In the class war there can be no win win results. If the workers living standard rises a small amount while profits are elevated to obscene heights then this represents not a win but a loss to the working person. Why is it so? Because wealth is not a thing in itself but is an arbiter of power and changes in the rate of inequality cause the balance between the classes to shift. Howard’s Industrial Relations policies and the ABCC can be seen as the direct results of "win win" results of this nature in previous years. The tardiness of the new so-called “Labor” government to fundamentally repeal these same stems from the same root. In the end workers need to fight for greater and greater proportions of the wealth they create not so that they can amuse themselves with bigger and better toys but because only in this way can democracy and freedom be preserved and extended. So who is keeping score in the great game? Well we rather thought that we should … AustraliaA Sydney University study shows Australia has some of the worst working hours in the developed world, with one in five workers putting in at least 50 hours a week … Despite that, growing numbers are finding it difficult to make ends meet, with one in three workers in a job that does not give them the full protection of Australia's labour laws … The study tracked the working lives of 8,000 workers over five years. It found 56 per cent were struggling to get by or just coping, up four points from last year. The interviews were done before the financial turmoil kicked in … Lead researcher Dr Brigid Van Wanrooy says long hours remain a stubborn feature of Australian working life, and look like continuing to do so amid the economic slowdown … "Full-time employees are working an average of 44 hours per week, in the international standards we've got some of the longest full-time working ours among the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries," she said … Many Australians worked even longer. Nearly one in three wanted to reduce their hours … "One in five workers work more than 50 hours a week, so that equates to around two million people." she said … The report said standard employment deteriorated, many workers were worried about job insecurity and the much talked about work/family balance was far from a reality. Source: Australians still working longer hours, many struggling, ABC News, 29 October 2008 - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/29/2404163.htm Australians who — despite a decade of economic boom — are working harder and longer than ever before but are feeling less and less satisfied with their lot in an economy "increasingly tailored not to the needs of its citizens but to the needs of business" … Australia's new prosperity is one "built on half-million-dollar mortgages and redraw facilities," he writes. "A prosperity built on cutbacks to services, on driving down wages and conditions, and increased working hours. A prosperity where inequality is rising, where the super-rich are an identifiable class, and yet where one in 10 is living in poverty."So what was the reality? Davis cites industrial law changes as having set a tone where workers on the lowest rung no longer enjoyed similar rights to those above them. Another plank of the egalitarian dream, home ownership, was similarly under threat: average house prices are running more than six times the median wage. And universal access to health and education was also being compromised … There are more people now running small businesses in Australia than there are who belong to unions. Source: Simon Mann, The thinking man's revolutionary (review of Mark Davis’ The Land of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s) The Age, September 6, 2008 - http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/11c3455d0f4d1a0c The (Australian Bureau of Statistics) figures show strikes remain at historically low levels, with 129,300 days lost in the first half of this year, but have jumped sharply from the record low of 14,000 days lost in the first six months of 2007. The strike action in the first half of this year was concentrated in the education, health and community sectors … The Rudd Government is yet to make substantive changes to WorkChoices with the bulk of its new workplace relations system set to take effect from January 2010. A draft bill on those changes is due later this year. Source: Ben Schneiders, Dramatic surge in strikes under Labor, The Age, September 5, 2008 - http://www.theage.com.au/national/dramatic-surge-in-strikes-under-labor-20080904-49y5.html According to Access Economics, real wages in Australia would be 13 per cent lower over 2001-2007 without the China boom and, more importantly, 1 per cent fewer Australians would be employed. Source: Matthew Stevens, The best of times, the worst of times in the markets, The Australian, October 04, 2008 - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24443100-30538,00.html BangladeshRickshawpullers, male garment workers and workers of real estate and railway are luckier than those engaged in other non-farm sectors -- their real earning increased while the rest's dropped in the second quarter of 2007 … But worst off are the female workers who found their pay cheques shrinking … Construction, restaurant and private healthcare workers are the top losers. A construction worker's monthly earnings dropped 4.73 percent to Tk 4,627, a restaurants worker's 4.18 percent to Tk 3,821 and a private healthcare worker's 4.11 percent to Tk 3,867 … Females' situation is even worse. Their monthly real income has dropped by 0.30 percent to 16.50 percent. Cement, wooden furniture and cotton textile workers are the top losers here. A female cement worker's monthly earning dropped 16.50 percent to Tk 4,325, a wooden furniture sector worker's 4.74 percent to Tk 2,648 and a cotton textile sector worker's 4.30 percent to Tk 3,180. Female workers' gross income also dropped … Males even made advancement in some sectors. His monthly real income has increased 1.16 percent in garment, 0.94 percent ion railway and and 0.99 percent in real estate sectors … But a female garment worker's average real income decreased 0.96 percent. Female sewers and embroiders experienced a major shock as their incomes dropped by 3.09 percent. Interestingly, female pattern makers and cutters earned 1.98 percent more … But daily real earnings of male day workers in general have slumped by 2.99 percent. Agriculture sector workers received 1.19 percent higher income but non-farm sector workers' reduced by 5.92 percent. Gross income of agriculture sector workers also increased 5.57 percent. Source: Rejaul Karim Byron, Good for some, bad for the others, worst for women, The Daily Star, October 20, 2008 - http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=59203 ... Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, where … millions of low-wage, low-skilled female garment workers, … make up 80 per cent of the country’s largest export industry and are the backbone of its wage-earning class. The mass employment of young women in this conservative Muslim country, who before the 1980s led predominantly sheltered lives, effected what many observers have characterised as a “silent revolution” for women’s rights. But their increased social agency came at a high price: low wages, dangerous conditions, long working hours and few opportunities for advancement. Now, the women whose working lives were once a blunt instrument of social change are bearing the brunt of the country’s escalating problems. Real wages have fallen dramatically over the past several months as rising food prices have squeezed the lowest-paid workers. .. Last month, the World Bank said that food prices in Bangladesh, which rose by 14.1 per cent last year according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, have pushed four million people below the poverty line. They joined the 40 per cent of the population who already live on less than US$1 (Dh3.67) per day. The Dhaka-based Centre for Policy Dialogue estimates that spending power for Bangladesh’s poorest has eroded by 36.7 per cent from Jan 2007 to March 2008. Meanwhile, prices for ready-made garments on the global market have levelled out, resulting in a profit crunch that has further increased the pressure on workers’ pay, as prices of essential commodities rise dramatically. … Discontent over static wages has led to violent protests, or hartals, this summer. Last month, dozens of protesters were injured when about 10,000 workers from eight factories in Gazipur, a town north of Dhaka, clashed with the police. The workers, according to Agence France-Presse, were demonstrating against the arrest of 23 activists, who had previously been arrested while agitating for higher wages. Source: Matt Bradley, Poverty negates a ‘silent revolution’, The National, 6 September 2008 - http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080906/FOREIGN/806922738/1103/NEWS&Profile=1103 CanadaCanada's economic evolution in recent years has demonstrated two personalities. For business it's been all sunshine and optimism. Business-friendly policies and record corporate profits (the highest ever as a share of GDP) spark celebrations in the boardrooms ...For workers, however, real median labour earnings have hardly budged in a quarter-century. Inequality is growing, and many employees (like contract and temp workers) feel desperately insecure despite low unemployment. The share of wages and salaries in GDP has been falling for a quarter-century ... Workers' more humble condition clearly reflects the erosion of trade union power in Canada. Source: Jim Stanford, State of the Union: Stanford, Financial Post, September 01, 2008 - http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=760624 Yet the wider economy is doing well. The well-publicized loss of manufacturing jobs, concentrated in Central Canada, amounts to 353,000 jobs since 2002. But in that same six-year period, Canada generated a net increase of 1.5 million new jobs, and not only in relatively low-paying tourism and food service sectors but professional, scientific and technical services as well as the health-care and social-assistance fields. Average hourly wages were $20.41 in 2007, up from $17.66 in 2002. And unemployment figures for Canada and the United States are going in opposite directions. The Canadian jobless rate for last month was 6.1 per cent, down from 7.5. Source: David Olive, Why Canada may dodge U.S. crisis, The Star, Oct 04, 2008 - http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/511760 Yet the wider economy is doing well. The well-publicized loss of manufacturing jobs, concentrated in Central Canada, amounts to 353,000 jobs since 2002. But in that same six-year period, Canada generated a net increase of 1.5 million new jobs, and not only in relatively low-paying tourism and food service sectors but professional, scientific and technical services as well as the health-care and social-assistance fields. Average hourly wages were $20.41 in 2007, up from $17.66 in 2002. And unemployment figures for Canada and the United States are going in opposite directions. The Canadian jobless rate for last month was 6.1 per cent, down from 7.5. Source: David Olive, Why Canada may dodge U.S. crisis, The Star, Oct 04, 2008 - http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/511760 ChinaA seemingly unlimited supply of cheap workers has been one of the main forces behind China’s rapid economic growth. But over the past couple of years, factory owners have complained of labour shortages and wages have risen more rapidly, leading some to conclude that China’s “surplus” labour has been used up … But as well as boosting growth, the flow of workers from farms to factories has held down manufacturing wages—not only in China, but also throughout the world. The theory behind this was first expounded by Sir Arthur Lewis, an economist from St Lucia, who won the Nobel prize for economics in 1979. He argued that a developing country with “surplus” (ie, underemployed) rural labour could expand industrial employment for many years without causing wage inflation, because employers enjoy such a large supply of labour. During the first 50 years of Britain’s industrial revolution, real wages remained more or less flat while profits soared. Likewise in China, as millions of migrants have quit the countryside for urban factories and construction sites, the real wages of low-skilled workers barely rose during the 1980s and 1990s, despite big productivity gains; only recently have they increased rapidly … This acceleration of wages has prompted some to conclude that China’s surplus labour in the countryside has been used up … But Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered, thinks that talk of China’s vanishing labour surplus is premature. In a report this year he argued that the surplus would not run out for another decade … The World Bank agrees that China’s labour surplus has not yet run out. Source: Reserve army of underemployed: Is China’s pool of surplus labour drying up?, From The Economist print edition, Sep 4th 2008 - http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12052315 If you picked up a cigarette lighter anywhere in the world, there is an 80 per cent chance that it was made in Wenzhou. And if your job was at a cigarette lighter factory in Wenzhou, there is an 80 per cent chance that you are now unemployed… the new Employment Contract Law, which went into effect this year and was designed to offer greater government protection to workers. Most analysts believe that the impact so far has been negligible, especially in the sweatshops feeding the clothing industry. However, the knock-on … has been significant: workers now fight for their rights in a way that they did not before … According to lawyers in Shanghai, labour disputes there in the past eight months are up by 115 per cent on the same period last year. Only a quarter of those cases ended in victory for plaintiffs, but smaller companies – particularly export processors – are running scared. Many, fearing litigation under the new law, have moved to grant minimum wages that previously they might have got away without paying… A more unsettling question on labour may be the future of Chinese labour productivity. Recently published research suggests that across manufacturing – private and state-owned – annual productivity grew at a huge 20.4 per cent a year between 1995 and 2003 … What is still not known is where productivity has gone since 2003. Source: Leo Lewis, Flaws appear in the Middle Kingdom’s economic miracle, The Times, September 13, 2008 - http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/china/article4744096.ece