· March, 2010

Stories about Labor from March, 2010

Japan Government: On the Fall of the Employment System

  28 March 2010

A think tank for Japan's Cabinet, the Economic and Social Research Institute (内閣府 経済社会総合研究所) (ESRI) published a study that quantified the present status of lifetime employment and seniority-based wage (i.e. the Japanese employment system). They used the data (1989-2008) from Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) (BSWS) of the Ministry of...

Spain: MyWorld Video Winner tackles unemployment

  23 March 2010

The BBC's video contest My World Video has come to a close, and from the hundreds of submitted entries, they've selected their winner:  Frederico Teixeira of Samapayo in Spain who made a 2 minute video on the unemployment situation in his country. The simple video shows his reflection in a...

Japan: Foreign trainees’ sad stories

  22 March 2010

A photo-reportage by Buddhika on five Chinese female trainees who reportedly escaped from the fabric factory of Tode Bussan (in Toyama prefecture) where they were underpaid and exploited.

Lebanon: Runaway Maids

“When a maid runs away from her employer's house, the police station is unable to act because there's no law criminalizing runaway maids. So the police station officer tells the Lebanese employee to say that she stole money,”  writes Ethiopian Suicides.

China: Confession of a ‘Second Generation Migrant Worker’

  18 March 2010

China’s hukou system, adopted in 1958 to control population movement, has long been criticized for tying the population to their place of origin. With the mass migration of rural workers to China’s cities and coastal regions, the system is under the spotlight. One blogger airs his grievances.

Egypt: IslamOnline Employees Strike

Hundreds of employees, editors, and journalists started an angry sit-in in the widely read Cairo-based IslamOnline news website after 250 employees were sacked. For the first time, strikers are using new media efficiently and effectively to draw all the attention needed to support their cause, from continuous Twitter updates to live streaming.

China: Debating hukou reform

  15 March 2010

Earlier this month, 13 Chinese newspapers appealed to the National People's Congress' 3,000 delegates for social reforms. They attacked China's hukou (household registration system), which severely limits the access of rural migrant workers to basic services in China’s metropolises.

Jamaica: Consumer Win

  5 March 2010

“Thank you OUR (Office of Utility Regulations) for standing up for the Jamaican consumers by telling the JPS (Jamaica Public Service) no to their latest attempt of robbery!”: Stunner lets loose.

Bermuda: Stinking Budget

  3 March 2010

Vexed Bermoothes says that Bermuda's most recent budget “seeks to live on debt and on increased taxes on both businesses and workers…but beyond that, something else stinks.”