Older workers in an age of austerity

Colleagues,

On 29-30th January the GFTU is launching its two-year European project aimed at supporting the employment needs of older workers facing workplace vulnerability.

The project (supporting the needs of older, vulnerable employees) brings together a partnership of organisations (trade unions, academic and employer) from France, Finland, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.

Embedded here is a short clip (largely show it can be shown at the launch event) of the fund that the project is backed by.

Further details of the project can be seen at: http://www.gftu.org/content/3/1/13/article/77/

Can Globalisation Work for Women?

Colleagues,

Apologies for not posting an item at the start of the year, but I was tied up with deadlines/workload in both of my jobs at the GFTU and Ruskin.

And, I will have to make this first post of 2012 relatively short.

Despite this, the item under focus should be of interest to anyone in the labour movement with an interest in gender, social rights and leadership.

This new book edited by ValentineMoghadam, Suzanne Franzway and Mary Margaret Fonow is a timely analysis of the potential of trade unions globally to defend the socioeconomic rights of women with an examination of the relative strengths of weaknesses of trade union leadership in this context.

Without wanting to give the game away you can imagine what the conclusion is. Despite this it is still worth reading as the analysis and prescriptions are contemporary and they provide a modern perspective on a historical issue.

Helpfully you can read the first chapter and selected elements from Google preview via the publisher's promotional page: http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5286-making-globalization-work-for-w.aspx

Comments/feedback are very welcome.

In Solidarity

Ian