ColombiaContrary to assertions made, Colombia’s human rights record is not improving. An Amnesty International study published in July, 2007 shows the number of extrajudicial killings committed between 2002 and 2007 increased 65% in comparison to the previous five year period. Colombia continues to be the world’s leader in union assassinations. This year alone, 41 unionists have been killed, already surpassing the total for 2007 … These killings are not “alleged” but have been well documented by the international community (with 2,200 labour activists killed since 1991). Furthermore, members of the Uribe administration, including some of President Uribe’s closes advisers and family are either under investigation by the Colombian courts or are incarcerated in Colombian prisons for conspiring with paramilitary death squads responsible for these killings. Source: Alicia Ranney and Kristen Melby, Daily Planet, September 28, 2008 - http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog-entry/2008/09/26/colombia-hear-other-side-sunday.html CzechThe average Czech real monthly wage rose 1.1 percent year-on-year from April to June, decelerating from the previous quarter. - Real wages in the private sector rose by 2.3 percent year-on-year; real wages in the public sector fell 3.6 percent. - Gross average wages in the second quarter stood at 23,182 crowns ($1,389). - The average seasonally-adjusted nominal gross wage rose 1.8 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months. The real growth (in wages) is consistent with a lower increase in household consumption." Czech trade unions are preparing new protests in support of higher wages while Labour and Social Affairs Minister Petr Necas says "no strike will switch on money printing machines." Most militant are the unions representing civil servants that are attempting - at the last moment - to prevent the government next year again freezing their salaries next year. It seems that the latest version of the state budget now being completed only countenances a 1.5 percent increase in the salaries of 450,000 civil servants. Less than inflation projected at 3 percent! The only exception being teachers who went on strike twice in the past year and fought out an additional four billion crowns for 2009. Salaries in the Czech civil service dropped by 4 percent this year, mainly due to a high inflation "It is a shame of the government that the pay of public employees is decreasing at a time when the economy is growing," Milan Stech, chairman of the largest umbrella union organisation. "I called on all public administration unions yesterday to unite themselves and to use all means to fight for their demands. The situation is again ripe for strike," According to Alena Vondrova, head of the civil servants' unions, the decision on the strike will be made in a matter of days. "We have been left with no other possibility but strike." Real wages of public servants decreased for the last time in 2000 when Social Democrat Milos Zeman was prime minister. In the following years their annual incomes were rising by 3 to 9 percent even after inflation. Source: Finance.cz http://www.finance.cz/zpravy/finance/186438-instant-view-3-czech-wages-rise-real-1-1-pct-in-q2/ Prague Daily Monitor 27 August 2008, http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/409/czech_business/27254/ EstoniaAccording to the data from Statistics Estonia the average monthly gross wages rose 15.2 % (annual growth) to EEK 13,306, compared with an increase of 19.5 % in the first quarter. The average hourly gross wages and salaries were up 17.7%. In the second quarter of 2008 the consumer price index increased 11.4 % and taking into account this fact the growth of real wages was only 3.4 % - the smallest growth of real wages since the fourth quarter of 2004.Sources: Kaja Koovit, Estonian wage growth slows to weakest in 2 years in Q2, bbn 28.08.2008 - http://balticbusinessnews.com/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=d09d112d-4de0-4053-9c86-cb1fdc9eb65f&ref Estonia Q2 Gross Wages and Salaries Climb, RTT news 8/28/2008 - http://www.rttnews.com/Content/AllEconomicNews.aspx?Id=696255 GermanyIG Metall, the engineering workers’ union, is calling for a 7 to 8 per cent increase, its biggest demand for 16 years, defying a warning from the European Central Bank that wage rises could add to inflationary pressure … Employers struggling with high raw material costs and the strong euro reacted with dismay …Gesamtmetall, the employers’ association for the metal and electrical industry, warned that such a big pay jump was misguided given the economic outlook …It “is unreasonable and puts the acceptance of our system of wage agreement in danger,” Martin Kannegiesser, president, said. The IG Metall wage negotiation round has traditionally been a bellwether for European wage setting and workers are in no mood to share employers’ pain this year … German unions have this year shaken off years of wage restraint to force above-inflation increases. They have been aided by a favourable political climate, which has seen the SPD track left to fend off the Left party, a newly formed alliance of former East German communists and western trade unionists … In February, steelworkers won a 5.2 per cent pay increase, while the previous month train drivers secured an 11 per cent rise. Source: Irish Business News and International Stories - - September 09, 2008, Finfacts Ireland, Sep 9, 2008 - http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1014662.shtml At the end of May this year, employment minister Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party, SPD) presented the federal government’s report on poverty and wealth, based on data up to 2006. The report clearly documents the growth of poverty. At that time, Scholz stated that the economic upturn that had begun in 2006 was already benefiting all sections of the population. However, a new study by the Hans-Böckler Foundation, which relies on data up to the end of March 2008, shows the opposite is the case. The study proves that the fruits of the upturn have exclusively benefited the coffers of the wealthy—while real wages have been sinking. … they explain that the “forgoing of appropriate wage increases that take into account the level of inflation and increases in productivity” for the sake of supposedly creating new jobs has “not been worthwhile.” Above all, it has been the trade unions that constantly spread the fairy tale that employment could be protected or created by accepting modest wage agreements or wage cuts … The authors criticize the enforced labour flexibility and the “very low union wage rates, the increase in the working week, the expansion of annualised hours contracts and the increase in opt-out clauses” that benefit the employers. To this must be added: all these agreements bear the signature of the trade unions, whether in the public service, Deutsche Telekom, post office, railways or in private industry … The share of badly paid temporary contract workers as a proportion of all employees quadrupled between 1994 and 2006 … The proportion of those with limited employment contracts has likewise risen since 2002, from 12 percent to 14.6 percent … The proportion of part-time workers has also constantly increased, from 13.4 percent in 1999 to 17.7 