Wordpress is a bitch when its that time of the month  but I dont care. I'm not  posting til she  finishes.

Love n hugs

me

The solidarity pamphlet explores different forms of working-class action (strikes; occupations and sit ins; sabotage; work-to-rules and go-slows; etc.) and looks at how different tactics used relate to rank-and-file involvement and control over struggles. Similarly, Chris's introduction examines the lessons and relevance of these ideas for today, and stresses the centrality of self-organisation, democracy, and resistance to the conservatism of the trade union bureaucracies when faced with draconian anti-union laws.

The 24-page pamphlet, the third we have produced, costs £1, or you can click here to download it: industrialstrugglepamphlet.pdf

If you would like to be posted a printed copy of the pamphlet, email us at uncaptiveminds@googlemail.com or write to The Commune, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London EC1V 4PY

A mon réveil, je fais la connaissance de Persi qui travaille pour l'organisation avec laquelle je suis partie et qui me tiendra compagnie pour l'après-midi. Ensemble, nous visitons Cusco, oú je ne ressens pour l'instant pas le mal de l'altitude.. Je déguste enfin mon premier repas au Pérou qui, histoire de jouer l'originalité, se trouve être un "chifa" (traduisez par "chinois") et bois mon premier Inka Cola (le soda national du Pérou). Vers 16h30 arrivent Ernesto et notre chauffeur de taxi qui se joignent à nous pour le repas .
17h00, il est temps de quitter Persi pour prendre la route en leur compagnie jusqu'à Urubamba.

Et nous voilà partis, roulant à tombeau ouvert sur les routes de montagne, sinueuses et étroites, bourrées de nids de poule, traversant des paysages sublimes à la lueur du coucher de soleil. Il est bien évidemment impossible sur ces routes de prévoir ne serait-ce que quelques fractions de seconde avant si nous allons rencontrer quelqu'un en face... mais cela ne semble pas déranger notre chauffeur de taxi qui ne ralenti pas une seconde et joue du klaxon avec entrain. Il ne ralenti pas non plus quand se trouvent au milieu de la route des amas de pierres... d'ailleurs, je commence à me questionner, ces amas sont de plus en plus nombreux et de plus en plus importants. Mais d'oú peuvent bien venir toutes ces pierres ? Elles ne tombent quand même pas du ciel ?! Je pose la question à Ernesto qui m'explique qu'en réalité ces amas de pierres sont le signe de protestation des péruviens en ce jour de grève... Et d'ailleurs certains endroits de la route en sont tellement recouverts que nous devrons nous arrêter à plusieurs reprises pour la dégager et continuer notre chemin. Notre chauffeur de taxi excédé empruntera même une fois les champs pour ne pas avoir à sortir de la voiture...

19h00 et des brouettes (02h00am pour moi), nous arrivons à Urubamba, nous aurons mis une bonne heure de plus que prévu. Je découvre enfin ma nouvelle maison pour le mois à venir et Ernesto me présente à ma famille péruvienne.

A ce moment-là, après un peu plus de 47 heures de voyage, tout semble enfin prendre un sens et devenir réel, ça y est j'y suis, je l'ai fait, je suis au Pérou et je ne veux déjà plus en partir !

Jogue a bola para derrubar todos os pinos, se fizer de primeira é um strike. Pressione o "GO" e solte quando ele chegar no amarelo para conseguir um strike.

Jogar Agora Grátis

Like HL2, the graphics are spectacular in episodes 1 & 2, from the very first scene to the very last. Plenty of old favourites return to help out through various parts of the game, and unlike HL2, Alyx will play, fight and interact alongside you in 95% of the game. People I know are divided on whether Alyx is a clever piece of AI, an annoyance, or just an excuse to appeal to a wider audience because of the fresh element. Personally, I think that after hearing the directors commentary (more on that later) you appreciate just how complex the whole AI system is, including Alyx, DOG, and the enemy soldiers. Unlike in other games, the NPC’s in HL2 don’t get in the way, don’t shoot you by mistake, and most importantly; are likeable to the point you actually care whether they live or die. Having Alyx shooting, ducking and climbing alongside you is very refreshing and at times, integral to proceeding through the game. One particular moment has Alyx acting as backup sniper, shooting zombies while you rush forward, and another scene in the dark has Gordon shining light and directing Alyx where to shoot. She also has twice as many facial features for a much wider range of emotions, and you can see the importance placed on her character, as her background is also explored, as well as her connection and relationship to Gordon. Enemy AI is also as sharp as ever, and there are also soldier AI fighting zombie AI, which is great fun, as it gives you the chance to do what you want, a theme throughout the game as there are often multiple ways to solve a puzzle. You can either wade in and shoot anything and everything, take tactical sniper shots, or wait and pick of any remaining enemies. There are also all the usual HL puzzles, intricate level design, and challenging action, and the 2 expansion packs are every bit as good as the original, something I wasn’t expecting.

