Category Archives: Globalisierung

Krachlederne aus Sri Lanka?

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Schwedische Blaubeeren werden von Arbeitern aus Thailand gepflückt. Aha? – Wer näht eigentlich die zünftigen “Krachledernen”, die Lederhosen, die wir bald wieder (persönlich oder in den Fernseh-Nachrichten) auf dem Oktoberfest sehen? Näherinnen in Sri Lanka. Aha? Fast alle “original bayerischen” Lederhosen kommen aus Sri Lanka (Schulz, R. 2012: Nüchtern betrachtet. Warum sollte die Globalisierung vor Brauchtum Halt machen? Ein Besuch in dem Land, aus dem fast jede original bayerische Lederhose kommt – Sri Lanka. In: SZ-Magazin 37/2012, http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/38361/Nuechtern-betrachtet).

“Eine gute Näherin bekommt 14 500 Rupien Basislohn im Monat, rund 90 Euro. Dazu kommen Zuschläge für Überstunden. Deswegen mögen sie diese Feste, von denen ihnen Weidemann Fotos gezeigt hat: Straubinger Gäubodenfest, Augsburger Plärrer, Münchner Oktoberfest. Normalerweise arbeiten sie Montag bis Samstag von 7.30 Uhr bis 17.20 Uhr, halbe Stunde Mittag, zweimal zehn Minuten Teepause. Sonntag ist frei.” (Quelle: Schulz, R. 2012).

(Bildquelle: Foto von Claude TRUONG-NGOC;

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Thai seasonal migrant workers pick Swedish blueberries

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Who picks the Swedish and Finnish blueberries? A great deal of them is picked by foreign  migrant workers.

“Today the Swedish berry-picking industry is dependent on foreign seasonal migrant workers from China, Thailand, Viet Nam and such Eastern European countries as Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, among others. Foreign workers represent more than 80 per cent of the labour force in the berry-picking industry … . Outside of the European Union, Thailand sends the largest number of migrant workers to Sweden to pick berries…“ (Vanaspong 2012: 13).

Whole farming families from Thailand have to mortgage their land and pay „recruting fees“ to private labour recruting agencies in Thailand,  so that they can send members of the family to Sweden to earn money. The workers arrive in July, are placed in camps and have to work very long hours picking berries in the woods for Swedish companies. Because of increasing recruitment … Mehr lesen...

“Union decline and rising inequality in two charts”

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The lower the “countervailing power” of labor unions, the higher the inequality (see the two charts by Colin Gordon, http://www.epi.org/blog/union-decline-rising-inequality-charts).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYOedwIjMU&feature=player_embedded]

It would be interesting to find out, (i) which causal mechnismus is responsible for this statistical relationship and which direction the causality has, (ii) whether we would find the same relationship for other countries as well, and (iii) if it still exists when one controls for other possible causes of inequality.… Mehr lesen...