percent in 2007 Source: Dietmar Henning, Germany: New study shows “upturn” only benefits the wealthy, World Socialist Web Site, 16 September 2008 - http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/germ-s16.shtml GreeceGini coefficient* According to the most recent figures published by the UN, Ireland scores 34.3 - together with Greece and Indonesia. Source: PAULA CLANCY, Shocking price of inequality not one we can afford to pay, Irish Times, October 7, 2008 HungaryGross monthly wages rose 9.7% yr/yr in June, against the market's expectation for an 8.0% increase. This has pulled net wage growth a bit higher and thus the 12-m growth of real wages, as well. Source: Portfolio.hu, Budget, MPC minutes in focus this week in Hungary, CPI, rate decisions elsewhere , 15, September 2008 - http://www.portfolio.hu/en/cikkek.tdp?cCheck=1&k=2&i=15746 Hungary's economy will grow faster in the second half of 2008, leaving behind the earlier slump, a joint report by research institute GKI and Erste Bank said on Monday. Internal and external economic balances will improve and the economy could grow by around 3 percent in the whole of 2008, with inflation falling back to 5.5 percent, the report said. Unemployment has risen, on the back of staff cuts in the public sector and stagnating employment in the private sector. Real wages were up 0.5 percent in the first half of the year, including a 1.5 percent rise in the private sector. GKI expects wages to rise by 2 percent in real terms in the private sector and stagnate in the public sector for the whole of 2008. Source: GKI, Erste see stronger growth but looming risks in second half of '08, Realdeal.hu, 1 September 2008, - http://www.realdeal.hu/20080901/gki-erste-see-stronger-growth-but-looming-risks-in-second-half-of-08 Hungarian consumers have reduced their spending over the past two years due to uncertainty associated with austerity measures implemented by the government. Now, however, the indicators are turning positive. Real earnings are growing and local think tank GKI estimates they will increase by 1% this year. “These positive developments, together with more optimistic growth prospects this year, should translate into modest growth in consumption by Hungarian consumers this year. Retail trade volume will increase by 1% this year after a decline of 3.1% in 2007," Colliers projects. Source: Portfolio.Hu, Hungarian real estate mkt needs supply side watch to avoid damage – Colliers, September 10, 2008 - http://www.portfolio.hu/en/cikkek.tdp?cCheck=1&k=4&i=15723 IndiaIndia’s Gini Coefficient ranges from 0.35 to 0.39. Source: Mansoor Ahmad, Foreign debt soars after rupee’s plunge, The News, October 07, 2008 - http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=139608 Since the economic development in the country has failed to provide enough jobs, the labour market is characterised by an alarming number of young people looking for work. This creates the perfect scenario for corporates to run amok, with absolute freedom of hiring workers at unthinkably low wages and carrying out their exploitation with impunity. … More than 77 per cent of the population lives on a Rs 20 per day consumption level, while the poorest of the poor lives an even more miserable life …Even registration of trade unions has become difficult in this age of economic reforms. The registering authority, the state labour departments in different parts of the country, in collusion with the management, inform them of the moves of the workers to form unions and the workers leading the initiative; those who have filed the application for registration are summarily dismissed without even a show-cause notice. In special economic zones such as the IT sector, trade unionism is virtually banned. The stark reality, despite P Chidambaram’s optimism, is that the economic growth is unstable: it has dipped to 7.9 per cent against 9.2 per cent a year ago. The GDP has been on a decline. In fact, the Prime Minister’s economic advisory committee has predicted a still lower GDP growth, pegging it at 7.7 per cent. ... anufacturing growth has almost halved to 5.6 per cent against 10.9 per cent. Agriculture growth has slipped too, at three per cent from last year’s 4.4 per cent. The other sectors to witness a serious decline in growth rate are electricity, gas and water supply. The service sector, trade and commerce, hotel and transport too have suffered a setback. Finance, insurance, real estate and advertising business have expanded at a lower rate than last year. Even the Confederation of Indian Industry has admitted that the industrial growth during 2007-08 has slipped by 2.5 per cent over the 11 per cent achieved last year ... Despite this enveloping crisis, however, sales and net profit of a sample of companies have increased by 24 per cent and 11.7 per cent during March 2008 over the same period of the previous year as calculated by the CII. Over the past decade of economic reform and the implementation of new economic policy, hundreds of super rich Indians have accumulated a total wealth of Rs 12,32,135 crore, while 840 million have been denied the gains of development…The rapidly widening economic disparity and the awful inequality accentuate the economic imbalance and generate social antagonism, engendering deep anger and frustration in society. Source: Gurudas Das Gupta, Target trade unions~II: Working Class Agitation Acts As A Corrective Measure, The Statesman, 6 September 2008 - http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=221034 IndonesiaIndonesia’s has a Gini index* of 41.1– Source : Amelia H.C. Ylagan, The Gini in the crisis, Business World On Line, October 20, 2008 - http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102008/content.php?id=141 IranSaeed Leylaz, the editor of Sarmayeh, a financial daily, notes an opposite tendency at least in the economy - a widening of the income gap over the last three years. Ahmadinejad's highly publicised tours to small towns and villages, and the largesse he gives for local projects, have not increased equality. Galloping inflation, which has just reached 30% annually, hits the poorest hardest. "In the last year of Khatami [the previous president] the Gini coefficient for income inequality was 0.39. Now it's 0.43, not far below the 0.45 of the Shah's worst period," Leylaz says. Source: Jonathan Steele, The prophets of Iranian regime split won't find it in the fury of the bazaar, The Guardian, November 3 2008 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/03/iran-regime-change-tehran-bazaaris IrelandGini coefficient* According to the most recent figures published by the UN, Ireland scores 34.3 - together with Greece and Indonesia. Source: PAULA CLANCY, Shocking price of inequality not one we can afford to pay, Irish Times, October 7, 2008 Italy ROME (Dow Jones)--Italian hourly wages rose 4.3% on the year in July, the fastest rate since October 1997, fueled by higher wages for workers in the insurance sector and government ministries, Italian statistics office Istat said Monday … The rise in hourly wages was higher than the consumer price inflation rate in July, which spiked to a high of 4.1% before easing in August to 4.0% … CERM, an Italian independent research orgnization said the underlying trend shows that wages are growing but the number of jobs and the quality of those jobs are both deteriorating … Italian seasonally adjusted unemployment rose to 6.5% in the first quarter, from 6.2% rise in the fourth quarter of 2007, a sign that the economic slowdown is hurting the labor market … Italy's economy fell 0.3% in the second quarter of 2008, returning the country to the brink of recession this year. Source: UPDATE: Italy Hourly Wages In July Hits Near 11-Yr High, Dow Jones Newswires, September 01, 2008 - http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?StoryId=d9a3d525-786b-40a0-8042-4475a1dcaccd Japan…price-adjusted real wages fell 2.1 percent from a year ago, marking the sixth straight month of year-on-year decline and indicating companies' cautious stance on worker compensation in light of the bleak economic outlook. Source: Reuters, Japan Sept wages revised up to +0.2 pct year/year, Nov 16, 2008 - http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUST26771820081117 Japanese wage
