Their new assertiveness may reflect a labour law introduced in January 2008, which gave workers more contractual rights.
The UK does not have an opt-out in this area of EU labour law.
It also wants to promote regional wage differentials and to reform labour law more generally.
Last month it brought in a new labour law, making it easier to hire and fire.
It is also possible, given the wording of the new labour law, that resisting unionisation is illegal.
The government has now responded by saying that a new labour law being drawn up will allow workers to organise.
One Indian manager for a multinational company explains that foreign managers lack the skills needed to operate Indian labour law.
The ITUC's Sharan Burrow said that what she called loopholes in the Qatari labour law created "conditions of 21st century slavery".
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His most radical proposal was for an overhaul of labour law (if the unions and employers can be persuaded to agree).
The labour law is not entirely clear about what they must do: is it their responsibility to create a union, or their employees'?
The leading case, Alden v Maine, was brought by a group of Maine probation officers suing for back pay under a 1938 federal labour law.
At the root of the dispute between the Italian Government and the unions is one article - Article 18 - of the country's labour law.
Furthermore, some of the reforms especially those of pensions and labour law may put the new government in conflict with its core constituencies, such as public servants and trade-union members.
Looking ahead, the key, presumably, is to find ways - taxation policy and labour law reforms being obvious ones - to lure more small businesses into the "formal sector", and to balance the urgent need to create more jobs with the need to ensure against exploitation and abuse.
But his dilution of spending cuts and of a controversial labour-law reform has looked like weakness.
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Too many labour-law changes have created two-tier markets, with an inner tier remaining protected but an outer one on temporary or short-term contracts.
The murder of one of its labour-law advisers in March encouraged some of the prime minister's dafter colleagues to link the unions with terrorism.
And right now, leaders from the business, labour, law enforcement, faith communities - they all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
The British government wants to minimise the risk that the charter, which enshrines such things as a right to strike, could threaten their liberalising, Thatcher-era labour-law reforms.
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The current coalition (in which a party of pensioners plays a crucial role) has adopted draft laws on pension and labour-law reform, which will both be contested.
The government's Communist allies have blocked fundamental labour-law reform.
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The resulting scandal caused Lula to lose interest in difficult tax and labour-law reforms in his second term and to forge an alliance with the PMDB, an agglomeration of regional barons with a voracious appetite for patronage and pork.
He promises to pass a labour-reform law anyway, even if no deal is reached.
At least until the labour-contract law was enacted, many private enterprises provided nothing.
Wages are up by 10-15%, he says, and a new labour-protection law that came into effect on January 1st increases costs by the same amount again.
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They include a labour-contract law that came into effect on January 1st and which many employers fear could make it much harder to fire underperforming workers.
He repeated his plan to extend free nursery places for all two-year-olds over the next 10 years - and he pledged to enshrine in law Labour's promise to end child poverty.
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In a parliamentary system with a large majority, such as Labour enjoys, any law can be rammed through quickly enough.
Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Thomas said he was pleased Mr Law was standing and the seat was a three-way fight between Mr Law, Labour and the Lib Dems.
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