Linkagogo Archive 1: Labor Relations

Showing posts with label Labor Relations. Show all posts

Stephen Hill Linkography: U.S. Labor

An Antidote to GATT: Stakeholders vs. Stockholders
Article: Labornet viewpoints: Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement. Also posted at: The Humanist, March-April, 1995. With NAFTA behind us and GATT in front of us, it's a sane response for working people to start feeling surrounded. There seems to be little to stop these steamrollers from running us over, as the workers of the world prepare to unite finally -- in the unemployment line. But, Hill points out, there are stubborn pockets of resistance to free trade that have sprung up over the last few years.

Stakeholders vs. Stockholders
Article: 2000, in Labornet viewpoints: Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement. Five years on, Hill looks at the enduring legacy of the Pennsylvania law that protects the rights of stakeholders, as opposed to the rights of the stockholders with respect to corporate-community relations. States and communities seeking new strategies to cope with job losses and corporate disinvestment associated with global free trade would do well to understand the opportunities provided by a legal framework solidifying stakeholder rights.

Another Gold Medal For the United States

Article 2000 in Labornet viewpoints: Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement reprint from: Dollars & Sense (Newsletter) issue no. 205, 1996 - Economic Affairs Bureau). A global survey was released recently that says that world business leaders give the gold medal to the U.S. economy as the "most competitive" in the world among industrialized nations. What business leaders mean when they say "most competitive" is this: low wages, few worker benefits, and deregulation.

ICANN: the Secret Government of the Internet?
Article: April, 2001 - Labornet viewpoints: Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a little-known international body that oversees crucial Internet functions. Depending on whose description you read, ICANN is either an innocuous non-profit with a narrow technical mandate, or the first step in corralling the Internet for commercial and other purposes. And despite the centrality of it's role in the online world, there has been almost no media coverage of ICANN.

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Stephen Hill Linkography: Social Capitalism

Europe's Answer To Wall Street
Article: April 21, 2010 - the Nation. Many European countries have the right institutions to facilitate both a powerful economic engine and the supportive institutions and benefits to harness that engine. Co-determination is one of them. It gives workers in Europe the advantage of electing worker directors that sit side by side as equal decision-makers with stockholder representatives, and supervising management. This is a little-known yet unprecedented extension of democratic principle into the corporate sphere.

Economic Democracy and Codetermination: Harnessing the Capitalist Engine
Book review: Posted Friday, 15 January 2010, on the Globalist (daily online magazine on the global economy, politics and culture). In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the United States needs a new economic model — one that will decentralize power and put it in the hands of the workers. As Steven Hill suggests in this excerpt from his book, Europe's Promise, the United States might have a lesson to learn from post-World War II Germany.

Merry Christmas, From the Government To the Workers -- In France, That Is
Article: 2000, in Labornet viewpoints: Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement.

Just a few days before Christmas in 1999, the French government passed a law that was a welcome gift to their workers -- they shortened the legal workweek from 39 hours
to 35. This follows a European trend, where Swedish, German, Italian and soon Belgian and Spanish workers will have seen reductions in their workweek.

The World Cup of Global Competition
Article: July 1998 - Hartford Web Publishing: World History Archives. Steven Hill is in Paris during the 1998 World Cup of soccer hosted in France. Watching Europeans of numerous nationalities patriotically cheering their home teams, he reflects on the remaining barriers to the European Union. Some Europeans are looking westward toward the American model, marked by low unemployment of 4-5%, market and labor flexibility, low deficits and increased worker productivity. However, important distinctions should be noted about U.S. practices.

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Stephen Hill Linkography: NLRB Reform

Enable Choice on Labor Unions
Special article by Steven Hill and Dmitri Iglitzin : 20 March 2007 – in the Washington Post’s column - Think Tank Town. The top priority of pro-labor members of the United States Congress is passage of the employee Freedom of Choice Act, a law that would make it easier for workers to organize a union in their workplace and negotiate a contract with their employer. This legislation has been the subject of vigorous public debate among labor organizations and business lobbyists, yet it only scratches the surface of a badly needed overhaul of U.S. labor law.

Time For a Tex-Mex Marshall Plan
Article: 23 April 2006 – Washington Post. The bold yet carefully planned E.U. approach to worker migration suggests the direction that policy between

the United States and Mexico should take. To deal
with the situation, the leaders
of the European Union wisely created policies for fostering regional economic and political integration that make efforts
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement look timid and half-hearted by comparison. Increasingly the demands of the global economy will push North American regional integration out of the realm of a shadow economy and flawed free trade agreements.

Look Who's Acting Like the Microsoft of Politics: This Monopoly's Not Even Debatable
Article by Steven Hill & Rob Richie: 11 February 2000 – Chicago Tribune. For the past year we have watched the U.S. government's attempt to apply anti-monopoly laws to the business practices of Microsoft. Ever since the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed a century ago, it has been widely accepted that domination of a market by a handful of private corporations can be bad for business, bad for consumers and bad for the nation.