earners' total cash earnings slipped 0.3 per cent in August from a year
earlier, marking the first drop so far this year as jobs conditions
worsened and the economy heads towards a recession … An index measuring
real wages, which takes into account the impact of price moves, fell
2.8 per cent in August from a year earlier, following a fall of 2.5 per
cent the previous month … That marked the fifth straight month of
declines, suggesting that rising consumer prices were sapping
households' purchasing power. Source: Reuters, Japan wages slip in
August, overtime pay drops, Business Spectator, 1 Oct 2008 -
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Japan-wages-slip-in-August-overtime-pay-drops-JZ6GS?OpenDocument Pakistan They say Pakistan had a better Gini Coefficient* than India till the 1990s. Now Pakistan is classified among countries with Gini Coefficient ranging from 0.30 to 0.34 depicting huge inequality in society. Source: Mansoor Ahmad, Foreign debt soars after rupee’s plunge, The News, October 07, 2008 - http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=139608 PhilippinesThe Philippines has a Gini index* of 52.3 – Source : Amelia H.C. Ylagan, The Gini in the crisis, Business World On Line, October 20, 2008 - http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102008/content.php?id=141 Forbes magazine, in its October 2008 tally of the Philippines’ richest, saw close to $14.3 billion in the hands of 40 of the country’s 90 million people. At the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $3,300 in 2007, the least wealthy in the Forbes list has $30 million, almost 10,000 times the average wherewithal of the Filipino. The $3.1-billion net worth of the country’s richest man, Henry Sy, is about 1% of GDP, his wealth almost doubling from last year from his group’s Banco de Oro and SM malls … In the BusinessWorld last week, an International Labor Organization (ILO) report juxtaposed to the Forbes richest list the indictment that the Philippines had one of the worst income inequality ratios in Asia. As of October 2008, only Cambodia and the Philippines posted increases in their Gini coefficient, meaning that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in these countries in the last year … The Philippines has the pyrrhic comfort of thriving on the remittances of 11 million overseas Filipino workers, who sent home some $15 billion in 2007. This shames net foreign direct investments (FDIs) of $2.93 billion received as at end 2007, which should have spurred economic activity more and created real jobs for the poor. Source: Amelia H.C. Ylagan, The Gini in the crisis, Business World On Line, October 20, 2008 - http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102008/content.php?id=141 Filipinos are more likely to take on multiple jobs these days to offset low income and high prices, a church-based labour group said on Saturday … The Quezon City-based Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research drew this conclusion from recent data from the labour department's Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, which said that about 81 percent of multiple job holders in 2007 were permanently employed while 47 percent were self-employed in their primary occupation … The labour institute said there were 3.1 million multiple job holders in 2007 across all industries. About 2.5 million of these were permanently employed. Sixteen percent or 480,000 were in short-term, seasonal or casual employment … They don't rest. They work continuously just to meet expenses for food and other basic needs of the family,” Anna Leah Escresa, program officer of the ecumenical labour research institute, said in a paper sent to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines … “These multiple jobs are taking their toll on the health of the workers,” she said, referring to the labour department data which showed that multiple job-holders among skilled and unskilled workers total some 902,000, of which about 41.9 percent are women, the biggest proportion of women with multiple jobs compared to other sectors … the National Wages and Productivity Commission showed that in Metro Manila alone, the real value of the minimum wage was at P240.86 as of July 2008, while P911 per day was needed for a family of six in August 2008. Source: Jerome Aning, More Filipinos expected to take on multiple jobs, Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, 20 September 2008 - http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080920-161887/More-Filipinos-expected-to-take-on-multiple-jobs SingaporeLATEST government wage figures confirm a trend that was evident a few months ago - high inflation eating into wage gains. The Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) report on employment in the second quarter showed that workers across the board were worse off compared to a year ago, with real earnings - pay minus the effect of inflation - actually falling. Wages grew 3.1 per cent in nominal terms between April and June. But the impact of soaring food and fuel prices - with inflation hitting a 26-year-high of 7.5 per cent in June - eroded such gains. Workers, in effect, ended up seeing their real wages shrink by 4 per cent on average, compared to the same period last year. Source: Sue-Ann Chia, Wages eroded by inflation: MOM, The Straits Times, Sep 16, 2008 - http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_279061.html SlovakiaThe Slovak economy grew by 7.6% y/y in the second quarter according to the Slovak Statistical Office which confirmed its flash estimate made in mid-August this year. This means that in the second quarter Slovakia grew by 1.7 % slower compared to the same period last year and by 1.1 % slower than in the previous quarter. The statistics also confirmed the flash estimate regarding growth at current prices which was 11.7% y/y and GDP of 507 bil. Sk (16.829 bil. €) … In the first half of 2008 the average nominal monthly wage in the Slovak economy was 20 950 Sk (695.4 €), which is a y/y increase of 9.7%. Real wages increased by 5.3%. In the second quarter the average nominal monthly wage was 21 459 Sk (712.3 €), an increase of 9.5% compared to the second quarter of 2007. Real wages increased by 4.8% according to the Slovak Statistical Office … The number of unemployed fell in the first half by 7.2% y/y to 275,700 people. The Slovak Statistical Office also stated that the unemployment