International

Hands Off the 8-Hour Day! Withdraw the anti-worker Bill!

7 June 2021

The working class and toiling masses of Greece will embark on an historic General Strike on June 10 against the anti-labour Bill proposed by the conservative New Democracy (ND) government. The Bill introduces several anti-worker measures, including increasing working hours from 8 to 10 hours per day, scrapping the five-day work-week and curtailing the right to strike. The proposed bill is a barbaric attack on the rights of workers, hard earned through long struggles.

Spain approved a pioneering law on 11 May that gives delivery platforms a mid-August deadline to hire workers currently freelancing for them and that requires transparency of artificial intelligence used to manage workforces.

The royal decree passed by the centre-left ruling coalition immediately affects some 30,000 couriers. It comes in the wake of a ruling by Spain's top court last year and at a time when other countries in Europe and elsewhere are deciding on a labour model for the so-called gig economy, which is often blamed for precarious jobs and low salaries.

After a seven-day strike, the Trade Union of Construction, Paving and Earth Movement Industries Workers of the State of Ceará (SINTEPAV-CE) inked a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with companies operating the Solar Alex Project in Ceará, Brazil.

The union won an increase in workers’ wages by 10 percent and increased monthly bonuses from R$ 450 to R$ 600 (about USD 110). Overtime pay was also increased by 60 percent during the week and 100 percent on Saturdays.

In an exemplary move of solidarity with Palestinians, after discovering that a shipment of arms destined for Israel was arriving in Italy’s ports, workers organized in one of Italy’s main unions, L'Unione Sindacale di Base, and other workers’ organizations refused to load the ship in support of the Palestinians fighting for their lives against Israeli occupation.