PSI blog on the Financial Crisis

The Economic Crisis as Class Warfare

In a rather remarkable article for the Globe and Mail last year Peter J. Nicholson observes it is “not so much the rich are getting richer; it’s the very, very rich.”

Statistics Canada reported the earned income of the “average” Canadian – the so-called median income – was the same in 2004 as in 1982. It turns out that median income, before taxes, did not rise at all over 22 years of Conservative and Liberal governments. Yet during that same time the Canadian economy grew, in real per capita terms, by more than half. But only the very well paid – those above the 90th percentile of the income distribution – saw any significant increase in earned income; and the
higher up the earnings ladder, the greater the growth.

Jobs Crisis Will Affect Young Workers for a Lifetime, More Recovery Aid Needed

Speaking at the second and final day of the Demos conference, A Better Deal 2009, Algernon Austin, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), said the U.S. economy was failing young people long before the current recession was officially declared. He called the prospects for young workers “bleak” and said the nation needs additional investment in recovery.

The recession is hitting young people in devastating and long-lasting ways (as we found in the AFL-CIO “Young Workers: A Lost Decade” report), and solving these problems will require an immediate focus on job creation, as well as long-term investments to build a strong economy through education, training and infrastructure, panelists at “On the Rebound” agreed. Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act prevented a more severe depression, the jobs crisis requires more direct action.

More here: http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/10/16/jobs-crisis-will-affect-young-workers-for-a-lifetime-more-recovery-aid-needed/#more-20768

Public back A Million Voices

UNISON's advertising campaign – 'don't wait til they've gone' – has encouraged the public to stand up for public services and public service workers.

Messages of support have flooded in and they make encouraging reading for our members.

But messages of support are not just coming from our members – many are also coming from people outside the union who are standing with UNISON to support public services.

More on the UNISON website: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=5702

Leaders of Commonwealth Countries Called Upon to Act on Jobs, Climate and Poverty

Trade unions from Commonwealth countries released their statement to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which will take place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 27 – 29 November. The submission from the Commonwealth Trade Union Group (CTUG), whose combined membership is some 30 million workers, calls for specific action by Commonwealth member countries in eight main areas, focusing on the need for employment to be at the centre of economic recovery and reform, for a fair and ambitious outcome at the December Copenhagen Climate Summit and for a renewed effort to tackle global poverty.

Full text from the ITUC website here: http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article4545

Germany's president tells unions to do their bit for financial reform

German President Horst Koehler has voiced concern that current efforts to reform world financial systems do not go far enough. He says that trade unions need to get involved.

More here: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4758992,00.html

IMPACT members vote overwhelmingly for strike action

IMPACT members have voted overwhelmingly on 21 October 2009 in favour of strikes if the Government moves to impose a second public service pay cut.

Read more on the IMPACT website here: http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/impact-members-vote-overwhelmingly-strike-action-n-279.html

IMPACT campaign to fight the cuts

IMPACT’s anti-cuts campaign is really gaining momentum. There’s still a wall of prejudice and misinformation but finally, the point of view of public servants is beginning to be heard. We’re gaining ground little by little. But with the outcome of the IMPACT ballot, the budget looming, and the government warming up public opinion for cuts, we’re heading into a critical time.

More exciting YouTube videos have just been launched. Go to these links and have a look:

• Labels
• The Nerve

Read our earlier post on the issue here: http://financialcrisisblog.world-psi.org/2009/10/impact-launches-campaign-to-fight-the-cuts.html

From crisis to recovery

Politicians and business leaders are all now able to speak as fluently a NGOs and scientists about the urgency of climate change and the opportunities of a low carbon economy. Yet there is a growing chasm between this vision of the future and a willingness to take the bold decisions necessary to make the change happen, particularly in the field of economic policy.

This pamphlet looks at how, at this moment of financial crisis we must seriously engage the big economic levers of tax, public spending, capital markets and industrial strategy, to make the transformation into a low carbon economy a reality.
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/grea_p.aspx?id=4156

Green Alliance recently published From Crisis to Recovery, a collection of pieces from figures in investment, business, trade unions and NGOs on new economic policies for a low-carbon future. The report can be downloaded from www.green-alliance.org.uk

Special Report: SRI - Powering towards a low-carbon future

With the Copenhagen Climate Summit just around the corner, but the world's governments still very focused on economic recovery, many more policymakers are seeing the need to address economic and climate change challenges at the same time.

Click here for full text.

Gender Equality, a Key to Tackling the Crisis

Discussions at the Conference focused on the fact that although women have increasingly become part of the paid workforce and of trade unions, and there have been important achievements in trade union organising, collective bargaining, and other rights, women are “often in a disadvantaged position in comparison to men in labour markets around the world [and that] in most regions, the gender impact of the economic crisis in terms of unemployment rates is expected to be more detrimental for females than for males” as highlighted, in the ILO report on Global Employment Trends for Women 2009.

 

Full text from the ITUC website here: http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article4552