· October, 2006

Stories about Labor from October, 2006

China: new labour law

  23 October 2006

Fons Tuinstra in China herald blogs about some background fact and fiction concerning the new labour law. Interlocals.net also have some more background information.

Arabisc: Protests, Human Rights and Cultural Repression

  19 October 2006

With labour union elections coming up soon in Egypt, Manal and Ala are reporting about labour strike in Ain Shams University, where salaries were almost halved. على خلفية الصراع الطبقي اللي محتدم في البلد بقاله 5 سنين و اللي وصل ذروته السنة دي كع اقتراب موعد انتخابات المقابات العمالية بدأ...

China: labour law

  18 October 2006

Law Prof blogs about the comments of Amercian Chamber of Commerce on the draft of Chinese labour law.

China: labour and organization

  17 October 2006

Zheng Jinyan blogs about her workshop, “understanding China”, in Thailand. One of the session is on labour conditions and organizations in China (zh), it touches upon the relation between Africa and China social movement. Zheng stressed that boycotting China product won't help the situation, NGOs should work on the protection...

Malaysia: Falling FDI

  17 October 2006

The blogger at rocky's bru is concerned about Malaysia's falling attractiveness for foreign direct investors.

Guyane: School Hitting Controversy

  17 October 2006

Blada.com is unhappy (Fr) with the Mayor of Cayenne's response to the recent hitting of a child by a school aide. (The mayor issued a decree asking school aides –called ATSEM– not to stay alone with children.) The site believes that that response is against the law and a copout...

Voices from Zimbabwe

  16 October 2006

Global Voices has posted a harrowing video documenting the brutal beatings suffered by worker's union demonstrators recently. Read the post and watch the video here. Debate surrounding a new law, the Domestic Violence Bill, became the context for a much criticized misogynistic outburst in Zimbabwe's parliament last week. Timothy Mubhawu,...

South Korea: migrant film festivial

  16 October 2006

Jamie from Two Koreas blogs about the migrant film festivial in Seoul: There is an interesting range of films here about migrant workers, and not solely in Korea but in other countries around the pacific, from Taiwan, to Canada and Malaysia.

China: labour law

  16 October 2006

The Chinese government has passed a new set of labour law, Alan Baumler at The China history group blog gives more background information about the role of official union and points out that these laws will not represent a change in the nature of Chinese unions and that these will...

China: Let your photos do the talking

  14 October 2006

While dealing with blocked pages and filter-trigger keywords can get pretty annoying on the wrong side of the internet, for bloggers in China who want some discussion on, say, the highest-level corruption crackdown in ten years, there are always ways to beat the system. This time it just happens that...

Zimbabwe: Smuggled DVD brings union protest beatings to light

  13 October 2006

This video reached me late last night via Ethan Zuckerman. At nearly ten minutes, it's longer than the other videos we've put up, but I strongly recommend you watch this. It includes footage of the Zimbabwean police and security intelligence services breaking up a peaceful demonstration by members of the...

Hong Kong: CE's policy address

  13 October 2006

Yesterday (Oct 12), the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, Donald Tsang defended his second policy address in the legislative council. The selection of next CE will be 8 months later, although it is very likely that Donald Tsang will continue his term for another 5 years. The whole process...

Jamaica: Work with passion

  11 October 2006

“While our system of education has tragedy written into its script, with a 16 year old having to choose four subjects on which to “concentrate” to the exclusion of others, there is a wider travesty occurring daily in our societies,” writes Jamaica Francis Wade in a post exploring the effects...

Jordan: Jordanising The Workforce

  11 October 2006

Nas reports that the Jordanian government has decided to “Jordanise” the workforce by creating a ‘strategy’ that includes using the municipalities to employ Jordanians through a direct application process. If all goes according to plan, some 40,000 foreign workers will be replaced with Jordanians.

South Korea: labour relation road map

  9 October 2006

Jamie has an update on the recent labour conflicts and relation: a road map is drawn by the government concerning the relation between business, government and labour, which is considered as a setback on labour conditions.

Cayman Islands: Roll over policy

  6 October 2006

Mighty Afroditee's child's caregiver falls victim to Cayman Islands’ government's newly implemented “roll over policy”, which limits the length of time expatriates can stay in the country.

Hong Kong: Minimum wage

  4 October 2006

A citizen report at inmediahk.net on a demonstration for minimun wage in Hong Kong. Demand from demonstrators are HK$30 (US$3.5) per hour. While the existing fast food resturant (KFC) rate is HK$15 per hour (zh). More background information can be found at interlocals.net, the lowest hourly wage found in the...

Jordan: Jordan is having rude awakening!

Hatem Abunimeh wonder whether the gripe by the federation of the labor unions is something that will have some grave consequences on the long run, or is it going to end up being just a tempest in the tea pot.! “Getting wrangled in legal proceedings can be very arduous thorny...

Voices from Zimbabwe

  2 October 2006

Years after the first commercial farms were invaded by marauding war veterans and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF, a new wave of farm invasions has hit the country merely weeks before planting for the upcoming agricultural season is supposed to begin. The Bearded Man has picked up on the story:...