Globalization

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• Globalization
• Giving freer rein to the operations of private
  (capitalist) enterprise through neoliberal
  policies
• Liberalization
• Deregulation
• Privatization
• Fiscal austerity
• Tight credit
• Who gains at whose expense?

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Slowdown of World Economy
In the last decade, at least one major financial
crisis erupted somewhere in the world every two
or three years Japan in 1990, Mexico, Argentina
and Brazil in 1994-95, East Asia in 1997-98,
Russia and Brazil in 1998-99, and so on.
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Global Inequality
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In 2003, there were 185.9 million people with no
jobs

• Highest unemployment figure ever recorded- ILO

6.2 of total global labour force
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• "This deteriorating world employment picture and
  the prospect of a weak or delayed recovery is
  very disturbing. A continuation of these trends
  will dramatically increase the number of
  unemployed and working poor. A full-scale global
  recession could have grave consequences for the
  social and political stability of large parts of
  the world.
• - Juan Somavia
• Dir. Gen. of ILO, 2004

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Among the world's unemployed, some 108.1 million
were men, up 600,000 from the year 2002. Among
women, there was a slight decline, from 77.9
million in 2002 to 77.8 million in 2003
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Hardest hit were some 88.2 million young people
aged 15-24 who faced a crushing unemployment rate
of 14.4 per cent
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The so-called "informal economy" involving
persons without fixed employment continued to
increase in countries with low GDP growth rates
fujitsu cut jobs up to 20,000 alcatel- 17,000
siemens-15,000
the number of "working poor" - or persons living
on the equivalent of US 1 per day or less - held
steady in 2003, at an estimated 550 million.
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Regional Trends

• In industrialized countries jobs are sluggish,
  employment growth decreased between 2000 and
  2002, increasing part time and temporary workes
• In transition economies unemployment climbed
  from almost zero before integration in the global
  economy to 10 across the region
• In the Third World countries rapid increase in
  informal sector as unemployment increase
• In the Middle East and Africa regions with
  highest unemployment rate of 12.2 and 10.9,
  respectively

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High unemployment rate in the Philippines is
perennial
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In the Philippines

• Last year, the highest level of unemployment rate
  ever recorded since 1957 was recorded at 12.7
  with 4.3 million Filipinos out of work

• But this figure is even conservative,
• 5 to 8 million Filipinos forced to work
  outside the country
• 16.5 million Filipinos aged 15 yrs. Old and
  above who are not included in the labor force
• 6.2 million underemployed
• 4.3 million open unemployment figure
• 35 million Filipinos who cannot find employment
  inside their country or almost 70 of the
  potential labor force

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Globalization massive unemployment in a global
scale
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Neoliberal Globalization

• At the Macro level
• Privatization
• Liberalization
• Deregulation
• denationalization

• At the Micro-enterprise level
• Flexible production
• Flexible labor

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Flexible production means striving for five zeros

• Zero delay
• Zero default
• Zero production
• Zero paper
• Zero cost

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Imperialism Destroying Employment
KMU Education Department February 1,
2004 International Consultation on Youth
Education and Employment
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Massive lay-offs

• In the US
• Arvin Industries (automotive components)-streamli
  ned 10 of employees
• Union Carbide- re-engineered production,
  administration and distribution system and
  trimmed 13,900 workers
• GTE- laid off 17,000 workers
• NYNEX Corp- laid off 16,800 workers
• Pacific Telesis- laid off 10,000 workers
• ATT- laid off 77,000 managers
• Bankcorp- laid off 8,000 workers

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Massive lay offs

• In Germany
• Siemens- laid off 16,000 employees and 15,000
  workers around the world during the bursting of
  the Tech Bubble
• In Sweden ICA food coop- eliminated 5,000
  employees
• In the Philippines
• 768,862 laid off workers due to closure of
  establishments (economic reasons)

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Jobless Growth

• 3.8 M unemployed 11.2 unemployment rate
  (highest in 40 years!)
• Nearly half of employed are own-account workers
  or unpaid family labor (informal sector)
• Nearly 40 of employed are part-time
• At least 20 are contractual/temporary
• around 2,700 Filipinos leave for overseas jobs
  daily ? 7 to 8 million Filipinos are OFWs
• Around 1,600 mothers daughters leave their own
  families to work abroad as nannies, caregivers,
  nurses, factory workers, entertainers, etc.

