· January, 2007

Stories about Labor from January, 2007

China: Out of Libya

  31 January 2007

It‘s [zh] since been disabled, but there was one especially eye-catching post on Tianya, one of China's most widely-read bbs forum sites last month. ‘Save us!’ it read. ‘We've been stuck in Libya for over a year and we're about to go crazy here!’ Racist attitude, seen further down, might...

South Korea: alternative fashion show

  31 January 2007

Jamie from interlocals.net reports on an interesting alternative fashion show in Seoul: The clothes were made and modeled by the women who made them as well as by a number of prominent figures from Korean civil society. The participants from civil society included labour union activists from the largest and...

Senegal: Flooded by Chinese Products

  25 January 2007

Blog Politique du Senegal is worried (Fr)about imports from China “flooding” local markets: “China has extremely low production costs … By opening its doors wide to Chinese products, Senegal is preventing itself from developing a national production. Meanwhile, the country's industrialization is the only means of providing work to thousands...

Cambodia: Paying Fair Wages

  25 January 2007

Diana at Cambodia Calling compares her life in her former home Singapore to her current home Cambodia. The blogger also describes why her company, a garment manufacturing unit, believes in paying fare wages to the workers.

South Korea: labour movement

  17 January 2007

Jamie in Two Koreas updates his readers about the recent labour movement activities in South Korea, including 20th anniversary of the June 1987 Democratic Uprising, anti FTA protest, etc.

Japan: white collar exemption

  15 January 2007

Adamu in Mutant frog has a nice article discussing the recent debate on white collar exemption, which means office workers who earn 4 million yen or more annually could no longer be eligible for overtime.

Guinea: unlimited national strike

  10 January 2007

Black Star Journal reports about the national strike organized by Guinea's main trade union, “Guinea's main trade union collective, CNTG-USTG, has announced that it will launch an unlimited national general strike starting on Jaunary 10.”

Malaysia: North Korean Workers Found Dead

  9 January 2007

DPRK studies links to a Malaysian news story about two North Koreans found dead in Sibu, East Malaysia. This is the first time that we have news of North Korean labour being used in South East Asia.

Barbados: Caribbean Direct Recruitment Scheme

  8 January 2007

Titilayo supplements what she knew previously about the Caribbean Direct Recruitment scheme, through which London Transport recruited Caribbean migrants to the UK, with information from an exhibition currently on at the London Transport Museum.

Ukraine: Thoughts on Staying and Leaving

  4 January 2007

LJ user chio – of Simferopol, Crimea – writes (RUS): On life A friend came for a visit recently – he had emigrated to New Zealand some five years ago as an already established businessman. He was shocked by what he saw around him. He was genuinely surprised by the...

China: Teacher strike

  2 January 2007

Teachers in Huadu, an outlying suburb of Southern China metropolis Guangzhou went on strike yesterday in front of the local district government building yesterday, calling for higher wages. A thorough look through Google search results for “Huadu” “teacher” and “protest” suggests a media blackout, which the teachers seem to have...

Jamaica: Earning a quick dollar in the ghetto makeover

  2 January 2007

Ria Bacon photographed these young women in December 2006 on Barbican Road in Kingston, Jamaica. As she explains on her blog: In the week before Christmas, many of the poorer areas of Kingston get a quick makeover, as hundreds of local residents hack at overgrown pavements and daub the kerbs...