rate fell by 1 % to 10.3% y/y. Source: Etrend, Slovakia News Summary (September 2 - September 5): Weekly update on Slovak economy and business, 10.9.2008 - http://english.etrend.sk/news-summaries/slovakia-news-summary-september-2-september-5/143476.html South KoreaThe country's net tax burden rose from 17.5 percent in 1998 to 22.7 percent as of 2007, but the income gap between haves and have-nots has widened, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, was quoted by Yonhap news agency, as saying in the report to the National Assembly … Although more taxes were collected during the period, the Gini coefficient, which measures the inequality of income distribution, actually worsened from 0.344 in 2004 to 0.352 last year. Source: MySinchew 2008.10.06 - http://www.mysinchew.com/node/16999ThailandThailand has a Gini index* of 48.4 – Source : Amelia H.C. Ylagan, The Gini in the crisis, Business World On Line, October 20, 2008 - http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102008/content.php?id=141 TurkeyHourly wages and individual employee earnings in the Turkish manufacturing sector increased in the second quarter of 2008, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced yesterday … According to TurkStat data, the hourly wage in manufacturing increased by 10.3 percent and earnings per worker in the manufacturing sector increased by 10.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008 over the same quarter of 2007. Worker earnings in other sectors increased by 11.7 percent in the same period … In the public sector, the hourly wage in manufacturing increased by 12.9 percent and earnings per worker in manufacturing increased by 7.8 percent. The earnings of an ordinary worker in the public sector in industries other than manufacturing increased by 7.4 percent. In the private sector, the hourly wage in manufacturing increased by 9.6 percent, earnings per worker in manufacturing increased by 10.0 percent and earnings per worker in non-manufacturing industries increased by 12.1 percent. Source: Today’s Zamen, Wages in manufacturing increase in second quarter, 27 September 2008 - http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=154461&bolum=105UgandaThe Gini co-efficient, an index of inequality, also remains very high at 0.43 (UBOS 2006).*In technical terms, while the economy has theoretically grown at 8.9% with poverty reduced from 56% in 1992 to 31% in 2005 (UBOS 2006), chronic poverty remains staggering at 9,000,000 (Chronic Poverty Report, 2006) out of a total 30 million people … The implication is that economic growth has not been translated into household welfare … Source: Augustus Nuwagaba, Why economic growth is not felt in people’s pockets, The New Vision, 15th September, 2008 - http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/649718 United KingdomAcademic studies and official statistics confirm that income inequality has grown in Britain under Labour, despite the billions poured into alleviating poverty. Access to the good things of life - university education, a decent home - are still unfairly distributed ... Source: Michael White, Complications of Inequality, The Guardian, Thursday September 11 2008 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/11/harrietharman.equality In addition to the widening gap between corporate profits and salaries, research published this showed low and high wages were also growing apart. Real wages among the quarter of workers with the lowest pay had dropped by 14 % since 1995, the report said, while top earners saw their income rise by 3.5 %. The result of such a wide spread in pay awards was an overall median settlement of just 3.5%. Retail price inflation is currently running at 5%. Source: Bertrand Benoit, Growing pay inequality spurs lively debate, Financial Times August 28 2008 - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/70c949ea-7498-11dd-bc91-0000779fd18c.html More than 80% of British workers lack any real commitment to their jobs, and a quarter of those are "actively disengaged"…costing the British economy between £37.2 billion and £38.9 billion per year. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development noted that if Britain at work was a marriage, it was 'a marriage under stress, characterised by poor communications and low levels of trust'. Only 38% of employees feel senior managers and directors treat them with respect, and 66% don't trust them. Source: http://www.newunionism.net/library/workplace democracy/Hall-Jones - The Master-Servant Relationship - 2008 TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said pay inequality is worse than it was in Victorian times. Speaking ahead of the TUC's annual conference yesterday, he said extreme wealth was “socially divisive and morally objectionable” … The TUC published a study of Britain’s wealthiest people in every decade since 1850. It shows even fabulously wealthy Victorians lagged behind today’s oligarchs. At £27.7bn, the fortune of steal magnate Lakshmi Mittal is said to be twice that of the equivalent sums enjoyed by the Victorian era’s richest people. The estate left by the Duke of Westminster at his death in 1899 totaled £14m or £10.6bn in today’s money. Barber said: "The evidence assembled here is conclusive proof that the growth of the super-rich is not just socially divisive and morally objectionable, but deeply damaging for the rest of the economy. The super-rich have not created much in the way of extra wealth - they have mostly taken it from the rest of us. It's Robin Hood in reverse. Those suffering from the impact of the credit crunch should know that it was caused by the super-rich taking risks with other people's money, pocketing the profits and passing on the inevitable losses." Source: Launchlab.co.uk, TUC calls for rich tax, - http://launchlab.co.uk/article/Start-up-News/TUC-calls-for-rich-tax/368 Most Britons … will be familiar with the extent to which the super-rich are soaring away from the rest of us. Over the past five years alone, the average earnings of chief executives of FTSE-100 companies have doubled to £3.2m. Their pay has been rising five times faster than their employees'. The top 1 per cent of the population now enjoy 23 per cent of national wealth, while the poorest half share a mere 6 per cent. For most of the 20th century, Britain became steadily more equal. For the past three decades the movement has been in the opposite direction … the largest group among today's super-rich are not wealth creators at all. They make their fortunes from land, property and finance and, in essence, are parasites living off an economy that is being slowly destroyed … In effect, Britain has turned into an enormous hedge fund on which ministers have bet the house. Source: Peter Wilby, New Statesman, The myth of the super-rich, 11 September 2008 - http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/09/super-rich-wealth-britain United States of AmericaUS has a deteriorating Gini index*, which moved from39.7 in the year first reported, 1967, to the critical 2006 index of 47 – Source : Amelia H.C. Ylagan, The Gini in the crisis, Business World On Line, October 20, 2008 - http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102008/content.php?id=141 October 2008 Currently more than half of insured Americans obtain their coverage through employment, and