MAY DAY-PERU: Striking Miners to March on Lima

Peru’s miners began an indefinite strike Monday demanding respect for labour rights. Their main complaint is against the outsourcing of jobs, as 80 percent of the 100,000 workers in the mining industry - the backbone of the economy – are affected by the phenomenon of subcontracting and outsourcing.

MAY DAY-BOLIVIA: New Style Work Force

The May 1 Labour Day marches in the Bolivian capital were a memorable sight two decades ago, a real celebration of workers' unity, led by thousands of helmeted miners carrying their drills. But today the workers' movement is a shadow of its former self, and the present generation of workers, out of necessity, are dispersed in new kinds of occupations.

LABOUR-SPAIN: Immigrants’ Plight Ignored by Unions Ahead of May Day

The conditions faced by immigrants in Spain, who despite their contribution to the economy are the most vulnerable when it comes to labour rights, have not even been mentioned in the demands and grievances voiced by the country's trade union federations as they prepare for May 1, International Labour Day.

HEALTH-PARAGUAY: Hello Rome, Goodbye Dengue!

The corridors in Paraguay's Hospital de Clínicas are crammed with dozens of patients with symptoms of dengue waiting for treatment, but in the nurses' station they are having a party. Mirian López, a registered nurse with several years' experience in intensive care, has just found out that she has a job waiting for her in Italy.

EL SALVADOR: Spanish Firm Advocates, Then Breaks Labour Laws

The Spanish tuna-fishing and processing company Grupo Calvo has been accused of serious anti-union practices in El Salvador. The paradox is that Calvo had insisted that this Central American country approve labour laws required by the European Union (EU) for the purpose of obtaining tariff exemptions, as a condition for continuing to invest here.

COLOMBIA: Miners’ Woes Heard – If Faintly – in US

The pattern of persecution of miners in Colombia overlaps with the map of operations of foreign corporations, especially U.S. companies, Colombian trade unionists told a U.S. legislator.

COLOMBIA: Coal Mine Accidents Underreported to Protect Livelihoods

Colombia took in more than 1.3 billion dollars in revenue from coal exports last year. But miners continue to work in inadequate conditions, lacking job stability, safety measures and health coverage.

ARGENTINA: Madres de Plaza de Mayo Bring Housing Hope to Slums

Wearing blue coveralls with a picture of a white scarf, the symbol of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, some 300 men and women from a slum in the Argentine capital are building new homes - and new lives - for themselves.

CHILE: Pension Reform – Just a Face-Lift, or the Real Thing?

Chile's social security system, one of the jewels in the crown of the dictatorship of the late General Augusto Pinochet, will be fiercely debated in Congress in 2007. But the reform initiative with which President Michelle Bachelet wants to "make history" has already come under fire.

HUMAN RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Wanted – More Convinced Supporters

About 20,000 slave labourers have been freed in Brazil since 1995. Estimates published in the last decade said there were 25,000 people living under such conditions. If these figures are correct, it would seem that the slavery problem is close to being solved.

BURMA: ILO Gets Tough on Forced Labour

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has hardened its stance towards the use of forced labour in Burma, and decided to turn to the International Court of Justice because of the regime's reluctance to cooperate in eradicating the practice.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Workers’ Friend or Foe?

Nepal's government says it is poised to give some protection to the majority of its workers who labour in the informal sector but a bill now circulating in government would remove some rights of employees in 'special economic zones'.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Garment Industry Unravels Amid Uncertainty

Business and labour are fighting to gain the upper hand during Nepal's political transition, a process that has helped to sideline the unemployed workers and anxious factory owners of the troubled garment industry.

LABOUR-BANGLADESH: Garment Exports Thrive on Dirt Wages

Bangladesh's garment industry may have survived the quota-free global trade regime but the eight billion dollar earnings it posted in the last fiscal year ending June, was built on the backs of two million workers barely able to keep body and soul together on dirt wages.

LABOUR-COLOMBIA: Unions Press for Local ILO Office

International labour associations have publicly expressed their support for the call by Colombian trade unions for faster progress towards the establishment of a local office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in that civil war-torn South American country.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Few “Positions Vacant” for the Young

A billion young people aged 15 to 24 unemployed, 85 percent of them in developing countries - with several hundred million more expected to enter the job market by the end of the decade: grim statistics indeed. However, a recent conference offered some ideas as to how they could be addressed.

CHILE: No Light at End of Tunnel in Miners’ Strike

While the Chilean government has stepped in to try to help restore dialogue between 2,000 strikers and management at the foreign-controlled Escondida mine, site of the world's largest copper deposits, experts are closely following the related fluctuations in the price of the metal.

MIGRATION-LATIN AMERICA: Job Offer Too Good to Be True?

The marriage or job offer abroad sounds too good to be true? It very well might be. Tens of thousands of people in Latin America fall victims to human trafficking every year. Claudia, a 28-year-old Colombian mother of two who has experience as a computer systems technician, was just one of them.

DEVELOPMENT: Women Matter – In All of the Millennium Goals

In order to advance towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), gender equality cannot merely be limited to a number of specific objectives, but must be the lens through which all the targets are viewed, say experts and representatives of women's movements in Argentina.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Available for Serving Drinks – Not for Sex

When next in Nairobi, spare a thought for the women who will in all likelihood serve you, if you visit a bar or two in search of a drink.

LABOUR-COLOMBIA: Flower Power – But Not for the Workers

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Colombia and the United States that could be signed in October or November this year will maintain the tariff exemptions already enjoyed by Colombia's flourishing flower industry. But there are no plans for higher wages and better working conditions for the industry's 100,000 workers.