Working Life

    My friends at the National Labor Committee are up to their usual good work. Yesterday, Charlie Kernaghan testified at a Senate hearing on the abuses facing workers in China–in particular, those workers who churn out the toys that most American kids find under their X-mas trees: Mattel’s Barbie toys, along with Thomas & Friends […]

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The Wall Street Journal has an interview today with George Bush that gives great insight into the disinformation, lies and, charitably, cognitive dissonance that underpins the Administration’s economic policy. "We have lost sight of what it means to be a nation willing to be aggressive in the world, and spread freedom or deal with disease," […]

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    While the government in Myanmar is shooting down monks and shutting down the Internet connections to the country, world wide action has begun to protest the violence. You can sign a petition at Avaaz.org. Also, below is a letter from Andy Stern to the Chinese ambassador–there is some thought that the Chinese have some […]

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    For a long time, I’ve been saying that the dollar has to come down. A lower dollar would be an easier solution to, for example, the trade issues with China, compared to trying to get the Chinese to change its currency policies. So, the fact that the dollar is sharply down–even now equal to […]

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Yesterday’s New York Times has a piece on the environmental cost of economic growth in China titled As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes. The long, detailed piece focuses on the huge impact heavy industry has had on public health in China and the lack of government action or effective regulations to address these problems. […]

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    It’s a fascinating spectacle reading the news reports about Mattel’s recall of 19 million toys sent from China. Most of the reports and editorials focus, rightly, on the low level of safety standards in China. But, it’s foolish to simply blame the Chinese for the lead in toys. The fact is that those dangers […]

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If only we could organize workers here at this rate: China’s government-sanctioned trade union has strengthened its foothold in McDonald’s Corp., a move that illustrates the increasing involvement by the All-China Federation of Trade Union in the work forces of multinational companies doing business in China. About 80% of the McDonald’s work force in China […]

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Last year, I wrote about a debate over a new labor law in China, and, not surprisingly, the attempt by international corporations to undercut the law. This just in, via the Associated Press,–the law has been enacted BEIJING, June 29 (AP) China enacted a labor law Friday meant to improve workers’ rights amid complaints about […]

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    New info today from The Wall Street Journal on the change in Chinese labor laws, changes that have been bitterly opposed by the business community: China is putting the final touches on its most significant overhaul of workplace regulation in a decade, in an unusual process that has sparked debate on the trade-off between […]

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I’ve talked alot about China and specifically about the hand-wringing over the question of China’s currency. Paul Krugman addresses this today—quite well, I think. He tells, in fairly accessible language for an economist, how the U.S.-China relationship works: China is keeping its currency lower than it should be for a country where investment is flowing […]

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