Team Fortress - I’ve had a go on it and can instantly see why it appeals to so many people. The first thing that TF2 reminded me of was the Timesplitter series on PS2. (Timesplitters is a FPS regarded as one of the PS2’s best FPS series) the graphics are cartoony although somehow realistic and very sharp, and look absolutely beautiful and slick. When joining a team there are several different roles for you to choose, each with unique weapons, abilities and roles. So everyone will have their own tactics and characters. Map designs are varied, look great, and the whole game runs seamlessly – not only graphically, but from a players point of view, the loading times are kept to a minimum, and options are all animated, a nice little touch that not many other games bother to include. Although I’m not hooked like some people are, I can see why people do love it as much as (if not more than) Counter-Strike: Source and other online shooters. I haven't been drawn in yet, and still mainly play Counter-Strike: Source.

Now, Portal is something special. This is the wheel, this is sliced bread, and this could be the single most brilliant concept ever. Portal is one of those things that come along every now and then and completely change the way games are thought of. I don’t think I can accurately describe just how utterly brilliant this game is, but I’ll give it a go anyway. The game is played like a FPS but is actually a puzzle game. Your only ‘gun’ is a portal device, you shoot 2 portals from it onto certain surfaces and use these portals to travel around and solve the puzzles on each map. I have no idea how the developers made it, but it’s simply astounding. The commentary from the PA is in typical Valve fashion and witty and truly entertaining, with quotes such as “do not attempt this puzzle as it is impossible”, “If you fail the test, the experiment will end – because you will be dead.” I’ve tried to do it justice in my description, but maybe this video will convey the brilliance of the game, and explain the concepts better. And remember this is a new game, and while it uses the HL2 engine, the thought behind each levels design, not to mention the additional way the portals are used. So much thought and effort has gone into the Orange Box that each individual game is worthy of a £30 price tag on its own, so you can see why £35 for the lot is such a great deal. Some other features are directors commentary on Portal and Episodes 1 & 2, bonus maps, loads of community maps are being developed, as is custom content, and add to this all the usual HL2 graphics, AI, physics, level design, characters, everything is in place and done to perfection. Quite simply, this is the single greatest gaming set in the world, and is the benchmark for any games in the future.

Overall - 9.5/10

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in the region to inaugurate its first train line and meet with pro-Indian political parties.  >>>>>

Changing gears, after a two week strike set up by union members who operate the Viva bus service all across York Region, it seems that they have accepted the offer and it is anticipated that full VIVA service will be back up and running this weekend. It seems that people in York Region are coping with the situation, quite similar to our strike in the Durham Region back 2 years ago. The strike will be distant memories for me of course.

References:

"Viva strike over." Vaughan Today. 10 October 2008. 10 October 2008. <http://www.vaughantoday.ca/story.php?id=1133>

"Drivers vote to end Viva bus strike in York." Toronto Star. 10 October 2008. 10 October 2008. <http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/515754>

The National Asylum Workers Union was founded in 1910, largely as a result of dissatisfaction with a new national pension scheme introduced for mental health workers the previous year.

Though heralded as a breakthrough by the then dominant Asylum Workers Association, the scheme was considerably worse for some asylum workers than the discretionary schemes it replaced. Their frustration came to a head in Lancashire, where agitation and petitions to improve the new scheme's terms failed to sway members of the county asylums board.

The new union's slogan, “All for one and one for all: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”, was adopted early on at the same meeting, at the Boar's Head Hotel, Preston, on 24 September 1910, at which the union was named. The first half of the slogan can be seen on the union's badge.

By July 1912, the NAWU had 5,400 members and a paid general secretary, the Rev HMS Bankart, a former mental hospital chaplain. It affiliated to the Labour Party in 1915 and to the TUC in 1923.

