Communication calendar

On 19 February, Arbio, the employers' association for the forestry industry, sued the Swedish Paper Workers' Union before the Labour Court. Formally, the parties are arguing over a sum of less than SEK 50, though in practice the case concerns an unlimited amount of money. This is a test case, and

On 6 February 1997, theSwedish Paper Workers' Union and the Employers' Federation of Swedish Forest Industries told the conciliators Lars-Gunnar Albåge and Rune Larson that they accepted their proposal for a national collective agreement on wages for 1997. There had been two stumbling blocks in the

One of the continuing quarrels between the Social Democrat Government and the largest trade union confederation, the Confederation of Trade Unions for Blue-Collar Workers (Landsorganisationen or LO), appears to have been settled by an agreement on the overall features of the unemployment insurance

The Ford Motor Company announced on 16 January 1997 that it was to cut 1,300 jobs at its Halewood plant on Merseyside (in the north-west of England) This was after five days of speculation following a report in the /Observer/ newspaper that Ford wanted to install new efficient working practices, and

In January 1997, the cement company, Blue Circle (BCC), and two of Britain's largest trade unions, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and the General Municipal and Boilermakers Union (GMB), agreed what has been described as a "ground breaking" deal which gives a guarantee of job security

The immediate catalyst for the current prominence of working time in UK industrial relations is the failure in November 1996 of the Government's attempt to have the EU Directive on certain aspects of the organisation of working time (Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993) annulled by the

Three independent pay review bodies were created more than 25 years ago in what has been described as an attempt "to remove a range of highly sensitive settlements from the political arena" (P Bassett, /The Times,/ 7 February 1997). They recommended pay increases for doctors and dentists, the most

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) launched its campaign to put workers' rights at the centre of the general election on 14 February 1997. The campaign, which will cost GBP 1 million, includes newspaper and cinema ads, billboards and leaflets.