Although the two-month-old strike at parts-maker American Axle has shut down 30 General Motors plants and idled more than 40,000 GM workers, the United Auto Workers appear unable or unwilling to make use of their leverage to reach a settlement. . . .

Mounting conflicts within the SEIU have spilled into the delegate election process for the union’s convention, scheduled for June 1-4 in Puerto Rico. SEIU opposition activists, particularly from several large locals on the West Coast, are crying foul. . . .

Flight attendants at Delta Airlines are pushing to join the ranks of unionized cabin crews. With almost all major airlines organized for decades, only Atlanta-based Delta has held out. Now a growing number of flight attendants there—aided by a huge team of Association of Flight Attendants member - organizers from other airlines — have decided their time has come. . . .

Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have exposed Burger King for its role in attempts to infiltrate and spy on the inner workings of a CIW-allied organization, the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Both CIW and SFA are headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, where tomato pickers are demanding Burger King join with other tomato purchasers to better the wages and working conditions throughout the tomato industry. . . .

The miners of Local 65 of the Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union at Cananea marked their ninth month of striking against Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest mining corporation and third-largest copper producer in the world. . . .

An Iranian bakery worker and co-founder of the Bakery Workers Trade Union, Mahmoud Salehi, was released from prison in early April after a year of incarceration. Imprisoned for breaches of “national security,” he had organized a rally on International Workers’ Day (May 1) in 2004.

During his prison stay, protesters rallied outside the high-security facility in the Kurdish capital of Sanandaj. Their voices were soon joined by activists with LabourStart, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Transport Federation, and Amnesty International, which all launched solidarity campaigns in the last year. Salehi was released to crowds celebrating his freedom, and promised to continue his decades-long struggle for labor rights in Iran.

In Bangladesh, workers are engaged in a protracted battle for the restoration of union rights, which were suspended more than a year ago when the government declared emergency rule. Interim authorities used that power earlier this year to file criminal cases against dozens of union members, including leaders of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers’ Union Federation.

In a Dhaka shop operated by garment-maker RM Sweater, workers mourn the loss of a fellow worker, a 25-year-old man they called Russell. Though he complained of severe chest pains, management refused to let Russell leave work, where he collapsed and died April 1.