Following the successful first-ever 24-hour national strike at Unilever UK last December 9, unions at Unilever's 13 UK sites have voted to launch a new round of strikes lasting up to 12 days beginning January 17 in the escalating fight to reclaim their final salary-based pension scheme - and showed their resolve with an energetic protest outside the company's London headquarters January 10.

Late last year the Federal government of Nigeria gave a hint that it would deregulate the downstream of the oil sector by removing subsidy from the sales for local consumption. The labour movement and civil society opposed the move calling for prior measures to be put in place to protect the masses of the country.

Under the theme “Winning union rights and food rights” the 9th African regional conference in Accra December 6 and 7 brought together over 130 representatives of IUF affiliates and proved to be the largest and most dynamic in the region’s history.

On December 25, a day that for many symbolizes the spirit of generous human kindness, the actions of the world’s biggest food company in 2011 were far from generous for many of its workers in Indonesia.

The over 100 meat workers who have been locked out from the CMP Rangitikei plant since October 19 will return to the plant tomorrow, December 23, after ratifying a mediated settlement.

The 3 union leaders at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Thailand fired for their union activism earlier this year were reinstated on December 8 in compliance with a court order which the company, however, is appealing.

Sodexo, the world’s 21st largest employer with 391,000 employees worldwide, and the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) have announced the signing of an agreement confirming Sodexo’s commitments to respect fundamental rights at work, namely freedom of association and collective bargaining.

John Cahill has been named to oversee the financial mechanics of the splitting of Kraft into two separate companies (global snacks and North American grocery) by the end of 2012. Cahill oversaw the separation and hugely profitable resale of PepsiCo's leading bottler back to Pepsi before moving on to slash-and-burn private equity investors Ripplewood Assoicates. His 'surprise' appointment may tell us a great deal about what's coming.

Nestlé's dairy factory in Kabirwala, Pakistan, depends on the daily labour of hundreds of precarious workers provided by contractors on a no work, no pay basis. When the union became engaged in assisting long-serving precarious workers to obtain direct, permanent employment status - as prescribed by law - management responded with mass dismissals, provocations, police charges and physical assault by the labour contractor and goons.

On November 24, the IUF-affiliated Hong Kong catering and hotel workers' union CHIEGU and the HKCTU, the national center of which it is a member, held a protest action in front of the Honorary Consulate of Fiji to highlight escalating attacks on human rights and growing repression of the trade union movement by the military government of Commodore Bainimarama.