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Stephen Hill Linkography: EU On Top

There's No Place Like Europe: Steven Hill on Medical House Calls, Multiparty Politics, and Other American Fantasies

Interview: Monday 18 October 2010 - by Alissa Bohling for Truthout. While Europe is far from immune to the economic decline and resource scarcity it faces along with the rest of the world, Hill maintains that the continent still leads the globe in building political infrastructures that foster a shared and sustainable prosperity. He heaps plenty of praise on the EU, but he also acknowledges that the world's largest economy knows it still has work to do.

Europe’s Promise – A Cover Interview
Book review: Posted 31 March 2010 - Rorotoko.

Hill's book provides a number of interesting facts on Europe's economic strengths
and dismisses many myths Americans tend have about Europe. First, Europe produces nearly a third of the world’s economy, that's almost as large as the U.S. and China combined. Second, Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than the U.S. and China together. Third, small businesses account for two thirds of the jobs created in Europe. Fourth, Europe is the largest trading partner with both the America and China. And last, Europe's annual growth rate was higher than the U.S. from 1998-2008.

Europe vs the US: Seven Reflections
Article: 26 January 2010 - cafebabel.com: The European Magazine. The EU has produced a ‘Eurosphere’ with some 2 billion people - one third of the world - linked by trade, aid and investment to the EU. So, if Europe isn’t the leader of the world now, who is? China? India? It will be decades - if ever - before these developing countries will achieve Europe or America’s prosperity level. In a make-or-break century beset by a worldwide economic crisis, global warming and geopolitical tensions, the European model has the potential to carry the world forward.

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Stephen Hill Linkography: Europe's Way

Closing the ‘Democracy Deficit’ in the EU and US
Article: 17 June 2010 - Social Europe Journal. In Switzerland, the political leaders have crafted an impressive practice that fosters a "noisy collaboration" between the people and their elected representatives. They have a "proposal-counterproposal" system in which, once an initiative or referendum qualifies for the ballot, the government is given a chance to either pass that law itself or put a counterproposal on the ballot.

Myth 5: Europe is a Socialist Nest of Government Interference and Intervention.
Posted 14 March 2010 - Washington Policy Watch . Europe is completely capitalist, not socialist, with more Fortune 500 companies and more small businesses than in the U.S. But Europe has figured out how to harness capitalism’s tremendous wealth-creating capacity so that its prosperity is broadly shared.

Inspiration Across the Pond
Article: 29 March 2010 - E’Sharp. Europe ploughs its money into its people rather than into excessive corporate profits, CEO bonuses or a bloated military. In the US, about the only people who enjoy the full range of European-level supports are those who work for wealthy corporations or the president and members of Congress. What is good for US political and economic elites apparently is not enjoyed by their fellow Americans. The drawbridge has been pulled up.

There's No Place Like Europe: Steven Hill on Medical House Calls, Multiparty Politics, and Other American Fantasies

Interview: Monday 18 October 2010 - by Alissa Bohling for Truthout.
During this lengthy interview Hill touched on the kind of support Europeans have that Americans don't have. He gave this example: "An American friend of mine living in France got a hornet sting when I was visiting her. She calls up her doctor and, 20 minutes later, there's the French doctor with his little black bag. What does that feel like to a person, to know that you have that kind of access to the support that you need?"

The World Cup of Global Competition
Article: July 1998 - Hartford Web Publishing: World History Archives. Steven Hill was in Paris, during the 1998 World Cup of soccer hosted in France. Watching Europeans of numerous nationalities patriotically cheering their home teams, he reflected on the remaining barriers to the European Union. Some Europeans are looking westward toward the American model, marked by low unemployment of 4-5%, market and labor flexibility, low deficits and increased worker productivity. However, important distinctions should be noted.

Ancient Transportations: Walking and Bicycling
to Health
Blog: How's Europe Doing – posted 28 Oct 2010 - The Washington Monthly.

Europeans seem to be literally biking and walking their way to health, and research bears this out. One study found that whereas walking and cycling account for less than a tenth of all urban trips in American cities, they account for a third of all such trips in Germany and an incredible half in the Netherlands. This activity not only provides the Dutch and German elderly with valuable physical exercise, but it also assures them a level of mobility and independence that greatly enhances their quality of life.

Time for a Tex-Mex Marshall Plan
Article: 23 April 2006 – Washington Post. The bold yet carefully planned E.U. approach to worker migration suggests the direction that policy between the United States and Mexico should take. The EU gave its new poorer states massive subsidies -- billions of dollars' worth -- to help construct schools, roads, telecommunications and housing, thus making these nations more attractive for business investment. The idea was to raise up the emerging economies rather than let the advanced economies be dragged down.

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