SCDigest Editorial Staff
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Members of Parliament from Brown’s own Labour party predicted that the wildcat strikes were a warning of mass industrial unrest to come in 2009.
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Add to the overall economic turmoil - rising labor unrest, at least in Europe. Will it spread to the US?
These are interesting times for labor relations here.
At one level, unions in the US are a bit back on their heels, as the economic reality at many companies gives them little leverage to increase demands, illustrated by the recent give-backs by the Teamsters at YRC Worldwide (Yellow Roadway) and the UAW at GM and Chrysler.
On the other hand, the Obama administration and more heavily Democratic Congress is expected to be much more labor friendly, with strong hopes, for example, for passage of a “card check” rule that would allow union formation at companies without a secret ballot. The stimulus bill passed last week by the House also has requirements for use of American-made products in various infrastructure programs.
The kettle has already started to boil in Europe, with wildcat strikes across the UK, France, and Germany last week, and labor leaders challenging politicians at the normally placid World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In the UK, wildcat strikes flared at more than 19 sites across the country in response to claims that British tradesmen were being barred from construction jobs by contractors using cheaper foreign workers. The actions were fueled in part by a pledge more than a year ago from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he would ensure “British jobs for British workers,” against growing resentment in the country of outsourcing and foreign workers.
Members of Parliament from Brown’s own Labour party predicted that the wildcat strikes were a warning of mass industrial unrest to come in 2009.
Meanwhile, there were also strikes involving hundreds of thousands of workers across France and Germany, modestly impacting global logistics flows. Rail, airports and seaports in France saw disruptions, for example, as more than a million workers took part in a 24-hour nationwide strike to demand government action to protect jobs and living standards. The strike, however, did not paralyze the transportation sector, as union leaders had hoped.
(Manufacturing Article - Continued Below)
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