Word: labor
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...heart, about competitiveness. As the U.S.'s largest construction project limps along, China has built the equivalent of several World Trade Center sites in its furious run-up to the Olympics. While conscript labor and forced relocations aren't the American way, the U.S. can't be pleased about being lapped by a developing nation. The global economy rewards countries with the concentration and focus to build quickly and solidly. Bits and bytes are important, but so are steel and mortar. It's not too late for ground zero to be a showcase for American engineering, efficiency and ingenuity. Anything...
...Fruits of Labor No sector illustrates the squandered opportunities of Med trade better than agriculture. Though plagued by poor management in North Africa and market-distorting subsidies in Europe, farming is ripe with possibilities. If they are not taken advantage of, however, the consequences are plain: farmworkers in North Africa will head for Europe. Last year, as many as 1 million are believed to have left the poorer shores of the Mediterranean. (The figure includes not just those from the Maghreb, but also migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia, drawn to people-trafficking routes that transit...
...able to ensure that a company can't reject defined benefits in one country that it's already agreed to in the other. Other issues more suited to a global union include international trade, workers' rights in the developing world and transnational shifts in employment. The merger also gives labor more muscle for dealing with bodies like the World Trade Organization, the European Commission and the increasing number of global forums on issues like climate change, he adds. "It allows them to create a position as an international player who gets noticed...
...Unite are marching to echoes of drumbeats past. Trade unionism has from its earliest days considered itself a global movement, albeit one organized at national levels. Certainly, a number of unions - including the Steelworkers - have formed alliances with foreign counterparts. And there are already several world-spanning labor bodies, including the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Metalworkers' Federation. For that reason, Richard Hyman, a professor of industrial relations at the London School of Economics, is skeptical the merger will work or is necessary. While unions need to better coordinate efforts on a global scale, he says, they would...
True, conscript labor and forced relocations are not the American way. But we shouldn't be happy to be lapped by a command economy. Thomas Friedman argued this week in the New York Times that this presidential campaign's signal issue is going to be the economy and our competitiveness. He's right, but he could have added that the World Trade Center is an ongoing - and far too neglected - referendum on those very issues...