workers have been led to believe that their employer bears most of the cost of their care — a belief that labor-market experts have concluded is invalid. When a firm pays $3,000 to $7,000 per worker per year for health care, it can get that money in only three ways: reducing potential wage increases, increasing prices for what the firm sells (which means lower real wages for workers everywhere), or lowering profits … During the past three decades, health insurance premiums have increased about 300% (after adjustment for general inflation). Where did the money come from for higher premiums? Out of wage increases that would normally accompany growth in productivity. During these three decades, the average worker has not received any increase in inflation-adjusted wages. Corporate profits, by contrast, have increased by 232% before taxes (284% after taxes), adjusted for inflation. The belief that employer contributions to health insurance come out of corporate profits rather than workers' real wages reflects the triumph of hope over experience — and represents a tremendous obstacle to gaining public support for a more efficient, more equitable way to pay for health insurance. Source: Victor R. Fuchs, Ph.D., Three "Inconvenient Truths" about Health Care, The New England Journal of Medicine, 23 October 2008, - http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/17/1749 Looking at the United States, the situation even for those with small property is not good. For families below the top 20 percent in income in the United States, household income has stagnated (with real wages still at 1970s levels), net savings are non-existent, and debt service payments now average close to 20 percent of annual income. Mortgage foreclosures and bankruptcies are rising rapidly. Pension funds are being robbed at every turn. Health benefits are non-existent or eroding. Unions, with a few exceptions, are fading away. Public schools are in decay and under assault. The country is in an interminable war that serves only the current power structure. Source: John Mage , Where We Stand: The vacancy rate for U.S. rental apartment buildings rose to 6.1 percent in the third quarter as falling wages and a lack of jobs kept potential renters off the market, Reis Inc. reported … The average monthly asking rent rose 0.6 percent from the second quarter to $1,053, the 26th consecutive quarter that rents increased or stayed the same, according to Reis, a New York-based research firm … Sam Chandan, chief economist at Reis in New York, said in an interview. ``People are nervous about jobs and wage growth is stagnating.'' … Vacancies are rising in part because of a lack of jobs for recent college graduates, Chandan said. The U.S. shed 159,000 jobs in September, the most in five years, according to Labor Department data. Source: Peter S. Green, U.S. Apartment Vacancies Rise on Concern Over Wages, Bloomberg, 6 Oct.2008 - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a_vC_X33G1U0&refer=us Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families … Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s … Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. Source: David Usborne, USA 2008: The Great Depression, The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html September 2008... you might argue that the US’s realisation that class actually exists, and may have real political consequences, is long overdue. After all, the big economic story in the US in the past three decades is the remarkable growth in income inequality. For most of the past century, income inequality decreased, even as the overall economy grew – thus, while in 1916, the top 0.01 per cent of Americans took home about 4.5 per cent of the national total wage income, by 1971, the plutocrats’ share of the pie had shrunk to 0.5 per cent. But in the 1970s, that trend went into reverse. By 1998, the top 0.01 per cent was collecting 3 per cent of the national total, and that tiny elite’s share has grown further in the subsequent decade. Source: Chrystia Freeland, Bosses’ greed releases class war, Financial Times, September 24 2008 - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6d420c72-8a77-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c,dwp_uuid=11f94e6e-7e94-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html Acuff is correct; there is a large and widening income gap between rich and middle class Americans. CNBC recently reported the richest 1 percent of Americans has more wealth than the lower 90 percent combined. Last year, the Wall Street Journal … published a table ranking the world’s major nations for income inequality. Only Brazil had a greater inequality than America … Economic inequality has grown worse under the Republicans. They claim the average income has risen. True, but the average is skewed by huge gains at the top while middle class incomes have actually fallen. The inflation-adjusted median income (half earn less than the median) fell by 2 percent between 2000 and 2005 (WSJ, October 2007). We lost 500,000 jobs since January and the number living in poverty increased 1.2 million from a year ago (WSJ Aug. 27). The median income fell another 2 percent between July 2007 and July 2008. (Barron’s, September). Source: Bob Gholson, Economic inequality, Stillwater News Press, September 20, 2008 - http://www.stillwater-newspress.com/letters/local_story_264234544.html While hourly wages have grown 3.6 percent compared with last year, they're being outpaced by inflation. The most recent figures, for July, show prices up 5.6 percent over 2007 … Food and beverage costs are up 5.8 percent from July 2007 to July 2008 — and jumped 8 percent in the past three months … Many companies have cut employee health coverage or shifted more costs to workers. Currently, average annual worker contributions for single and family coverage are $694 and $3,281, respectively, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But 59 percent of U.S. businesses plan to increase employee deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket spending limits next year, according to Mercer, a consulting firm …The number of people out of work for six months or more jumped by 160,000 from July to August, and the number of workers who want full-time employment but can't find it has hit 10.7 percent … 605,000 jobs have been lost since January … The private sector dropped more than 100,000 jobs in August, with losses in most areas, including the service sector, which represents the lion's share of payrolls. Health care, education and government were among the few sectors posting payroll gains, partially offsetting job losses … The manufacturing sector shed 61,000 positions, the most in five years. The sector has lost 20 percent of its jobs — one job of every five — during the past seven years … Original estimates for June and July were revised, with the Labor Department saying an additional 58,000 jobs had disappeared in those months. Nearly all represented cuts by state and local governments … As the number of available jobs declined, an additional 250,000 people entered the labor pool … Even college graduates are feeling the pinch. Their 2.7 percent unemployment rate is the highest since 2004, while the 9.6 percent unemployment rate for workers without a high-school diploma is the highest since 1996. Source: Seattle