One of its first disputes, at Bodmin Asylum in October 1918, broke out when nurses were ordered to remove their union badges and refused to do so. Five nurses were sacked, and 34 more walked out in sympathy (from a staff of 70).

Within a week, male staff at the hospital had joined the strike, and the visiting committee was forced to back down, reinstating all those who had been dismissed and permitting them to wear their union badges.

The union changed its name in 1930 to the Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers Union and, with the backing of the TUC, began to recruit in opposition to the National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO).

In 1946, the MHIWU merged with the smaller Hospital and Welfare Services Union to form the Confederation of Health Service Employees, under which name it continued to operate until 1993, when it was one of three founder unions of the new Unison public services union. Its partners were the National Union of Public Employees and NALGO.

More on the history of the National Asylum Workers Union and its successor unions can be found on Michael Walker's COHSE blog.

Last month they put on black arm bands on the first day
of school, while teachers at three schools in Florence went
further, welcoming their young charges back from the summer
break dressed completely in black.
As well as bringing back the single-teacher system for
primary schools, Gelmini envisions changes at secondary
school too, including a return to marking students for
behaviour in a bid to fight bullying.

High-school students paraded in front of parliament last
month wearing donkey's ears and claiming the minister wanted
a 'Jurassic School'.
They said they will take to the streets again on Friday
to stage loud protests in around 100 Italian cities including
Venice, Bologna, Rome and Palermo.

We are ready to do what
it takes in order to block these measures that will destroy
the national education system,'' the Union of Students said.
Gelmini claims the job cuts in the sector will enable
her to raise salaries for Italy's teachers, who are among the
lowest paid in Europe.
She has said she would like to see her reforms approved
in time for the next school year.
Following a green light from the House expected late on
Thursday, the decree will move to the Senate.

from ANSA, October 9

This afternoon Northern Rail announced made the following announcement:

Northern Rail is pleased to announce that its drivers in the North West have suspended their planned strike action for Monday 13 October 2008 and a normal timetable will be in operation.

Train drivers working for Northern in the North West had been balloted over industrial relations, but agreement has been reached on all issues and the strike action has been suspended pending a meeting of the ASLEF Executive Committee on 14 October 2008.

Although the implemented 3% sales tax only applied to gold and jewellery shops in the bazaars,  other shopkeepers closed down their stalls in solidarity.  Bazaaris are worried that being forced to pass on the sales tax to consumers will hurt their businesses, in the context of a reported 29% inflation rate in September according to Iran's Central Bank. Some retailers didn't mind paying the sales tax, but worried that there would be an arbitrary implementation, ultimately benefiting only larger competitors with government connections. In the words of a carpet salesman quoted in a Washington Post article, "In Iran, if you have connections, you don't have to pay any taxes...but we don't have those connections. So we probably have to pay double."

Fearing that the protests would turn political, President Ahmadinejad decided to postpone the implementation of the sales tax following an emergency meeting between tax authorities and merchant associations. Different reports quote a period of 2-6 months before the implementation of the sales tax, and claim that the tax will be implemented to large enterprises only, thus having less of an impact on small-businessmen.

The powerful bazaari merchant class played an incremental role in bringing about the Islamic Revolution, as it funded the paralyzing strikes in other sectors of the Iranian economy and allied with activist clerics. Bazaari-led protests are thus particularly worrisome for Tehran, due to the contemporary, and historically, powerful role of the merchants in Iranian politics.

Members of the Montreal Media Guild, which represents Montreal Gazette employees in editorial, advertising and reader sales, voted to strike last month. (The Gazette is owned by Winnipeg-based CanWest Publishing Inc.) The most evident sign of this was the decision of its editorial members to withhold their bylines last week in protest. I've always doubted the efficacy of byline strikes–-the only people who care about bylines are journalists and the parents of journalists--but apparently the whiff of a strike has pressed CanWest brass into action. Should there be a strike, there will be a whole lot of white space to fill. So CanWest News Service Editor-In-Chief Gerry Nott did the obvious thing: he called up the local university and offered to make scabs out of several journalism students.

Yesterday, Mr. Nott called Concordia journalism student Dominique Jarry-Shore, a freelancer at the Gazette and Maclean's, to ask if she would like to file stories to the paper in the event of a strike. Nott, according to Shore, offered her $250 a story. "He told me that if I was concerned about what the striking reporters would think I could get published without a byline," Jarry-Shore told me today. Jarry-Shore said several of her fellow classmates were also contacted. "He said that if we're worried about being seen as 'scabs' we don't have to get a byline."

