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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron Bower who wrote (8064)	2/22/1999 5:53:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 9980

Ron, I would agree with Peter that unions played a vital role in bringing the American and European skilled worker into the consuming class and building broad-based growth. I would agree with you that too much of a good thing is too much, and that excessive union demands have become a serious block to competitiveness and innovation. The situation in SEA, though, is very different. You are correct in saying that the enormous pool of unemployed unskilled workers makes it practically impossible to raise wages for this sector. Skilled workers, though, are a very different story. Wages for the skilled trades have been consistently and artificially repressed in many countries, despite severe shortages, generated mainly because these workers are leaving in droves to find places where they can earn a decent living. In many countries they are forbidden to organize and forbidden to agitate for better wages or conditions. This has caused severe skill drain and concentrated wealth in the hands of a largely unproductive rentier class. I don't think any sane person would suggest a renewal of unionism as a solution to Europe's problems. Southeast Asia, though, is a very different place.