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IPS Inter Press Service News Agency

EGYPT: Minimum Wage Not Enough
By Cam McGrath
CAIRO - A stalemate between labour unions and business associations is preventing Egyptian authorities from setting a minimum wage that could improve the lot of millions of citizens living in poverty.
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RECESSION AND RECOVERY: The Lucky Are Unemployed - Part 1
By IPS Correspondents*
LONDON - The agreed, if dubious, solution to the financial crisis was to get people and governments - in the richer countries - to borrow more in order to spend more. What is not in doubt is the growing numbers of people who will be able to neither borrow nor spend.
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URUGUAY: Forestry Industry Boom Brings Jobs and Challenges
By Patricia Montero Lafourcade
PAYSANDÚ, Uruguay - "After work, when I'm on my own, I'm bored to death. If you want amenities, you have to bring them yourself," says young forestry worker Alejandro de Leiva, who works on a tree plantation in the western Uruguayan province of Paysandú, where he lives and works for 10 to 12 days in a row, with just two days off.
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ARGENTINA: "Myth" of Egalitarian Society Fading Away for Young People
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - A study on young people and human development in South America's Mercosur trade bloc indicates that while in Brazil, the country's longstanding social inequality is the focus of at least somewhat successful efforts to combat it, in Argentina the vision of an equitable society is fading away.
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PARAGUAY: Migrants Mainly Young Undocumented Guaraní-Speakers
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCIÓN - Freddy Garcete, a 50-year-old painter who works in the construction industry, travelled to Spain in search of better wages two years ago, becoming one of the 500,000 Paraguayans forced to seek work abroad because of the conditions at home.
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PERU: Women Workers Forced into Informal Economy
By Maritza Asencios
LIMA - In Peru, 51 percent of all jobs are generated by the informal economy, a sector that has a female face, as more than 60 percent of the women workers in the country are forced into informality, with only 15 percent having health coverage and a mere four percent enjoying retirement benefits.
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LABOUR-MEXICO: Manufacturing Poverty for Women
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - A group of workers in Honduras managed to prevent the closure of an assembly plant manufacturing sportswear for the U.S.-based sports apparel maker Russell Athletic, thereby saving 1,200 jobs.
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LABOUR: Sorting Garbage - Green and Dignified Work
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 1,500 representatives of waste recyclers from 13 countries, and thousands of other visitors, including the host country Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met last week in São Paulo, demonstrating that they are no longer pariahs in our throw-away society.
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BOLIVIA: Amazon Nuts at Exploitative Prices
By Franz Chávez*
LA PAZ - Bolivia is the world's leading exporter of the shelled Brazil nut, a nutritious food source that grows abundantly in the country's Amazon rainforest region. But in this tropical paradise, many of the nut-gatherers live in hellish conditions.
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LATIN AMERICA: Strides and Setbacks for Domestic and Rural Workers
By Daniela Estrada*
SANTIAGO - In the last few years, several Latin American countries have attempted to improve labour conditions for rural workers and domestics, whose labour rights have long been ignored. But the new laws, even those with limited scope, are not always enforced.
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PARAGUAY: Health Insurance for All (Registered) Domestics
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCION - It took 42 years for social security health care coverage for domestics to extend beyond the limits of the Paraguayan capital.
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BALKANS: Strike Wave Sweeps Serbia
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE - A very hot summer of workers' discontent has taken over Serbia. Some 33,000 people go on strike daily in 40 to 45 firms, according to union statistics. They are mostly employees of privatised companies who have not been paid salaries or social and health security benefits for months now.
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Q&A: A Second Chance – As Advocate for Women Migrants in Argentina
Marcela Valente interviews NATIVIDAD OBESO
BUENOS AIRES - In her 48 years, Natividad Obeso has already lived several different lives. There was the time when she lived in her native Peru as a successful businesswoman and mother of four. Then there was the time when she spent her days wandering the streets of the Argentine capital, penniless and alone, a fugitive of political persecution that she never understood.
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RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: NGO Offers Girls a Way Out of Sexual Exploitation
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCIÓN - Claudia was 13 years old when she came to the capital of Paraguay from her small rural town. Just a few weeks after her arrival she was wandering the streets of downtown Asunción, a victim of sexual exploitation.
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LABOUR-GUATEMALA: Domestics Finally Gain (Limited) Rights
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - "What really hurt was that they refused me my right to rest before and after I had my baby. Even when my contractions started, they wouldn't let me go to the hospital," said Mildred Díaz, a Guatemalan domestic employee, talking about the worst aspects of her job.
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Labour in RSSWill just any job do when it comes to fighting poverty? Because of the large size of the informal economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, a sizeable proportion of jobs are low-paid and precarious. In some places, basic labour rights are a rarity.
Expanding decent employment, as the International Labour Organisation is pushing for, is a broadly shared aim. But how hard are the countries of the Americas working toward that goal?
"Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance" is the theme of the Fourth Summit of the Americas, slated for November in Argentina.
Slave and child labour, gender discrimination, local communities and microenterprises working to create quality jobs... in this exclusive coverage, IPS invites you to find out more about the world of labour in the Americas.


News in RSS
POLITICS-SUDAN: African Leaders Call for Peaceful Elections
ECONOMY: Greek Crisis Impacts the Balkans
U.S.: Families Sue Over Guantanamo Deaths
NIGERIA: Acting President Consolidates Power Amid Unrest
CLIMATE CHANGE: A Year On, Little Change in Political Climate
LATIN AMERICA: Still a Long Way to Go, for Black Women
ZAMBIA: School Policy for Teen Mothers a Partial Success
KENYA: Trying to Rebuild Communities After Floods
IRAN: New Budget May Add to Uncertainties, Political Strains
Q&A: Sri Lanka Remains Defiant of U.N. Chief
More >>
Fourth Summit of the Americas
Summits of the Americas Secretariat
International Labour Organisation
Labourers' International Union of North America
International Labour Standards concerning women workers
Child Labour Coalition
AFL-CIO
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
Global Unions
World Confederation of Labour
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