Obama Announces a Jobs Summit for December

President Obama announced on Nov. 12 that he will convene a jobs summit at the White House next month, saying “the economic growth that we’ve seen has not yet led to the job growth that we desperately need.” The President made his remarks shortly before leaving. fora weeklong trip to Asia. “Hiring often  takes time to catch up to economic growth,” Obama explained.

With health care and Afghanistan dominating the debate in Washington, many Democrats have grown  concerned that the administration  has not focused extensively enough on the economy and the unemployment rate that has risen to 10.2. The jobs  forum in December will include business leaders, small business owners, trade union leaders and others.

U.S. labor leaders are certain to press Obama  for  more vigorous support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will announce the labor federation’s job-creating strategy at a panel discussion conducted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on Tuesday, Nov. 17 from 9-11:30 am (www.aflcio.org/createjobs). The strategy is the outcome of a meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council two weeks ago.

Tetley Tea Starves Indian Workers by a Lockout since August

Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose Tetley Group makes the world’s famous Tetley teas, has taken 6,500 people hostage through hunger. The hostages are nearly 1,000  tea plantation workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. Permanently living on the edge of starvation, because of a lockout since August, they’ve had only two days of wages for the past more than three months.

The hostage-taking began with the first lockout on Aug. 10, when workers protested the abusive treatment of a 22-year-old tea garden worker. who was denied maternity leave and forced to continue work as a tea plucker, despite being eight months pregnant. As news of her treatment spread, some 500, mostly female estate workers protested her treatment at a medical facility. The company's response was a lockout, a tactic  they used every time workers protested a new form of abusive treatment. The workers were supposed to receive their annual festival bonus, amounting to roughly two months of wages, but no bonus payments were made.

Tetley Tea is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), whose standard commits member companies to, among other requirements, ensure that there is no “harsh or inhumane treatment” of plantation workers and that “workers should be paid at least monthly and should receive their pay on time.” The actual conditions on the Nowera Nuddy Estate, where workers are being subjected to brutal collective punishment, could not be more remote from the  employers’ public commitments.

Sri Lanka Troops to Run Public Services in Case of Strikes

Sri Lanka’s armed forces are preparing to run the essential services—water, electricity, sanitation, fuel and ports, as trade unions claimed success in a dispute over wage demands. The military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nannayakkara told reporters that the government would not allow the public to suffer and would ensure an uninterrupted flow of services. The military has been mobilized to run public utilities during past emergencies.

The union wage demands vary from a 6,000-rupee allowance to a 50 percent wage increase.  A last minute government offer on Nov. 10 to increase salaries by 22 percent was rejected at the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corp. Close to 5,000 workers gathered inside the Columbo port during a lunch-hour protest, shouting slogans demanding wage increases, while senior company executives were hooted.

“The protest is successful,” said Palitha Athukorala, the convenor of the UNP-controlled National Workers’ Union (JSS)  “Work has been disrupted and the navy hasn’t been able to step in at the Colombo  harbor and ensure a smooth flow of work.” The unions use an American protest tactic (“work-to-rule”) which they have found useful against employers needing fast production.

New Study Reveals Major Changes in Unions in Past 25 Years

Only 11 percent of America’s work force is employed in manufacturing industries, compared to nearly 30 percent about a quarter of a century ago, according to a new study that shows the many dramatic changes that have taken place in unions and the employment of their members.  The study, “The Changing Face of Labor:1983-2008,” shows that white men represent just 38 percent of all union members, and that women now represent more than 45 percent of the union membership and  are still increasing in numbers.

The  study by the Washington-based Center for Economic Policy Research gives figures on trends long known by labor leaders and activists. It notes that the percentage of workers in unions is now only  12.4, compared with 35 percent in the 1950s when the AFL and CIO united to form one union. On the other hand, there have been remarkable gains by public sector unions that have increased their membership rolls from 34 percent in 1983 to 48.9 percent in 25 years.

The statistics on the education of union members is encouraging. They showed that 28 percent of all union members had a four-year college degree or more, up from 20 percent in 1983. Immigrants represent 12.6 percent of union members, up from 8.4 percent in  1994. Hispanics represent 12.2 percent of the unionized work force, up from 5.8  in 1983. The unionization  rate for African –American workers has dropped steeply to 15.5 percent from 31.7 percent in 1983,

3,000  Chinese Workers Strike over Low Pay at German Company

Nearly 3,000 women workers at a German-invested company in South China’s Hainan Province have begun a strike to press their demands on bonus, pay and vacations. ”The strike started after the management said a worker could not receive the year-end bonus if her production efficiency failed to reach 50 percent of the average level last year,” said Mo Xiaohui, an employee. “That was impossible for most of us, as the production dropped sharply in the financial crisis.”

The workers were angered when the boss wanted to cut their bonus, worth about 700 yuan ($102), even though their salary was as low as between 500 and 600 yuan. “That’s going too far,” said a worker named  Li Guihua. The company board later agreed to pay the bonus, but the workers decided to continue their strike for their other demands, like an increase in salary, paid vacations and worker rights.

The company has been owned by the by the German-based Triumph International Overseas Ltd. since 1992.  Negotiations between the worker representatives and management have been stalled. Company headquarters has sent  a senior executive to Haikou to handle the talks.

Sweden to Test ‘Culture by Prescript’

The Swedish government has announced that health authorities in Skane in southern Sweden will receive 500,000 kroner ($72,000) from the public purse to fund a pilot program called Kultur pa Recept (Culture by Prescription.) Doctors there will soon be able to prescribe cultural activities, such as choir lessons or ceramics classes as part of a taxpayer-funded initiative to help reduce prolonged absences from work due to illness.

The one-year trial will be carried out at a health clinic in Heisingborg operated by Capio Citykliniken and offer patients access to cultural activities as a complement to their traditional treatment and rehabilitation. “We know that illnesses affect people in different ways and can lead to absences due to sickness of varying lengths of time,” said social security minister  Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, in a statement.

The culture by prescription trial will target patients suffering from low- and medium-grade depression,  stress, anxiety, as well as those who have had back, shoulder or neck pains that have lasted more than three months.  The program works from a broader definition of culture, which, along with theater visits, also includes activities, such as visits to public gardens and enrolling in handicraft courses.