Word: labors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...action or just agitation? He is running hard, but to where? Sarkozy utters all the right words, such as "globalization" and "liberalization." But when it comes to tackling France's sclerotic labor market, he talks of "assouplissement" - softening. He wants to tinker with the 35-hour workweek, not scratch it. To encourage workers, he wants to cut taxes on overtime. How to push growth? Let's have a commission first...
...have a proven record of stopping reforms in their tracks - just ask Jacques Chirac, who in 1995 saw his modest plans for reforming the welfare state rejected by hundreds of thousands of angry protesters; or Dominique de Villepin, whose even more modest efforts to tweak the French youth labor market some 10 years later were similarly rejected. Even when the French do not bring down governments with their feet, they bring them down with their ballots - in every parliamentary election since 1978 and before 2007, the French voted out whichever party they had voted in the previous time...
...wage system and guaranteeing lifetime employment. But the country's economic slump in the '90s destroyed this close-knit corporate culture, undermining the traditional work ethic. Despite signs of Japan's improving economy during the past several years, workers have become suspicious of employers' proposals for bringing back conventional labor policies. Younger salarymen came to value career moves over lifetime employment because they lost trust in their employer, who may very well let them go at any time, regardless of their contribution to the firm. It will be difficult for Japanese companies to revive traditional business customs and boost worker...
...With cheaper production, location and labor costs, films can be made for less in Asia. But in strategic terms, the Weinsteins may also be looking to stake a claim on the market of Asia's movie viewers, which has become the world's fastest growing. Ten years ago, the North American takings of U.S. film companies outpaced international earnings. "That's now absolutely shifted," says TWC co-president Michael Cole, who will shuttle between Hollywood and the fund office in Hong Kong. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that Asia's film industry will increase by 6% annually, reaching $104 billion...
...matter of minutes, but the significance of the occasion vastly exceeded its brevity. On Aug. 28, 20 protesters gathered at a market in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon, to demonstrate against the ruling junta's decision to raise prices of essential goods--in some cases 500%. Led by labor activist Su Su Nway, the group had just begun to chant slogans when thugs employed by the military regime swooped in and started dragging the demonstrators into waiting vehicles. The frail Su Su Nway, who emerged from prison only last year, after serving seven months for reporting cases of forced labor...