In The News

Fair Trade for the Global Garment Industry

David Welsh May 22, 2015
Profits and fast-changing styles in the global garment industry depend on low wages, long hours and dangerous workplaces in countries like Cambodia. Writing for the New York Times, David Welsh, country director of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Cambodia writes: “the big brands reap billions of dollars chasing the lowest production costs they can find, moving from one country to another when...

China’s Factory Workers Are Becoming More Restive

Anita Chan May 21, 2015
Migrant workers in South China are increasingly more assertive. A once relatively compliant workforce is staging more and bigger strikes prompting authorities to escalate suppression. Anita Chan, author and research professor, analyzes the internal and external forces behind the unrest. Labor activism is most intense in Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong with its NGOs that spread the word about...

Headwinds as the US Moves Toward Secretive Trade Agreement

David Dapice May 19, 2015
The very notion of global trade would suggest openness – and certainly a lack of secrets. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a new kind of agreement, one that pushes deep integration and focuses on regulations for corporations as well as lower tariffs, explains economist David Dapice. Twelve nations including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico – but not China – are...

The Robots Aren’t Threatening Your Job

Catherine Rampell April 10, 2015
Robotic technology with ever-improving artificial intelligence, sensors and other capabilities inspires awe, yet many workers fear a mass loss of jobs. Society should be optimistic though if policymakers plan ahead, argues Catherine Rampell for the Washington Post. “Across history, technological developments have caused certain skill sets and jobs to obsolesce, yes, but they have also created...

The Curse of Chávez’s Ghost

María Elena Candia March 27, 2015
In the wake of the abrupt drop in global oil prices, Venezuelans have experienced a shortage of food, paper goods and medicines. The Maduro administration makes no effort on economic reforms and instead blames the United States for its heavy dependence on oil revenues and other economic troubles. “There is still no commitment from the government to hike the cost of gasoline, which is heavily...

Japan Can’t Close Door on Immigrants

Kwan Weng Kin March 25, 2015
Japan’s looming demographic crisis is well known and widespread prejudices against immigrants may cripple the country’s ability to address the problem. Japan’s population could decline by a third over the next 50 years, and observers view immigration as the only viable solution to labor shortages in the Japanese economy. At present, foreigners constitute 1.6 percent of Japan’s population, and...

New Fees, Regulations on Tap for Employers of Foreign Workers

Tara Carman February 23, 2015
Canada is backing away from open borders for skilled labor. New rules require employers who hope to hire a foreign worker must submit copies of the employment offer, details about their business operations and a $230 fee. The government’s aim is to protect Canadian workers against displacement, with the new requirements applying only to businesses that don’t conduct Labor Market Impact...