<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Feb-9 8:23 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>6826.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Feb 10, 2009
SPECTRE OF PROTECTIONISM
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : start --></TD></TR><TR><TD>It's fire foreigners, hire locals in the EU
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jonathan Eyal, Straits Times Europe Bureau
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
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Despite EU rules ensuring a free flow of labour between member nations, Spain is encouraging foreign workers - mainly Romanians - to go home. The poster reads: 'If you are thinking of returning...Voluntary return plan. You choose your future'. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
LONDON: - Employees at an oil refinery in Britain's north-east reported for duty yesterday, ending a week-long strike in protest against the employment of foreign workers.
The British government, deeply embarrassed by this outburst of open racism, breathed a collective sigh of relief. 'We should keep our sights set firmly, not on the politics of xenophobia, but on the economics of this recession,' urged Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story -->Openly protectionist labour policies are also supported by more insidious, indirect moves. All European governments have bailed out their banks, on condition that local companies should get priority access to credit.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>But the backlash against foreign workers in Europe is only beginning, and as the economic downturn bites harder, not only trade unions but governments themselves are becoming guilty of trade protectionism.
The British dispute represents a classic case of globalisation, with all its contradictions. The refinery at the heart of the anti-foreigner backlash is actually French-owned. The company that brought in foreign workers is American, although most of its staff are Italian and Portuguese. And one of the organisers of the strike is a certain Mr Stewart Roe, a 61-year-old who came back to England after working in South Africa. Apparently, it remains perfectly acceptable for the British to work abroad, provided foreigners do not do the same in Britain.
Britain has been more generous than other European countries in admitting foreign workers. While its economy was booming, the country lifted all border restrictions on the poorer countries of Eastern Europe; approximately 600,000 mainly Polish workers arrived over the last five years alone.
However, with British unemployment now touching twomillion - the highest level in more than a decade - and projected to peak at about three million by the end of this year, even politicians are toying with cheap nationalist jibes.
Soon after he came to power in 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to promote 'British jobs for British workers'. At that time, this sounded like just a catchy phrase with no significant meaning. But to Mr Brown's dismay, his pledge was too catchy: It appeared on all the placards held up by striking refinery workers last week. 'We want nothing more than what the Prime Minister promised,' the protesters shouted.
An anti-foreigner momentum is now building up throughout Britain. The police are rushing reinforcements to Kent, in southern England, where a similar protest is scheduled for tomorrow. The British Post Office has also come under fire for employing overseas labour.
Ironically, the 'foreign' workers whom Britain's trade unions wish to see excluded are European Union (EU) citizens who, by law, are entitled to seek employment wherever they wish in the continent. No European government, therefore, has the right to restrict their flow, unless it wants to tear apart the EU.
Yet this does not prevent other European countries from implementing their own restrictive labour practices.
Spain has unveiled a new government-funded campaign designed to persuade foreign workers - mainly Romanians - to return to their homes. No compulsion is involved, but the appearance of street billboards openly admitting that such workers are no longer wanted will hardly improve race relations.
France has gone even further. Its government is proposing to offer cash to local industries - provided they promise not to relocate to other European countries and use only local suppliers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy singled out French car companies that have relocated their factories to the Czech Republic, warning them that it is 'unacceptable' for them to supply the French market.
The French leader seemed oblivious to the fact that such cross-border industrial operations are precisely why the EU was created in the first place.
Openly protectionist labour policies are also supported by more insidious, indirect moves. All European governments have bailed out their banks, on condition that local companies should get priority access to credit. Mr George Provopoulos, the Greek central bank governor, warned his banks last week not to lend to Eastern Europe. In Spain, a senior minister urged his people to 'bet on Spain, bet on our products, our industry and our services'.
To make matters worse, large construction projects - launched by governments to increase employment during the recession - also seem to have been inspired by nationalist considerations.
Under EU regulations, such contracts must be open to all European companies. But France has now called on Europe to modify this procedure, in order to be able to discriminate in favour of its own national suppliers.
In public, all European politicians claim that they remain committed to free trade. Nevertheless, Mr Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, readily admitted recently that 'protectionist pressures now represent Europe's chief danger'.
There is, however, one small country in Europe that still seems able to swim against this nationalist tide. Over the weekend, the people of Switzerland - a non-EU member - were asked to vote on whether they should open their borders to workers from Romania and Bulgaria, two of Europe's poorest former communist states. The Swiss answered 'yes' with a thumping two-thirds majority. It was a lone European voice for sanity and free markets.