Times, September 6, 2008 - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2008162071&zsection_id=2003907475&slug=workers060&date=20080906 A million more direct-care workers will likely be needed by 2016 to meet the demand for services from Americans over age 65. Yet the vast majority of frontline workers earn wages below $9.85 per hour and nearly one in three lack health insurance coverage. Those statistics were unveiled in a recent report by the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, known as PHI, a national nonprofit organization that tries to improve the lives of those who need home or residential care. Personal care and home care aides are the people who dress, feed, toilet and perform other tasks for elderly and disabled people. Yet many earn poverty level wages, and those wages, adjusted for inflation, have actually declined since 1999 … Source: Report: Anita Weier , One million more care workers needed by 2016, The Capital Times, 4 September 2008 - http://www.madison.com/tct/news/303472 In 2004, the most recent data available, "average wealth held by the top 1 percent was close to $15 million, while it was $81,000 for households in the middle fifth of the wealth distribution ...Approximately 30 percent of U.S. households have a net worth of less than $10,000, and approximately one in six households have zero or negative net wealth." Source: DIANE STAFFORD, When times are tough, job-keeping is rough, September 2 2008 - http://www.bnd.com/business/story/457456.html This disconnect between the national interest and corporate responsibility and interests has helped shatter the "contract with the middle class." And in the most painful measure of just how broken this contract is, based on data from 2005-2006, the top 1% of Americans -- 300,000 -- earn as much as the bottom 150 million combined. Income inequality is the greatest it has been since 1928, and for every three-year period since 1981, the top 1% of taxpayers have gained, on average, $100 billion in total earnings, while the bottom 80% have lost $100 billion. - Source: Leo Hindery Jr., renewing America's 'contract with the middle class', Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2008 - http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-hindery1-2008sep01,0,4727848.story Inflation has gutted wages over the past year, turning a 2.8% increase in weekly earnings from June 2007 to June 2008 into a 2.4% decline in real wages. Salary-budget increases that averaged 3% for 2008 have evaporated, leaving employees with substantially less purchasing power than a year ago. Rapidly declining 401(k) account balances reflect a huge wave of wealth destruction. Source: Fay Hansen, Employees increasingly squeezed—and stuck, Financial Week, 1 September 2008 - http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080901/REG/309019990 August 2008Real median household income rose 1.3% to $50,223 last year. Income inequality was slightly lower, but that probably reflects lower incomes among high-earners. In fact, income inequality is still higher than at any point in the 1990s and far higher than in previous decades. The poverty rate did not improve last year, and the child poverty rate increased. Source: Poverty and inequality - Crunching the numbers, Economist.com Aug 28th 2008 - http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12011724 March 2008- Tom Herman at The Wall Street Journal reports the latest on the Fortunate 400. New IRS data indicates that the 400 highest income earners together earned $85.6 billion in 2005, an average income of $213.9 million each. These 400 households took home 1.15 percent of all income earned in the U.S. The average federal income tax rate for the group was 18.23 percent, low because 86 of the income was capital gains and taxed at a 15 percent rate. Source: Inequality.org http://www.demos.org/inequality/article.cfm?blogid=9E1C56B9-3FF4-6C82-59C1C935955F4AF5 Between 2000 and 2006Despite an economy that expanded by 18% since 2000, real income for the median family fell by 1.1% from 2000 to 2006. People at the top of the income distribution, the top 1%, tripled their income between 1989 and 2006, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It took four years to regain the jobs lost in the 2001 recession, while the unemployment rate actually increased from 4% in 2000 to 4.6% in 2006 (it is now 5.5% and rising fast). Productivity in the economy grew more quickly, as firms shed jobs despite the economic boom. As a result, the EPI calculates that 90% of the growth in the economy between 1989 and 2006 went to the top 10%. 40% of Americans staying in the same income quintile they started in, with only one in five moving more than one income group up or down the scale. Source: Steve Schifferes, US household incomes fail to grow, BBC News 28 August 2008 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7584472.stm Between 1979 and 2005Between 1979 and 2005, after tax household income grew 80% for the top fifth but only 6% for the bottom fifth of American workers. While corporate profits increased 13% per year, (between 2000 -2006) average wages remained flat. Source: The Big Squeeze - Income Inequality in America, Tuesday August 26, 2008, http://useconomy.about.com/b/2008/08/26/the-big-squeeze-income-inequality-in-america.htm *The Gini co-efficient is a statistical measure of inequality. A score of 0 would mean everyone totally equal. A score of 1 would mean all the wealth of a society going to a single individual. For very readable account see: "Economics for Everyone - The Paradoz of Povery"at http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=79666&lmn=1 ________________________________ By class I understand a historical phenomenon, unifying a number of disparate and seemingly unconnected events, both in the raw material of experience and in consciousness. I emphasise that it is a historical phenomenon. I do not see class as a “structure”, nor even as a “category”, but as something which in fact happens (and can be shown to have happened) in human relationships. More than this, the notion of class entails the notion of historical relationship … E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class Workers would, therefore, do well to hearken to the masters’ battle cry, a cry for their sweat and blood, and recognise that the real industrial struggles of the class war have yet to be fought. The vacillating and compromising policy of Trade Unionism will no longer suffice. A virile organisation knowing no law but that of expediency, ready at all times and by the adoption of any means, to advance the interests of the working class, is an absolute necessity, if we are not to sink into a slavery more damnable than any that history knows of. - Tom Glynn, Industrial Efficiency and its Antidote For every boss that has a dollar s/he didn’t earn there is a worker who earned a dollar s/he didn’t get – Anon |
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Industrial Workers of the WorldOne Big Union for All |
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I'd argue that if and when
I'd argue that if and when workers become class conscious enough to line up with the IWW, one of the fundamental principles of such a union would be to refuse to sign contracts with "no strike" clauses.
In injury to one is an injury to all!
well ...