If $250 seems a touch on the low side, well... it's because it is. "Not only was he asking me to be a scab, he was lowballing me," Jarry-Shore said. "The irony is, if I were to freelance the same article at the Gazette right now, I would probably be paid double."

"He also said that stories might end up running in the National Post and other CanWest newspapers," Jarry-Shore said.

I called Mr. Nott to confirm the details. "That's incorrect," Mr. Nott said.

So you didn't call Concordia journalism students to write for the Gazette in the event of a strike?

"Yes I did, but I don't have to talk to you," he said.

I see. Why won't you talk to me about this?

"I don't have to tell you that."

Right-o.

The Quebec Labour Code seems pretty clear cut about this sort of thing. I'll let you judge for yourself. Concordia Department of Journalism Director Mike Gasher, meanwhile, is none too pleased with the soliciting of his young charges.

"It's come to my attention that some Concordia journalism students have been approached by CanWest to replace regular newsroom staff should there be a strike or lock-out at The Gazette," Gasher wrote in an email to students. "While that decision is ultimately up to you, I would caution you to think very carefully about accepting such an offer as it is a form of scab labour.  Not only could it harm your reputation and the reputation of our department within the journalistic community, it interferes with the ongoing collective bargaining process between Gazette journalists and their employer."

Sean bienvenidos a la página del Clan Skizo, que en realidad no es página sino Blog, pero le hacemos buena reputación y nos sirve..

Aquí encontrarás información acerca de encuentros, miembros, y en general del clan..Zona de descargas para los atributos especiales del Clan, los modelos exclusivos de Skizo y mucho más..

Revisa los vínculos en la barra de Secciones de la derecha para ser parte, Los requerimientos, reglas y demás..

En especial la SECCIÓN DE NOTICIAS donde se mantendrán actualizado los cambios y eventos del clan..

En fin..Bienvenid@ al clan Skizo, si quieres contactarme para cualquier cosa: samael_skizo@hotmail.com   O desahogarte comentando en la página ve a esta sección: Comentarios

Para dejar tu solicitud de membresía ve a esta página "¡Únete Al Clan!"..el Admin la revisará periódicamente..

Y si quieres probar nuestro modo de jugar antes de unirte, entra a nuestro servidor..Dicen "Skizo's Xtreme", pero no se asusten, no hay que bajar nada nuevo, es el mismo XDM o BubbleMod, con algunas cosas añadidas, sólo eso..

Recently, members of the city's executive committee voted down a proposal to turn the TTC into an essential service. There are two positions on this debate: those that point to research that shows essential service declarations ultimately lead to increased wages; and those that believe the cost of strikes and wildcat actions is too great to the economy of Toronto (estimated at $50 million per day).

Once again, Royson James of The Star has some wonderful insight on this issue. This includes an idea that many transit systems have followed for decades: private business operation of portions of the transit system. One has to wonder if the time has come for this idea to be implemented, especially with massive new transit lines being planned with Transit City. Is it right that one agency can shut down an entire transportation system on their own whim? A strike puts the whole system in peril, as people who regularly take transit would take their cars instead, resulting in a total standstill on area highways and arteries.

Privatizing portions of the system builds capacity in the event of a strike. The VIVA strike in York Region, for example, while inconveniencing some 30 000 commuters, hasn't been a big issue due to the fact that the rest of the YRT system is still running.

While Mayor Miller and his friends on the executive committee believe privatisation to be somewhat of a swear word, it is a pragmatic direction to take when a too-powerful, ideological union can inconvenience millions of citizens for the sake of 10 cents an hour.

The core of the IAMAW's complaint against Boeing is job security, while the core of Boeing's messaging rejoinder is "we need flexibility for success." The union says that Boeing's use of "contingent" workers (folks on short-term contracts who receive lower pay and benefits) to do jobs that were once the union's territory is making union jobs less secure. Boeing counters that these contingent workers can be hired or fired easily, which gives the company the flexibility to up-size or down-size, while maintaining a steady core of unionized workers who have job security.

To determine which side makes the best case, most people would look at the question, "Which argument do I agree with most?" But for a public relations professional, the key to which side is "winning" lies in the target audiences they're addressing.

