unemployment | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »unemployment«

The ballot box & a youth wage subsidy

May 19, 2012

The battle for the electoral support of the millions of unemployed, unskilled and mostly ill-educated youth in South Africa — perhaps the most crucial voting bloc for the 2014 elections — is now in the open. It came with the decision by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to march on the headquarters of the country’s largest […]

Jobs front cynicism as the debates continue

February 10, 2012

The South African government is optimistically punting figures from the latest Labour Force Survey. The unions take a more cautious view and a closer look at the statistics reveals a still strongly "ticking time bomb" of mass unemployment.

Xmas bells ring in profit — and deeper debt

November 26, 2011

The measures taken to to get the tills of the towns of South Africa ringing for a profitable Xmas season, are similar to those that led, via the sub-prime mortgage debacle in the United States, to the current and ongoing global crisis. This is based on short-term thinking and the extension of unsustainable credit.

Labour thumbs down for SA medium-term budget

October 27, 2011

Overall, the South Africa's medium term budget policy statement has been given a fairly resounding thumbs down by the labour movement. And not just by trade union federations, officials, shop stewards and rank and file members; among the army of the recently retrenched are workers who gave a similar verdict as details of the statement became known.

…And so the postman goeth

October 15, 2011

On Monday, nostalgia, tinged with concern, will provide a worker and union undercurrent when the post office, with justifiable pride, celebrates the centenary of South Africa’s first delivery of mail by air. Similar feelings afflict postal workers the world over as this public service continues to be a job-loss victim of the internet and micro-chip […]

Technology and the race to the bottom

July 24, 2011

The labour movement is under concerted attack, globally, with capital now trying to play the role of defenders of the poor and unemployed. At least, thanks to modern communications, the facts will out and the real arguments can be aired, perhaps providing solutions to this crisis-ridden system.

Seeking union relevance in a world in turmoil

June 30, 2011

With the global economy in turmoil, the labour movement everywhere is having to adapt to changed — and changing — circumstances while avoiding the bribes, blandishments and bullying of governments, political parties and business. It could be a question of: adapt, fragment or fade away to irrelevance.

Resistance grows as the political edges fray

April 3, 2011

Trade unions around the world are being forced to fight back as a consequence of what many bankers claim is the “gradual recovery” of the word’s “fragile economy”. But, as the unions tend to point out, such improvements are paid for largely by the unemployed and working poor. “We are paying for their crisis,” is a common labour movement cry.