The 5th International Trade Union Confederation World Congress got underway yesterday in Melbourne, Australia. Kevin Callinan is there and you can follow proceedings at #ITUC22. The Congress runs until Tuesday 22nd.

The Irish Times reports this morning (from the Connect conference in Wexford) that "Local authority water services workers have given overwhelming support to a ballot on strike action to be taken if guarantees they say they were given relating to their transfer to Irish Water are not honoured by the Government."

Dublin Live picked up Fórsa's story from last Friday's bulletins about the fundraiser, by the Aer Lingus Cabin Crew branch, for their colleague Stephanie Scott Byrne.

Monthly mortgage repayments for Irish borrowers rose by 12% in the two years to the end of June, that's even before the ECB started to hike official rates. This news comes as Congress announced on Wednesday that the housing crisis is the most important issue on which the trade union movement is currently campaigning on.

Cop 27 is scheduled to conclude today, and while the news emerging from climate negotiations does little today to raise hopes, it's worth reminding ourselves how the positive.news website saw potential in the COP27 agenda. Early this morning news emerged that the EU made a dramatic intervention to agree on financial help for poor countries, launching a proposal on behalf of the EU for the establishment a loss and damage fund.

Elsewhere, hundreds of Twitter employees are reported to have rejected Elon Musk’s ultimatum to keep working round the clock at his behest, threatening its ability to keep operating. The company temporarily closed its offices to staff. Users are said to be migrating to other platforms, and many (including Fórsa) are taking the initiative to create a digital archive of their account, lest Twitter suddenly joins the Dodo in avian Valhalla.

Zen

I went to see the Icelandic band Sigur Rós last night. One of those gigs, invited to attend on a friend's ticket, somewhat reluctant, thinking this "wouldn't really be my thing". Well, not for the first time, I was happy to be proved wrong. Jónsi and the boys wrapped a huge Nordic hug of big warm noise around the Dublin crowd and they loved it. I was won over, everybody went home hearts-warmed and happy.

Have a good weekend.

Niall