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To: energyplay who wrote (55798)	11/9/2004 11:26:02 PM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 74559

Yeah, plenty of younger, braver rural-to-city migrants (a lot of them are girls) have moved up higher level of labor chain. OTOH, most of sweatshops (especially assembly lines and textile industry) would like to hire young girls. This is one reason why there is a cheap labor shortage.

To: energyplay who wrote (55798)	11/10/2004 4:04:28 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Nigerian oil supply has history of beating strikes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mail this story to a friend \| Printer friendly version NIGERIA: November 10, 2004 LAGOS - Nigerian oil supply is unlikely to be affected by a general strike due to start on Nov 16 unless it lasts longer than a week and is accompanied by civil unrest, oil industry and union officials said. Despite scores of strikes in the world's eighth largest oil exporter in the last decade, Nigerian oil production and exports have proved immune to industrial action since the early 1990s. "Often the impact of strikes is less than people expect," said Mosto Onuoha, Shell Professor of Geology at the University of Nigeria at Enugu. "They affect the industry because their main offices are closed, but strikes often do not affect deliveries." The umbrella union body Nigeria Labour Congress called for an indefinite general strike to begin on Nov 16 to protest against a 20 percent hike in the price of fuel. It follows a four-day warning action last month, which brought most businesses to a standstill, but left untouched Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels per day of output and exports. Onuoha said that unions normally considered strikes successful if they stop public transport and close major municipal and commercial centres, ignoring operations at oil facilities in the remote wetlands of the Niger Delta. NON UNION STAFF Even under total strike conditions, companies that pump the oil which supplies 90 percent of the country's hard currency earnings say they can keep going for several days. "Even if all unionised workers go on strike, we have non-unionised staff who can keep things going for a reasonable period of time," said a senior industry executive, asking not to be named. Despite the benign history, oil unions normally threaten to disrupt production and exports in the days before strikes to increase pressure on the government to concede ground. The white collar oil union, PENGASSAN, said this week it would withdraw its personnel from export and production platforms if their security is threatened, but stopped short of saying it would definitely close down the industry. "Our members could be targets (of civil unrest) in the Niger Delta. We don't want to expose our members so the thing to do is instruct people to come back from the platforms," said PENGASSAN President Brown Ogbeifun. The blue-collar oil workers' union, NUPENG, said it would hold a meeting of its regional branches next week to decide on its strategy before the Nov 16 start date. After suffering from a surprise two-day strike by oil unions last month over a corporate restructuring involving job cuts, Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) took the unions to court this week challenging its right to strike over the issue and also seeking to stop picketing and other labour practices. The union argued that there was no strike now under way that required an injunction and the case was adjourned to Nov 18. (Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba) Story by Tom Ashby