Europe's Cheap U.S. Labor (for real)

[donsu]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14899-2003Nov25.html?referrer=emailarticle

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The irony is that these European-based global enterprises are the kind of model corporate citizen over there that has all but vanished over here. In Europe, they pay their workers decently, tend to health and safety concerns and actually encourage their employees to unionize.

When they cross the Atlantic, however, they find themselves in a brave new world where wages have eroded (a new Russell Sage Foundation study concludes that 24 percent of U.S. workers make less than $8.70 an hour) and employees' rights to unionize have been effectively abolished. And rather than bring their Euro standards with them, the companies go native.

Consider the H&M clothing chain, a Swedish-based firm with more than 800 outlets in Europe. Over the past three years, H&M has opened about 70 stores in the Northeast, with outlets cropping up here in Washington over the past several months. A highly profitable purveyor of "cheap chic" fashions, H&M plans to open 12 to 15 stores a year in the United States.

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So it's come to this: When European employers look to the United States, they see roughly the same thing that U.S. employers see when they look to China: millions of low-wage workers who have all but lost the right to organize and a government intent on keeping things just the way they are.
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it was hard to explain this with just 4 paragraphs. so read it all to see what american workers have become.

[cryofan]

1. I already posted this, but thanks for posting it again

THe fact is that the europeans have kicked out asses when it come to developeing governments that work for the people instead of for the corporations and the investors.

[cryofan]

2. I already posted this, but thanks for posting it again

THe fact is that the europeans have kicked out asses when it come to developeing governments that work for the people instead of for the corporations and the investors.

[cryofan]

3. I already posted this, but thanks for posting it again

THe fact is that the europeans have kicked out asses when it come to developeing governments that work for the people instead of for the corporations and the investors.

[cryofan]

I already posted this, but thanks for posting it again

THe fact is that the europeans have kicked out asses when it come to developeing governments that work for the people instead of for the corporations and the investors.

[cryofan]

4. I already posted this, but thanks for posting it again

THe fact is that the europeans have kicked out asses when it come to developeing governments that work for the people instead of for the corporations and the investors.