The Hobbit: An Unexpected Outcome?

Carol Jess

The film industry is an important part of New Zealand (NZ) culture and source of patriotic pride, particularly since the successes of Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop with The Lord of the Rings films (LOTR). It is also economically significant; in 2004, 150 000 foreign tourists gave the Lord of the Rings as one of the main reasons for their visit to New Zealand. Globally, LOTR is the highest grossing motion picture trilogy of all time, and the joint record holder for the number of Oscars.

For the premiere of “The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey”, a prequel to LOTR, on 28 November 2012, New Zealand is going Hobbit mad. Wellington will be turned into “The Middle of Middle Earth” and international visitors will receive commemorative immigration stamps.[1]

For many in the New Zealand trade union movement though, the opening of The Hobbit will not inspire pride or excitement. Instead, the film serves as a reminder of how fragile our rights are when under assault from the fear of capital flight.

Zero Hunger: A Food Security Perspective for Brazil

Walter Belik

The debate on hunger in Brazil began in the early 1930s when Dr Josué de Castro, a famous physician and geographer, began his research on the health of workers in Recife, his hometown in the North-East of Brazil. Considering the labour conditions of these workers, Castro found out the sole reason for the particularly high absence and low productivity rates: hunger among the workers.
 

In 1946 Josué de Castro published his classic book “Geopolitics of Hunger”. The international reputation of this book helped him to be elected chairman of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) during the early 1950s. Josué de Castro participated in the Brazilian government for two decades, playing a central role in the implementation of the School Meals Program, subsidies for workers’ meals paid by employers and many other important programs to combat hunger in Brazil (L’abatte, 1988). Unfortunately, after the military coup in the mid-1960s he went into exile and eventually died in Europe.

After Brazil’s re-democratisation process, the subject of hunger re-emerged. In the mid-1980s the country was devastated by an inflation rate of more than 3000% per annum and poverty and lack of food was affecting everyone. Consequently, a huge campaign led by a sociologist Herbert “Betinho” de Souza was launched in Brazil, mobilising the population to collect and donate food to needy people.

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006: An ILO landmark Convention

Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry

With serious economic difficulties confronting so many countries and workers in all regions, as Director of the International Labour Standards Department of the International Labour Office, I welcome the opportunity to share some very good news.
 

On August 20, 2012 the Russian Federation and the Republic of the Philippines were, respectively, the 29th and 30th countries to have their ratifications of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), registered. The ratification by these two countries is significant as the 30th ratification, when combined with ratifications by countries representing over 33 per cent of the world’s ships (based on gross tonnage), means that this innovative ILO Convention will enter into force (become binding as international law) for these 30 countries. With these 30 countries, the MLC, 2006 already covers almost 60 per cent of the world fleet in terms of gross tonnage of ships. Therefore, when the MLC, 2006 enters into force on 20 August 2013 it will establish minimum international standards for working and living conditions for seafarers working on more than 60 per cent of the world’s fleet of ships. Many more ratifications in all regions are expected over the next year or two.
 

How direct are the “direct elections” of trade union officials in China?

Elaine Sio-ieng Hui

Recently there have been reports on the introduction of the “direct election” (zhi xuan) of trade union officials in some enterprises in China, mainly in Shenzhen city. This article seeks to address the following questions. Firstly, is this a breakthrough for trade unions in China, which for a long time have been regarded as part of the state apparatus? Secondly, how should we evaluate this attempt at carrying out direct elections in enterprises? Thirdly, in what ways does it transcend the old way of doing business? Finally, how should the new practices be critically assessed?

The ACFTU in the long-running controversy

The party-state-led[1] All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has long been a subject of controversy in the debate of labour politics in China. The recently published Industrial Democracy in China (Traub-Merz and Ngok, 2012) is a good point of departure for assessing its role in contemporary China. The ACFTU has always held a monopoly status in worker-representation. Any attempts to establish trade unions that are independent from the party-state and the ACFTU were met with heavy suppression (Taylor and Li, 2007). During the state-socialist era, the ACFTU was a “transmission belt” between the party-state and workers. On the one hand, it transmitted top-down instructions from the party-state to workers and mobilised the latter to support the former’s propaganda. On the other, it organised the welfare of workers and transmitted their interests and concerns upward for the party-state’s consideration.

The Working Rich Phenomenon: Top Incomes in Germany

Hagen M. Krämer

Christina Anselmann

During the past few years, different studies have revealed that developments at the top of the income distribution have had a significant impact on overall income inequality in a number of nations, especially several English-speaking countries. For instance, while the income share of the tenth decile in the United States of America (USA) had declined from 46.3 percent in 1932 to 32.7 percent in 1943 and remained at this relatively low level in subsequent decades, it increased again from 32.7 percent in 1981 to 46.3 percent in 2010 (cf. Alvaredo et al. 2012) . The trend in Germany generally went in the same direction as it will be shown below. There is also another similarity regarding the composition of top earners’ incomes in both countries. Among the highest income groups, the income of top managers – which is statistically classified as labour income – makes up a growing fraction. In particular, the exploding remuneration of board members of incorporated companies and for certain financial professionals led to the emergence of the new phenomenon of the working rich. At least in the US they “have overtaken the ‘coupon-clipping rentiers’” (Piketty & Saez 2007, p. 152).