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
SPECTRE OF PROTECTIONISM
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : start --></TD></TR><TR><TD>It's fire foreigners, hire locals in the EU
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jonathan Eyal, Straits Times Europe Bureau
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Despite EU rules ensuring a free flow of labour between member nations, Spain is encouraging foreign workers - mainly Romanians - to go home. The poster reads: 'If you are thinking of returning...Voluntary return plan. You choose your future'. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
LONDON: - Employees at an oil refinery in Britain's north-east reported for duty yesterday, ending a week-long strike in protest against the employment of foreign workers.
The British government, deeply embarrassed by this outburst of open racism, breathed a collective sigh of relief. 'We should keep our sights set firmly, not on the politics of xenophobia, but on the economics of this recession,' urged Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story -->Openly protectionist labour policies are also supported by more insidious, indirect moves. All European governments have bailed out their banks, on condition that local companies should get priority access to credit.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>But the backlash against foreign workers in Europe is only beginning, and as the economic downturn bites harder, not only trade unions but governments themselves are becoming guilty of trade protectionism.
The British dispute represents a classic case of globalisation, with all its contradictions. The refinery at the heart of the anti-foreigner backlash is actually French-owned. The company that brought in foreign workers is American, although most of its staff are Italian and Portuguese. And one of the organisers of the strike is a certain Mr Stewart Roe, a 61-year-old who came back to England after working in South Africa. Apparently, it remains perfectly acceptable for the British to work abroad, provided foreigners do not do the same in Britain.
Britain has been more generous than other European countries in admitting foreign workers. While its economy was booming, the country lifted all border restrictions on the poorer countries of Eastern Europe; approximately 600,000 mainly Polish workers arrived over the last five years alone.
However, with British unemployment now touching twomillion - the highest level in more than a decade - and projected to peak at about three million by the end of this year, even politicians are toying with cheap nationalist jibes.
Soon after he came to power in 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to promote 'British jobs for British workers'. At that time, this sounded like just a catchy phrase with no significant meaning. But to Mr Brown's dismay, his pledge was too catchy: It appeared on all the placards held up by striking refinery workers last week. 'We want nothing more than what the Prime Minister promised,' the protesters shouted.
An anti-foreigner momentum is now building up throughout Britain. The police are rushing reinforcements to Kent, in southern England, where a similar protest is scheduled for tomorrow. The British Post Office has also come under fire for employing overseas labour.
Ironically, the 'foreign' workers whom Britain's trade unions wish to see excluded are European Union (EU) citizens who, by law, are entitled to seek employment wherever they wish in the continent. No European government, therefore, has the right to restrict their flow, unless it wants to tear apart the EU.
Yet this does not prevent other European countries from implementing their own restrictive labour practices.
Spain has unveiled a new government-funded campaign designed to persuade foreign workers - mainly Romanians - to return to their homes. No compulsion is involved, but the appearance of street billboards openly admitting that such workers are no longer wanted will hardly improve race relations.
France has gone even further. Its government is proposing to offer cash to local industries - provided they promise not to relocate to other European countries and use only local suppliers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy singled out French car companies that have relocated their factories to the Czech Republic, warning them that it is 'unacceptable' for them to supply the French market.
The French leader seemed oblivious to the fact that such cross-border industrial operations are precisely why the EU was created in the first place.
Openly protectionist labour policies are also supported by more insidious, indirect moves. All European governments have bailed out their banks, on condition that local companies should get priority access to credit. Mr George Provopoulos, the Greek central bank governor, warned his banks last week not to lend to Eastern Europe. In Spain, a senior minister urged his people to 'bet on Spain, bet on our products, our industry and our services'.
To make matters worse, large construction projects - launched by governments to increase employment during the recession - also seem to have been inspired by nationalist considerations.
Under EU regulations, such contracts must be open to all European companies. But France has now called on Europe to modify this procedure, in order to be able to discriminate in favour of its own national suppliers.
In public, all European politicians claim that they remain committed to free trade. Nevertheless, Mr Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, readily admitted recently that 'protectionist pressures now represent Europe's chief danger'.
There is, however, one small country in Europe that still seems able to swim against this nationalist tide. Over the weekend, the people of Switzerland - a non-EU member - were asked to vote on whether they should open their borders to workers from Romania and Bulgaria, two of Europe's poorest former communist states. The Swiss answered 'yes' with a thumping two-thirds majority. It was a lone European voice for sanity and free markets.
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
