President Macron
The election of President Emmanuel Macron in early May upended France’s political system. The sensation continued last week as his party, Republic on the Move!, (which didn’t exist 14 months ago) won the majority in Parliament. This parliamentary victory for Macron is huge, granting him the insurance he needs to push through legislation without much friction. However, there are still French unions to deal with, and while they lost much of their sway in parliament in the last election, Macron knows how important it is to still handle them with care.
Click here for a deeper dive. Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is one of the largest unions in the country. And it is about to be under investigation by the newly established Registered Organizations Commission. The ROC is a union watchdog and it has reason to believe the union, specifically the mining division, is
misspending funds it has been collecting from members since the early 1990s. A civic strike at Columbia’s largest port in Buenaventura brought the city to a standstill earlier this month. The
mass protest was put on by social and community groups demanding that the government issue “a state of social and economic emergency and provide basic quality of life improvements.” Currently, Buenaventura’s ports bring in $1.8 billion in annual revenue, yet most of its 400,000 residents live in poverty.
