In this Virtual Roundtable Newsletter edition

Discussion : "A coming swing in the pendulum of economic power from capital to labor"

The LGG Repertoire is online!

The LGG project announces a call for papers for Roundtables of March 29th and 30th, 2007

LGG Séminar - Trade and Labour : What Link? Three experiences

Discussion : "A coming swing in the pendulum of economic power from capital to labor"

About the Virtual Roundtable on LGG
The LGG Project launches its first virtual debate. Researchers, professionals and actors of civil society concerned by the links between labour and globalization are invited to transmit their comments and opinions by email or directly through the Virtual Roundtable Website. The Roundtable moderator will wrap up the debate every month and propose a new theme for discussion. 

January Virtual Roundtable
Stephen Roach, Managing Director and Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley, wrote the following on January 12, 2007:

"By a vote of 315 to 116, the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a two-year 41% increase in America’s minimum wage — the first change in the pay floor in 10 years. The bill is likely to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Bush. This is only the beginning of what could well be a major pro-labor swing in the US political pendulum. But there is an important twist to labor’s comeback: Lacking in bargaining power in the face of an increasingly powerful global labor arbitrage, American workers are in no position to take action on their own. Instead, they have put pressure on their elected proxies to do the bidding for them. This pattern is global in scope. It is likely to be a significant feature of the coming swing in the pendulum of economic power from capital to labor."

Read the entire discussion topic and react to this analysis

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The LGG Repertoire is online!

The LGG Project lauches simultaneously its first Virtual Roundtable and its Repertoire. The Repertoire is a collaborative work in progress which objective is to assemble up-to-date information on the subject and to provide new analytical insights on labor global governance.

While consulting the LGG Repertoire, you will find some sections that are « under construction » and many sections that are yet to be created. If wish you to participate in this initiative, we invite you to contact us in order to obtain access codes that will allow you to contribute to the Repertoire as a writter or an editor.

You would like to know more about the LGG Repertoire? Visit its Home page.

The LGG project announces a call for papers for Roundtables of March 29th and 30th, 2007

In March 2007, two days of Roundtables will be an occasion to discuss some of recent evolutions of key issues and instruments of the LGG and their potential impacts on the application of labour standards and on working conditions.

Themes suggested :

• Trade agreements and labour : New trajectories ?
• China : Labour Standards and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Decent Work and Globalization
• Unprotected Workers
• CSR : Socializing or Privatizing Global Labour Standards ?
• Labour Norms and Competitiveness
• LGG : a constellation of competing norms or a networking of initiatives leading to a new social pact ?
• Finance, development and labour standards ?
• Transnational negotiations

Check the activity description and the call for paper online.

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LGG Séminar - Trade and Labour : What Link? Three experiences

Next February 9, three collaborators of the LGG project will communicate their research results. If we frequently talk about the existing link between trade and labour, we realise, in the light of the work of Christian Deblock, Mathieu Ares and Éric Boulanger, that this link appears in different ways according to context.

Presentations

• Christian Deblock, The United States. Toward a Pro Labor Agenda ?
• Mathieu Ares, Sweatshops in Mexico : the Workers Gain
• Eric Boulanger, Where will Japan’s workers come from tomorrow ?

Complete information

Fell free to contact Danielle Lavoie, project manager, for information regarding LGG Project, its Repertoire, Virtual Rountable and other activities.

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