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Inhumanely Low Wages
280
532
-252
NCR
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Labor Contractualization

• Encouraging contractualization has led to the
  termination and replacement of regular employees
  with contractual workers. Now more and more
  workers are
• denied job security (even for jobs that are
  clearly necessary and desirable to the
  company)
• paid lower wages with little or no benefits
• deprived of sufficient training and information
  on health and safety conditions at the workplace,
  thus, impairing their productivity and
  jeopardizing their health and safety at the
  workplace
• denied their right to form and join unions,
  participate in collective bargaining, and wield
  their right to strike.

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Table 2. Sample Daily Minimum Food Basket for a
Family of 6 in NCR(Source Average of
prices from 3 wet markets in MM)
Item Gastos
1 can evaporated milk 1 kilo chicken 3 pcs. Eggs 2 kilos rice ½ kilo potatoes ½ kilo assorted vegetables 6 pcs. bananas 150 gms. Sugar ¾ cup cooking oil Salt, garlic, onions Kerosene TOTAL 23.6 97.5 6 40 20 17.5 12 3.6 9.125 8 10 247.33
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Social Implications of Low Wages

• Of every 100 students that enter elementary
  schooling, only 65 manage to graduate. Of these
  only 47 eventually graduate from high school.
  Children are withdrawn from school in order to
  augment the family income or at least cut down on
  family spending.
• Over 4 million Filipino children are working to
  augment the meager incomes of their families or
  forced to eke out a living on their own.
• Unable to afford secure housing, 40 of the
  country's "urban" population live in slum or
  squatter communities.

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Social Implications of Low Wages

• In Metro Manila alone, 591 squatter colonies have
  been identified with a total population of 2.5
  million, representing nearly one-third of the
  entire metropolitan population
• 1 in 4 Filipinos are afflicted with tuberculosis
  and 68 Filipinos die of the disease every day. A
  minimum wage earner cant even afford the cost
  of TB treatment even with a full month's earnings
  solely devoted to its payment.
• There are also social tensions that build up as
  the pressure to make ends meet carries with it
  other costs such as higher incidence of
  depression, drug use, sexual violence, child
  abuse and criminality.

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Inhumane Working Conditions

• Forced Overtime (10-12 hour shifts)
• Unreasonable Company Rules Regulations
• UTI, fatigue, etc.
• Discrimination (young, female with pleasing
  personality)
• Virginity Tests
• Lay-off or lie-down

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Workers Repression

• out of 6 ILO core labour standards, firms comply
  least with ILO Convention Nos. 87 and 98 or the
  freedom of association and the protection of the
  right to organize. The same survey revealed that
  lack of management sincerity was ranked third
  (3rd) by management respondents among the factors
  that hindered compliance to core labour standards
  
• Discriminatory hiring
• Anti-union campaigns, intimidation, bribery
• Complicity of government officials (no serious
  enforcement of labor standards, etc.)

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From long-boom to long-downturn
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Overproduction Financial Speculation

• In 1976, 80 of all international transactions
  involved the buying and selling of goods and
  services. By 1997 only 2.5 of international
  transactions involved the buying and selling of
  the same some 97.5 were for speculation
• In the last decade, at least one major financial
  crisis erupted somewhere in the world every two
  or three years Japan in 1990, Mexico, Argentina
  and Brazil in 1994-95, East Asia in 1997-98,
  Russia and Brazil in 1998-99, and so on.
• These crises have severe and enduring adverse
  impacts on working people while multinational
  creditor banks and financial speculators make a
  killing, literally and figuratively.

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Third World Debt

• Cumulative debt service from 1980-2000
  US4.2 trillion.
• total debt stock has grown 33 times in just 3
  decades. Now over US2.4 trillion
• 3W debt stock is now equivalent to 40 of the
  combined gross national incomes of these
  countries, from just over 10 in 1970.

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Destruction of Productive Forces
Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the
same time accumulation of toil, slavery,
ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the
opposite pole. - Karl Marx

• Global unemployment 160 M as of 2000.
• 3 B or 1/3 of the worlds labour force are either
  unemployed, underemployed or earn less than is
  needed to keep their families out of poverty.
• a growing share of the working population is
  forced into lower-income and insecure forms of
  employment. In unindustrialized countries, more
  and more people are forced to survive in the
  informal sector where earnings are low and
  erratic and labor standards are not enforced.
• 1.2 B live on less than US1 a day, around 1.1
  billion people lack access to safe drinking
  water, and 2.4 billion lack access to improved
  sanitation

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