For Boeing, there are multiple audiences listening: shareholders (who want to know the company will remain successful), union workers (who want job security with good pay and benefits), contingent workers (who want to know there will be work for them), and the workforce at-large, both unionized and non-unionized (and who knows what they want?).

For the union, the audiences are similar, but I don't imagine they care much about Boeing shareholders or contingent workers. Workforce at-large, absolutely. Boeing management, definitely. And let's add lawmakers, who can pass laws that force companies to provide certain benefits to workers. So what does the union say? According to this story, the union's chief negotiator, Mark Blondin, says the union wants a chance to prove they can be just as efficient as the contingent workers, or even more so. That's followed immediately by the threat of maintaining the strike for as long as they don't get their way. That speaks to workers and the union's membership.

Blondin also is quoted thus:

“Boeing wants to circumvent its unionized workforce, and that doesn’t sit well with our members,” Blondin says. “They don’t like what they’re seeing down the road.”

And although this hits their core audience (union members), I don't think it resonates with any other audiences, and that could be a problem. Without broader support, Boeing is not going to feel any pressure to yield to union demands, and that broader support does not seem to be forthcoming.

A look at some basic statistics could explain why: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union workers accounted for about 12 percent of the U.S. workforce last year, and that figure has been steadily declining for decades. This means that 88 percent of U.S. workers don't have the kind of pay, benefits, and job security bargaining power that unions do, so it's an alien concept from the get-go. Another factor working against them in terms of target audiences is that contingent workers - the root of the IAMAW's argument with Boeing - comprise about 30 percent of the total workforce, according to the above-linked msnbc story. That makes the uphill battle even tougher.

Now let's look at Boeing's messaging: Boeing spokesman Tim Healy says that the contingent workers are one of the factors that have helped the company become so successful, and that, "It doesn't make sense to change the rules that have allowed us to be successful." And he adds:

“Boeing has a history of pretty dramatic swings in hiring people and laying off people, so one of the things that outsourcing does is allows us to retain the core most experienced, most skilled people we need and make sure their jobs are going to continue," he says.

So all at once, Healy addresses issues that are the concern of shareholders ("we want to stay successful"), union workers ("some job security is better than none"), contingent workers and workers at-large ("hey, I don't have a guaranteed job; why should they?"). And, Boeing must recognize that unions in general - and the IAMAW in particular - are on the decline, and has tailored its rhetoric accordingly. If that weren't the case, they wouldn't continue holding their line even in the face of a strike that is costing them huge piles of money.

From CNN -

Public transport -- including the Athens metro, state railway services
and city buses -- also came to a standstill, forcing thousands of
commuters to drive to work and causing major traffic problems in
central Athens.
Employees at the partially privatized telephone company OTE and
state-run public power company PPC joined the protest action as state
hospitals, also, operated with emergency skeleton staff.

From The Guardian -

"Overthrow the Karamanlis government!" chanted some 3,000
protestors who marched past the Greek parliament, where the
ruling New Democracy party holds a fragile four-seat majority.

"Today was only the beginning, tomorrow all workers will be
on the streets," said Yannis Panagopoulos, the head of GSEE,
which convened a nationwide general strike for Oct. 21.

GSEE said 100,000 workers walked off the job on Wednesday,
shutting down state TV for hours and cutting rail services and
hospitals to emergency staff. The SEV business chamber could not
provide participation figures for the strike.
Olympic was forced to cancel about 100 flights including
international routes to London, Paris and Rome. Public transport
in Athens was halted during the morning rush-hour period,
clogging main roads and causing kilometres-long traffic jams on
the capital's main arteries.

This doesn't look good for any of the parties involved. After the most recent Hollywood shut down, you would have thought these people would learn to make nice and play fairly, but it doesn't appear it is going to go down like that. Stay tuned as we wait and see what develops in Tinseltown.

Não vou mentir para vocês: "Eu estava, novamente, sem idéias para um Top 5." (rs). Confesso que preciso aprender a me organizar, para que isso não aconteça com tanta freqüência. Devo isso a vocês (leitores), não é mesmo?

O Top 5 de hoje foi uma idéia de um amigo (como sempre), o Akhorahil (cliquem aqui, para acessar o Twitter dele). E, por mais controverso (que seja o assunto), resolvi aceitar este desafio.

Por quê este é um assunto tão controverso? Porque os gamers (em geral) são muito istas. Não entenderam nada? Simples. Tenho certeza que este post gerará muitos comentários, do tipo: "Como você deixou, esse ou aquele jogo, de fora?". Mas Top 5 é isso mesmo: "Sempre existirão críticas." (rs)!

