Globalisation and labor

From The New York Times




Updated: Jan. 4, 2011

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

In the United States, there are more than 150 million people in the labor force, a vast pool of workers that includes autoworkers and investment bankers, teachers and lumberjacks. During the recession that ran from late 2007 into 2009, unemployment climbed to more than 15 million, with the jobless rate climbing to 10 percent and remaining above 9 percent throughout 2010.
The American labor force takes many forms: there are the traditional fulltime workers, but as employers have sought to create more flexible work forces, they have relied increasingly on part-time workers, temps and independent contractors. There has also been a surge in the number of immigrant workers in recent decades, with many experts estimating that the nation has 12 million illegal immigrant workers.
About 16 million American workers are in labor unions, although the percentage of workers who are unionized has dropped fairly steadily in recent decades. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12.4 percent of the American work force belonged to a union in 2008, down from 35 percent in the 1950s. The percentage of workers in unions has dropped as companies have closed many unionized operations and moved them overseas and as many employers have grown more sophisticated in beating back unionization efforts. Moreover, as the American work force has grown more prosperous in the decades of World War II, many workers concluded that they did not need a union to represent them.
The unionization rate in the private sector was just 7.6 percent in 2008, far lower than the 36.8 percent rate for public sector employees.
Unionized workers in the public sector became the focus of anger across the country as state and local governments cut spending and raised taxes to make up for shrunken revenue. After Republicans made sweeping gains at the state level as well as in Congress in the November 2010 elections, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, began to push new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.
The main umbrella group representing the nation's unionized workers is the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (A.F.L.-C.I.O.), a grouping of 56 unions that claims 11 million members. The other main labor group is the Change to Win federation, comprised of seven unions that say they represent more than 5 million workers. The nation's largest labor union is the National Education Association, with more than 3 million members, and the second largest is the Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly 2 million workers, many of them health-care and building-service workers.
Not just the American work force, but also the work forces of Europe and Asia have been greatly affected by globalization, which is tying countries and their economies ever more closely together. In the 1980s the rise of Japan's economy and its auto industry put huge competitive pressures on the United States economy and its manufacturers. In more recent years, China, with its tens of millions of low-paid factory workers, has become a manufacturing giant and lured many apparel and other factory jobs from the United States and industrialized nations. At the same time, India has become a powerhouse in information technology and other white-collar fields, encouraging many American and European companies to send computer jobs and other white-collar jobs to Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities in India. The movement of so many jobs to the developing world has lifted living standards in many once-impoverished countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but has raised concerns that workers in some of those countries toil in sweatshop conditions.
The United States has a web of laws regulating the workplace. In the laissez-faire years of the 19th century and early 20th century, the nation's workplace laws were quite weak. But with the Great Depression causing widespread unemployment and suffering among workers and with labor unions gathering strength, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Congress enacted important protections for the nation's workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, setting a nationwide minimum wage and requiring time-and-a-half pay for non-salaried, non-supervisory employees who work more than 40 hours in a week. The National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, was passed in 1936, giving the nation's private-sector workers a federally protected right to unionize and engage in collective bargaining. As soon as a majority of employees at a workplace vote for a union, the employer is generally required to grant union recognition and work to negotiate a contract. The most important labor legislation enacted since World War II was the Occupational Health and Safety Act, passed in 1970, which created a federal occupational safety agency and created safety requirements for the nation's employers.
Other labor protections include the Social Security Act, which guarantees minimum monthly payments to millions of retirees and disabled workers, and the Family Medical Leave Act, which guarantees workers up to 12 unpaid weeks off work to take care of themselves of family members in case of illness. The individual states have workers' compensation laws that assist workers injured on the job by providing them with medical care and indemnity benefits.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/l/labor/index.html?scp=18&sq=bangalore&st=cse

Bangalore Economic Expansion.

Reasons

Companies 

jobs

locations

... “Many of these folks are very technically gifted, showing that there is a reason why Bangalore is called the Silicon Valley of India. NY TIMES September 6, 2011



..astonishing high-tech expansion. But poverty in the...drag down the hopes of economic growth in the 21st centuryTHREE...what was happening in Bangalore to the south, decided that Hyderabad...brake on India’s economic potential, as they choose...  London Times  09 June 2006




...has massively accelerated its Indian expansion drive, planning to train to 360,000...which last year opened a new campus in Bangalore as part of a $1 billion Indian investment...the researchers, India’s economic growth will fuel demand for 130,000...London Times  06 February 2008


The expansion of global companies ... IT in Bangalore,   London Times   29 June 2010

How Diploma students could create an appropriate environment for laptops in the Diploma room

Hook . Introduction . Thesis  Examples  Explanation Conclusion/link


Approve laptops in the diploma room. Diploma room is a place made for working. Diploma students could create an appropriate environment for laptops in the Diploma room. Maturity and focus are the two key ideas. Students need to be able to work and focus and not fool around. Students use Laptops to socializing and work.

Laptops are a big distraction but also the most used school tool. Is it necessary to get work done in the Diploma lounge with laptops. Most of the work is on the internet. Laptops are used in every class because the work is put up on the internet. My English class is all online on a blog. English class is use the internet every class, we can find all the homework on the blog and when we have done it we post it there.

Dont fool around during a school day.. Take care of the time you have Also, you can .tell other students to work instead of just sitting there. Finish the work in school when you have the chance instead of doing it at home. If they don’t care you can go and tell a teacher or go to the library. If you get distracted or disturbed by your class mates then you can go to the library where you know that no one can disturb you.

When students are in the Diploma room some of them are trying to work.
Don't fool around Don’t go on websites that you’re not supposed to go on. When you go on inappropriate websites your going to distract others. Dont play witht the basket ball or footballs. When you start to bounce a ball everyone in the room is going to be distracted and stop working because they can't think with all the noise.

Think about what you are doing when you see students work. Don't distract others. Don't make to much Noise. If you put on music ask the people in the room first and when you talk think about your tone. Don't leave your thing everywhere and make a mess. Try to get the place to look nice so we can have a better working environment.

The time you spend in class working is the time you dont have to spend working at home. Be responsible. Work on your homework in the lounge when there is no one else there.  When other people are in the room the distractions start up. Then it's time to go to the library There you can get your work done at your pace without any distractions This whole thing is about responsibility and so far we haven’t had the chance to show that we can’t work in there. The teachers have to let the DP students show that they can get work done in there. Not assume that the students are doing other stuff and that this is the way to change it.


Yes the diploma lounge could be an appropriate working environment, but that is not really how the students see it. The DP room is really a chill out room but computers are what today's teenagers use to chill out. Computers are needed. Every day we use our computer for both school and fun stuff. With computer in the diploma room we can both hang out in there if its possible. Students need to find a way to use their computers and their time, responsibly and effectively.

Science fiction

Introduction

The science fiction genre is the only genre that has no Codes

Proof

Compare two sci-fi movies (Alien-Tron)
They use the same conventions but different codes

Sci-fi

Location Tron=Alien
Symbols Tron=Alien
Toon/Mood Tron=Alien

Action Adventure
Heros journey

The codes are

Plot Tron/Aline
Narrative Tron/Alien
Characters Tron/Alien
Themes Tron/Alien

Return to netherworld

Sam and Ouorra find the portal back to the reall world

Key plot point 2

Sam is going back to save Ouorra

Kingdom of evil

Clu and hes army