Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

University and College Union (UCU) is involved in a prolonged dispute about the pay, pensions and conditions of its 120,000 members. Planned: The University and College Union (UCU) has announced a total of 18 days of industrial action during    February and March. Strikes are planned for February  1, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21,22, 23, 27, 28 and March 1, 2, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22.

Excerpts Political parties’ coercive activities make their support essential to doing business as their members maintain discipline in the factories. Pakistan’s textile industry, which employs 15 million people and contributes 8.5% of its GDP, has emerged stronger from the [pandemic] crisis; foreign sales, which represent more than 60% of Pakistan’s total exports, broke all records in 2021-22 ($19bn). Pakistan’s brand of industrial capitalism is likely to mount a strong immune response to any trouble ahead. Its ability to overcome crises throughout its history is not just down to its adaptability or even state subsidies. It’s mainly due to an extensive repressive apparatus, and civil and military authorities’ tolerance of employers’ illegal practices. [In the textile sector] ‘modernisation’ includes the feminisation of the workforce, which for cultural reasons is less advanced than in other Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.  Pakistani women, supposedly ‘more c...

“Britain is at least 90,000 truck drivers short.” “Logistics UK, the trade body for hauliers, said Britain had a chronic driver shortage for many years, but the problem was now acute. Many cite similar tales of poor working conditions for quitting but other reasons include poor wages compounded by a tax reform, known as IR35, that prevented most drivers from operating as limited companies, resulting in a significant cut to take-home pay.” “Add to that Brexit. For truckers, that meant endless paperwork, including customs procedures they were never trained for and queues at the border. Other issues included the need to take UK driving exams that many truckers did not have the language skills for, along with a more hostile attitude to foreigners in Britain. For the EU drivers that have left but still have the right to return and live in the UK, the prospects of higher pay that some UK companies are now offering was not enough. Many said they had already found work elsewhere on higher wage...

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