NTUC Blog

The UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience, and resources to help people build a better life. In 2000, at the Millennium Summit, world leaders pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to cut poverty in half by 2015. The Country Director of…

by Honesto General from Philippine Daily Inquirer On Dec. 10, in observance of the 60th year of the of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the group Karapatan, at a news briefing in a Quezon City restaurant, presented a 32-page 2008 Human Rights Report, which was featured by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a front-page…

by Cris Evert Lato from Cebu Daily News CEBU CITY, Philippines – About 30 percent of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are working in the United States, according to research group Ibon Foundation.

by Cielito Habito from Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, Philippines – Ever notice how our economy has been behaving strangely lately? The latest strange (but welcome) behavior is how job generation based on the last two quarterly Labor Force Surveys (July and October 2008) appeared healthy even in the face of the world economic slowdown that…

I am a self-confessed fan of Malcolm Gladwell, author of the international bestsellers The Tipping Point and Blink. He is an exceptional journalist who writes for The New Yorker, and was formerly a business and science reporter at the The Washington Post. His celebrity status pushed Fast Company to label him “a rock star, a…

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Banks floundered, grabbed government lifelines, and failed in 2008 as the global financial crisis shredded their own vaunted reputations for security.

Like me, you could be one of many Filipinos currently facing a major problem, a crisis, or dilemma. You might be an employer now facing the difficult decision of having to let people go because you are out of business or out of a job.

Fewer Filipino families now consider themselves poor, as self-rated poverty declined by seven percentage points in the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

by Patricia Evangelista from Inquirer MANILA, Philippines — There is a reason why traditional democratic discourse rejects active military involvement in politics, and stresses civilian supremacy. The reason is this: that violence, or the threat of violence, which the military utilizes in the enforcement of its goals, must be without bias in its service to…

Union Debt Help Paying off debt is a matter of making more money than you spend, and then allocating the extra funds to outstanding balances — easier said than done, right? To some it may be just that easy, but to most, debt is so common that it eventually becomes a way of life. In…

by ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer from FindLaw GENEVA (AP) – The global financial crisis will add at least 20 million people to the world’s unemployed, bringing the total to 210 million by the end of next year, the U.N. labor agency said Monday. That will be the first time in a decade of…

by Mahar Mangahas from Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, Philippines—The third quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey, fielded Sept. 24-27, had two modules on the topic of reproductive health (RH), one module of three items done on SWS’ own initiative, and a second module of three items commissioned by the Forum for Family Planning and Development (FFPD),…

by Ernesto F. Herrera from The Manila Times CAN age have something to do with one’s ability to do a job? I would have to say it could. But don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating age discrimination. I am in fact very much against it. But age can have a bearing in a…

Cito Beltran Philippine Star What you trained for all your life is not necessarily your destiny. This “gem” of a thought came to mind as I watched the animated movie “Kung Fu Panda”. I must confess that I am my daughter’s equal when it comes to being cartoon movie addicts. Perhaps I am a child…

from The Manila Times The Senate and House committees on labor and employment should investigate “the unusually high incidence of accidental deaths” of building workers at the $1.6-billion shipyard project of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction-Philippines Inc. in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, a labor group official said Wednesday.

by Alex Magno from Philippine Star It’s pretty much like tearing off a limb to save one’s life. In the face of galloping inflation driven by unabated oil price increases, most economies have taken defensive measures by choosing to cut growth. The most obvious way of doing that is to raise interest rates. The European…

Asia News Network Inquirer.net KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia — A Philippines government suggestion that its citizens who have been in Sabah for a long time be accorded Malaysian permanent resident status has drawn opposition from state leaders. “Malaysia has its ways of dealing with illegal immigrants and as far as I know, this is not one…

by Bruce Einhorn and Mehul Srivastava from Business Week Trade talks broke down July 29 as India and China refused to bow to U.S. demands on agricultural subsidies It’s not often that China and India find themselves on the same side. They’re the world’s most populous countries and have two of the fastest-growing economies, but…