Demonstrators participate in a protest outside of McDonald's corporate headquarters in Chicago last month. The protest was part of a nationwide effort calling for minimum wage to be raised to $15-per-hour. Getty Images
Demonstrators participate in a protest outside of McDonald's corporate headquarters in Chicago last month. The protest was part of a nationwide effort calling for minimum wage to be raised to $15-per-hour. Getty Images
Demonstrators participate in a protest outside of McDonald's corporate headquarters in Chicago last month. The protest was part of a nationwide effort calling for minimum wage to be raised to $15-per-
Labour unions are back in the spotlight in the US and for all the right reasons. There are implications for organised workers’ movements everywhere, as well as for the call to rebalance the deepening divide between labour and capital.
The resurgence goes beyond the obvious signals from America's new administration. President Joe Biden has conspicuously placed a bust of the Latino labour activist Cesar Chavez in his office. This week, Marty Walsh, the former construction union leader he nominated for labour secretary, faces US Senate questioning on his suitability for office. And Janet Yellen, Mr Biden's Treasury Secretary, has already told the Senate at her confirmation hearing that she wants to help American workers. Meanwhile, Mr Biden is pushing plans to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, something that last happened in America in 2009. (It went from a measly $6.55 an hour to an unspectacular $7.25.)
Add to that Mr Biden’s unambiguous statement to the heads of some of America’s biggest companies in mid-November, days after the presidential election was called. He said: “Unions are going to have increased power [in his administration]. I want you to know I’m a union guy – that’s not anti-business.”
It seems like a good moment to wax faintly poetic when posing a number of prosaic questions.
Will the dignity of work, rather than wealth, be recognised once more in America? Will Americans in full-time work now earn a living wage after 40 years of hard scrabble? Will organised labour really be able to diminish organised greed? Will the essential workers being saluted by everyone everywhere during this global pandemic finally get their due? This category includes people precariously situated within the gig economy, such as Uber and food delivery drivers, as well as low-paid, full-time workers such as nurses, supermarket shelf-stackers, cleaners and bus and train drivers. And finally, is a business model that only seeks profit no longer fit for purpose?
There are signs that change is brewing, even far away from Washington. Amazon, America’s second-largest private employer, is fighting the very first attempt by its US warehouse workers to unionise. Chances are the mail-in ballots will go through in a week’s time.
Just days ago, Google workers said they would form a global union alliance, the domino effect perhaps of their fellow employees at Alphabet, Google's parent company, forming a labour union for US and Canadian offices. It is significant if only as a cultural marker and could theoretically be a template for workers at other tech giants in offices and warehouses around the globe.
In late January, the US Supreme Court announced that it would not hear a group of cases that threatened to impose dire financial penalties on public sector unions, which would have straitened their ability to act.
In January, the US Supreme Court announced that it would not hear a group of cases that threatened to impose dire financial penalties on public sector unions that would have straitened their ability to act. Bloomberg ( / Bloomberg
Encouragingly, a Gallup opinion poll from September estimated that 65 per cent the American public – a figure that includes 45 per cent of all Republicans – approves of labour unions. And new data from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics shows that union membership within America’s overall workforce has risen for the first time since 2008 in percentage terms.
That last statistic may be more telling than anything else. In 2020, American labour unions didn't sign up more workers. But so many non-unionised workers were laid off in the year of the pandemic that it led to an increase in the proportion of unionised workers.
This indicates a manifest lack of protection for non-unionised labour and has created a new energy to mobilise and change the status quo. Workers’ wages and benefits have been declining since the 1980s in the US and in other developed countries, almost in sync with falling union membership. In the UK, for instance, 23.4 per cent of workers were part of a union in 2018, half the 1979 peak. But the pendulum is starting to swing back in some countries, with researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology reporting in 2018 that roughly 48 per cent of America’s non-union workers would join a union if they could.
Last month, employees at Google and other units of parent firm Alphabet announced the creation of a union. AFP
So, what happens next?
There is a very real chance that the US Congress, which is narrowly controlled by Mr Biden’s Democratic Party, will swing into action. The federal minimum wage may rise and Congress may pass into law the Protecting the Right to Organise Act.
The PRO Act is significant because it reverses decades of laws and regulations that have increased the bargaining power of employers to the detriment of workers, allowed wages to stagnate, income inequality to soar and giant corporations to have undue sway over politics and policymaking. Steven Greenhouse, who explored these subjects in his 2019 book Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labour, believes that worker power can only be rebuilt by making it easier to unionise.
The implication is clear. Active, and more to the point, respected labour unions should be allowed to restore balance to the capitalist system, protecting the rights of those who work, as well as the fortunes of those who pay them to do so. A happy workforce should, in theory, be a win for management because it boosts productivity.
Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey cheers during a rally on the first day of a teacher strike in Chicago in 2019. Unionisation may be picking up steam again. Reuters
Giving workers a better deal would align perfectly with all the talk of corporate social responsibility
Of course, any change in workers' prospects in the US would still be very different from Germany's famously consensual co-determination system of company management. The German model has a "works council" made up of trade union members, which participates in decision-making alongside the firm's executives. The unions look out for their members while also keeping an eye on the company's balance sheet. But attempts by the German carmaker Volkswagen to transplant the system to its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee a decade ago didn't work. The state's politicians were hostile and the plan was ditched.
That was then. Might things be different in 2021? After all, there have been signs that big business is minded to embrace a more inclusive model of capitalism. In 2019, leaders of the influential US-based Business Roundtable declared that firms should serve stakeholders as well as shareholders. It was a significant shift in the guiding philosophy from economist Milton Friedman's 1970 argument that business has only one responsibility – to increase its profits.
Giving workers a better deal would align perfectly with all the talk of corporate social responsibility.
Rashmee Roshan Lall is a columnist for The National
How to apply for a drone permit
Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
Submit their request
What are the regulations?
Fly it within visual line of sight
Never over populated areas
Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
Should have a live feed of the drone flight
Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
All matches in Bulawayo Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
Daniella Weiss and Nachala Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
Park in shaded or covered areas
Add tint to windows
Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 640hp
Torque: 760nm
On sale: 2026
Price: Not announced yet
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
