Central Europe
Tire production has been rapidly expanding in Central Europe recently with companies like Bridgestone and Goodyear opening up factories in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia. The ICEM and rubber union leaders in Central Europe recently held a meeting in Budapest to talk about how the economic crisis is affecting tire workers and how these unions can work together. Many unions reported that workers are seeing hours and wages reduced, some are being forced to take vacation or are working shorter weeks and others are still struggling with union recognition.
Global
The Global Unions Federation, the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD recently collaborated on a new report titled: "Getting the World to Work: Global Union Strategies for Recovery." The report includes articles by many international trade union leaders and covers a broad range of proposals for global recovery based on economic, environmental and social justice. The ITUC and other trade unions also joined progressive NGOs recently in calling for a "Global New Deal."
New York
On May 15th, writer Naomi Klein will join UE organizers from the Republic Windows struggle as well as workers who have started worker-owned cooperatives in place of shut down factories in Argentina at an event in New York City called "Fire the Bosses." The event will build off Klein's documentary with Avi Lewis called The Take and the book Sin Patron: Stories from Argentina's Worker-Run Factories by the Lavaca Collective, both about the recovered factory movement in Argentina.
Washington DC
While the World Bank and International Monetary Fund hold their spring meetings in DC, global justice activists will hold a number of actions and events throughout the weekend. The plans include a march on Sunday and a People's Economic Forum this Saturday, April 25th in DC to discuss solutions to the global economic crisis.
Boston
On Tuesdays April 21 & 28 and May 5, the Radical Education Project in Boston is holding an interactive series of workshops about the global economic crisis with trainers from United for a Fair Economy, Global Labor Strategies and Jobs with Justice.
Online
The Center for Popular Economics is organizing an online course called "The Economic Crisis and the Case for a Solidarity Economy" from June 1 through July 9.