Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, will for the first time allow workers to elect union representatives, according to a statement released by the company. The firm said it would hold elections for a chairman and 20 members of its Federation of Labour Unions Committee every five years.

In 2012, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union--was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on January 23. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also declined over the year.

Around 150 million Americans drag themselves out of bed each day and show up for work. You get your first cup of coffee, chit-chat a bit, punch in, and settle in for a long day on the job.

After rapid expansion since the inception of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), the number of sites receiving VPP certification has shown a slight decrease in recent years.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and Industrial European Trade Union, the new European trade union that represents seven million workers from a variety of sectors, have launched an informational campaign on REACH, the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use.

Two Duke University researchers have found that membership in labor unions results in better health. Their recent study, Bringing You More Than the Weekend: Union Membership and Self-rated Health in the United States, found that union membership has a “significant positive effect on favorable self-rated health.”

The United Steelworkers (USW) union who work at oil refineries around the country held a National Day of Action for Safe Refineries and Good Jobs on January 21.

The Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) recently adopted a resolution on the future European health and safety strategy.

At its first-ever convention, a transatlantic union has produced a joint statement opposing the use of "any scheme that ‘blames the worker’ for
injuries, illnesses and fatalities in the workplace."