European Builders Confederation EBC’s Post

For every hour of embodied labour the South imports from the North, they have to export 11 hours to "pay" for it. This results in large net flows of value from South to North. Roughly 50% of all labour that is consumed in the North is net-appropriated from the South. This means that without unequal exchange, Northern economies would have to reduce their consumption by half, or double their working hours. https://lnkd.in/eiKaM4hr

One of the cornerstones of US labor history forgotten is The Bracero Program, originating from the Spanish term "bracero" meaning manual laborer, was a U.S. government initiative to import Mexican workers for farm and railroad jobs between 1942 and 1964. Created to address agricultural labor shortages during World War II, the program brought 5 million braceros to work in 24 U.S. states, making it the largest foreign worker program in U.S. history. The program began on August 4, 1942, when the United States and Mexico signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement. This agreement guaranteed farmworkers decent living conditions, including sanitation, shelter, food, a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour, protection from forced military service, and a portion of their wages placed in savings accounts in Mexico. Initially, the program also allowed the importation of contract laborers from Guam as a temporary wartime measure. In 1951, the Migrant Labor Agreement (Pub. L. 82–78) extended the Bracero Program by amending the Agricultural Act of 1949, setting official parameters for the program until its end in 1964. Research published in 2018 and 2023 indicated that the Bracero Program did not negatively impact the wages or employment of American-born farm workers. However, its termination led to adverse effects on American farmers and an increase in farm mechanization. After the program ended, temporary agricultural workers were admitted through H-2 and H-2A visas. In response to the surge of undocumented migrants, the Immigration and Naturalization Service launched Operation Wetback in June 1954 to repatriate illegal laborers. This operation affected not only initial illegal entrants but also those who overstayed their labor contracts. Over one million Mexicans were sent back to Mexico in the first year, and 3.8 million by the end of the operation. Throughout the 1950s, unions and churches criticized the Bracero Program for allegedly harming U.S. farmworkers. In 1955, AFL and CIO representatives testified against the program, citing inadequate enforcement of pay standards. These criticisms prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to close numerous bracero camps in 1957-1958, implement new minimum wage standards, and ensure that American workers recruited through the Employment Service received the same wages and benefits as braceros by 1959. The Department of Labor continued to advocate for pro-worker regulations, with limited success. One significant regulation was enacted in 1961, when President Kennedy signed an extension of Public Law 78, guaranteeing U.S. workers the same benefits as braceros. This led to a significant decrease in bracero employment, dropping from 437,000 workers in 1959 to 186,000 in 1963. Ultimately, congrats agreed to a final one-year extension without these benefits, leading to the program's conclusion in 1964. https://lnkd.in/gc8QwX95

"All saltwater activities remain bound to and shaped by a specific geographical and historical-cultural space. But what essentially constitutes this space and this imprint? What workplace trends are emerging at the beginning of the 21st century? And what possibilities for action do workers and their organizations have to counter maritime capitalism with their own needs and goals? Let us first sketch the field we are talking about here, in order to look at the next step at which strategic approaches to organizing workers in the various subsectors of the maritime economy have been developed and tested in recent years and could play a role in the medium term." https://lnkd.in/ed9Cuuuq

In the first weeks of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2024 we received representatives of the cabinets of the Belgian Government (Petra De Sutter, Frank Vandenbroucke, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, and Georges Gilkinet) to discuss shared priorities for the next six months of the Council of the EU. The main topics on the table were the Platform Directive, Economic Governance, the European Labour Authority, the generalisation of subcontracting, the implementation of the EU Pillar of Social Rights, the future of EU Sectoral Social Dialogue and, among other issues, the possible rise of the far right in the upcoming EU Elections. Along with the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), UNI Europa, European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW), industriAll Europe, ETUCE-CSEE, European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) and IAA Europe, the European Transport Workers' Federation, had a good dialogue with the Belgian Presidency about these crucial files. We look forward to good cooperation with the EU Presidency in the next six months.

At the heart of equitable and just societies lie fundamental principles and rights at work, which are inherent to all humans and essential for both decent work and sustainable economic growth. These rights, universal and indivisible, form the cornerstone of societal fairness. Learn about these five Fundamental principles and rights at work below.

It’s one of the main pillars of facility management service provider field

📋 How do the financing expenditure structures of active labor market policies differ in the Baltic-Black Sea region? https://lnkd.in/d4hjWiAT 🔎 Aleh Mazol from BEROC reveals significant differences between the countries and lists several active labor market policy improvement recommendations. 📌 Read more policy briefs about labor economics: https://lnkd.in/dRQiMzyk #FREENetwork #ALMP #labormarket

On Europe Day, I share the latest NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment podcast episode, in which I welcomed Dr. Maria Manuel Leitão Marques (Member of The European Parliament since 2019, Professor at the University of Coimbra, former Minister of the Presidency and of Administrative Modernization in Portugal form 2015 to 2019 as well as co-rapporteur of the EU Forced Labour Regulation) to discuss the new EU Forced Labour Regulation which bans products made with forced labour from the EU market, its role in upholding human rights in global supply chains, and its synergies with the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. On 14 September 2022, the European Commission published the proposal for a Regulation on Forced Labour to prohibit the placing and making available on the market, including the import and export of products made with forced labour on the European Union (EU) market, with this prohibition being aimed at all types of products, from different sectors and industries. The Commission presented this proposal on the grounds of the large number of people subjected to forced labour, which is estimated at 27.6 million, both by the private economy and by some state entities according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). I thank the MEP for such a rich and fruitful discussion! Youtube: https://lnkd.in/dkc_3nqM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/d7zi6DBU The link to my blog post on the topic of this EU regulation: https://lnkd.in/dJmqTSCd #CSDDD #Forcedlabour

Check out our latest blog, with Jana Jonckheere 👇👇👇👇👇👇