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Hundreds of protesters in Italy occupied railway lines last week to stop military equipment being transported to American forces in the Gulf.
A small group of campaigners broke into the military zone near Pisa Airport. The protests coincided with a march against the war in the city. Politicians from Rifondazione and the Green Party say American forces based at the nearby Camp Darby have depleted uranium weapons.
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By Mick Duncan
Littlewoods, a founder member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), was bought for £750m in November by the Barclay Brothers. Three months later, it has just announced its resignation from the ETI.
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The Hazards Campaign and the Centre for Corporate Accountability are calling on trade unionists to send a special email postcard to Tony Blair asking him why the Government has not introduced legislation creating the new offence of "corporate killing".
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The Kenyan Tailors and Textile union is requesting solidarity action in support of 9,200 Kenyan garment workers, producing for a number of major international brands, who were fired after going on strike in January to demand better working conditions. The workers, employed at seven factories in Kenya's export processing zones, were producing for brands including Wal-Mart, Sears, and Target.
Kenya's Ministry of Labour issued an order on 11 February instructing the factories to reinstate the workers and recognise the union by 3 March.
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Indonesia's House of Representatives passed the Manpower Bill on 25 February. The new law is a serious attack on workers' right to strike. Other bills are in the pipeline.
The new legislation states that workers must tell employers of an intention to strike. If they don't notify the bosses, the strike can be classified as illegal and a company can lock out workers and refuse to pay wages.
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On 10 March Italy's biggest trade union, CGIL, will begin the next stage of its campaign for four referendums to put to the public an alternative to the policies of the Berlusconi government.
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The CWU has informed BT that it will ballot the 16,000 engineers who work for Customer Service to halt the unagreed "Self Motivated Teams" productivity bonus scheme. BT have introduced a "voluntary" SMT scheme and are pressing members to opt in, despite union opposition. The CWU is demanding withdrawal of the unagreed scheme before any talks on ending the current standoff.
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By a civil servant
A Manchester civil servant hit the headlines recently when he took his employer - the Department for Work and Pensions - to an Employment Tribunal, under the Sex Discrimination Act, over whether or not men at his workplace should be forced to wear ties.
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By Kate Ahrens
(Leicestershire Health UNISON, personal capacity)
Candy Udwin and Dave Carr, Unison activists and SWP members, have been expelled from the union. The two were branch officers in the University of London Hospitals (UCLH) branch of the union and were finally expelled following a lengthy appeals process on charges relating to a leaflet that they produced during the dispute at the hospital over PFI.
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The RMT rail union has accepted a rotten offer of a 4% wage increase from Arriva Trains Northern for conductors and guards, and the 13 month dispute in the company is now over.
The workers had taken a series of one day actions. A ballot on Arriva's pay offer rejected it, 295 to 165, though the biggest depot, Leeds, voted to accept. Union reps say that the deal will still mean workers are some of the lowest paid in the industry.
