Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Global Unemployment on the Rise


Looking at the medium-term, the forecast global economic recovery is not expected to be strong enough to bring down unemployment quickly, and the number of jobseekers is expected to rise to more than 210 million over the next five years.
The labour market situation remains particularly bleak for the world’s youth, with almost 74 million people in the 15 to 24 age group unemployed around the world – a 12.6 per cent youth unemployment rate.

Vote For Political Party, Candidates With Workers' Interests At Heart, Says MTUC Sarawak

KUCHING, April 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak wants the over one million workers in Sarawak to vote for the political party and candidates who are willing to place the interest of workers and their families first in the 13th General Election (GE13), on Sunday.

MTUC Sarawak secretary Andrew Lon said it wanted to work with the government and any political party to ensure that economic and development policies benefited Sarawakian workers as well.

"We must elect effective, performing and clean parliamentarians and ministers that really care about the country and ready to implement long term and sustainable social and economic policies," he said in a statement in conjunction with Labour Day 2013.

He said workers from rural areas were the ones who needed the most protection and it was very disappointing that many elected rural representatives had not done enough.

MTUC Sarawak wants to ensure that every Sarawakian had a meaningful share in the state's vast resources and its workers not short changed anymore, besides eliminating corruption and corrupt practices because that is the only way to ensure government policies were implemented in a transparent and fair manner.

MTUC does not want local jobs to be diminished and given to three million foreign workers, which caused tens of thousands of Sarawakians having to leave their families to work in Singapore, Johore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=946557



GE13: Vote for parties with welfare of workers at heart, says MTUC

KUCHING: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is urging workers in the state to vote for the political party and candi- dates who are willing to put the interest of workers and their families first.
In a press statement signed by MTUC secretary Andrew Lo yesterday, the union wants to work with the Government and any political party to ensure that economic and development policies benefit Sarawakian workers as well.
“Finally after 50 years, minimum wage (MW) was implemented,” read the statement.
“MTUC strongly believes that minimum wage and higher wages will lead to better economic growth and subsequently more business for companies, which in turn will spur them to increase productivity.
“However, employers are continuing their campaign to get MW deferred, resorting to bullying tactics and fear mongering as well as emotional sensationalism.
“Do not vote for political parties and candidates that have not embraced this policy and have worked hand in hand with employers to defer the implementation,” it reiterated.
It also stated that it did not want any handouts, saying: “It is sad that more than 4.2 million Malaysians live in households that earn less than RM3,000 a month and qualify for the RM500 handout.
“Something must be wrong with the economic policy if after 50 years of independence we still need such handouts. Decent jobs with decent pay will eliminate the need for such handouts.”
“We must elect effective, performing and clean parliamenta- rians and ministers that really care about the country who are ready to implement long term and sustainable social and economic policies.
“We want to ensure that every Sarawakian has a meaningful share in our state’s vast resources. We, the workers, cannot be short-changed anymore. Ignore us at your own risk,” the union warned.