teachers are demanding that their salaries be re-evaluated, in 1992-1993 salaries were lowered by 50-70% and this fall has not been made up. They are also demanding that all salary arrears be paid in full, including payments linked to exams. They have also asked for a housing allowance.

The strike was originally called by the Ivory Coast senior medical workers union (Synacass-ci) in relation to yearly pay negotiations. Currently a doctor receives a salary of 173000 CFA Francs (£180), the Ivory coast is suffering from major price increases, especially of staples. For example the price of 12kg of cooking gas has risen from 3500 CFA Francs to between 4500 and 5000.

The region's 4000 carpenters are asking for a rise equal to that earned by metal-workers earlier in the summer. According to Martyn Piper of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (UBCJ) some 20 issues have been resolved during negotiations and that the only disagreement is over a wage increase.

The basic demand of the teachers is an increase in the allowance that they are paid towards accomodation. The planned budget for this year gives teachers 30000 CFA Francs (£29:50) a year. Average monthly wages in Ivory Coast are estimated at CFA 26200, although due to civil problems all figures are unreliable.

The Acropolis will be closed this weekend as well as next weekend in support of workers' demands. They are currently calling for a bonus for night work, an increased bonus for working six days and week and for permanent jobs for contract workers.

The customs officers' strike was in relation to unpaid quarterly bonuses. The planned 42-hour strike began on Wednesday in spite of assurance given by the Director General, Gnamien Konan, that bonuses would be paid in full by Thursday morning.

At the Collahuasi mine in Chile, one of the world's largest copper mines workers have given notice of a strike to begin Monday, they are demanding an 8% pay increase whereas management has only offered 1%, they are also asking for health and education benefits and a housing stipend.

In a vote on Friday 78% of workers rejected management's offer. After this rejection a meeting had been planned between management and the unions for Wednesday. At 10am the workers spontaneously stopped working.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are both calling for the government to reverse policies instigated by former president Olusegun Obasanjo just before he left office.

The garment workers are threatening strikes in reaction to governement proposals to change the law that compels employers to pay double wages for night work. By cutting this premium by 70% the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, claims he will be able to create tens of thousands of new jobs. The industry is currently responsible for US$2.3bn worth of exports yearly, almost 80% of the total.