E, antes de listar: Os Melhores Jogos de Computador; eu queria explicar um pequeno detalhe: "Por quê limitar a lista em apenas jogos de computador?". O mercado de jogos é muito amplo, e abranger computador, consoles (portáteis ou não), etc.; seria suicídio. Por isso, resolvi dividir este mundo tão diversificado, que é o mundo dos games...E me focar, inicialmente, apenas nos jogos para computador.

Mas vamos parar com o papo-furado, né? Segue a lista de hoje:

1. Jogo: Counter-Strike
   Desenvolvedor(es): Steam
   Opinião(ões): Engraçado...Do nada me veio uma saudades da minha época de Lan House (rs). O primeiro lugar para este jogo é mais do que merecido! Além do mais, meu apelido (e nome desse blog) vem dele. Quantas madrugadas já não virei, jogando Counter-Strike...
2. Jogo: Diablo II/Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction
   Desenvolvedor(es): Blizzard
   Opinião(ões): Já falei sobre esta série antes...Os dois primeiros jogos foram verdadeiros sucessos! Quebraram diversos recordes e ganharam muitos prêmios. Estou, ansiosamente, esperando a próxima continuação Diablo III.
3. Jogo: Starcraft
   Desenvolvedor(es): Blizzard
   Opinião(ões): Os fãs de Age of Empires e Age of Mitology que me desculpem! Mas, na minha opinião, Starcraft foi (e ainda vai ser) um dos melhores jogos de estratégia já lançados...Como assim "(...) ainda vai ser."? Starcraft 2 é a resposta.
4. Jogo: Grand Theft Auto
   Desenvolvedor(es): Rockstar Games
   Opinião(ões): Vamos considerar a série, né? Além do mais, daria para fazer um Top 5 só com os melhores da série (rs).
5. Jogo: Spore
   Desenvolvedor(es): EA
   Opinião(ões): E, por último...Spore! Estou, completamente, viciado nesse jogo. Não preciso dizer mais nada, né (rs)?

E, para não perder o costume, segue um vídeo (chamado Frag or Die) do grande campeão:

[dailymotion id=kjdbrAmOm5Oz9puCzc]

The Cathcart Circle railway line that snakes through our little corner of Govanhill and Queen's Park is our handy link to the centre of Glasgow. It takes just six minutes and £1.35 to get from our stop into Central Station, which is both quicker and cheaper than the cynically expensive bus. The lines (and most every other one in Scotland) however, are much quieter today, as the RMT calls the first of two twenty-four hour strikes this week (from 12h00 midday today and 12h00 midday on Thursday). As with all labour disputes, there are of course two sides (link and link - thanks Monkey for the URLs) to every story.

The strike involves a wide range of issues, including: pay, pensions, job security and benefits. Mr. McNerney points out that if the machinists continue the strike, they are hurting the future of their jobs. Currently, the machinists complain about Boeing outsourcing major parts of aircraft production to Asia. This complaint specifically deals with the 787, which outsources major parts of the aircraft to other companies and to foreign countries. The wings for the aircraft are being built in Japan, and large portions of the aircraft are being built by the Three Japanese Heavies (Kawasaki H. I., Mitsubishi H. I., & Fuji H. I.). Although the machinists are unhappy with the changes with who-builds-what, I firmly believe that Mr. McNerney is correct in saying "...we believe this track record of repeated union work stoppages is earning us a reputation as an unreliable supplier to our customers, who ultimately provide job security by buying our airplanes."

The up and coming industry in China is something to be worried about. Not only as a manufacturer, but as a consumer. "China is accelerating rapidly in pursuit of its goal to become an aerospace leader," wrote Mr. McNerney. I firmly believe China is not the place when it comes to safety and quality. Sure, we can trust them to make a pair of Nikes, yet products as exquisite as aircraft, we simply should not be trusting China just yet. With reports of malfunctioning microchips inside aircraft, I think we need to be concerned. It cuts labor costs, and that's the reason why Airbus has started a plant in China. Yet I say keep aviation outside of China for the moment, at least until a viable product proves otherwise. 

I'm happy to see that Boeing management has held strong on this issue. A little while back, I was very certain that the union would accept Boeing's offer. Boeing raised the salary of machinists 11% (3% year 1, 3% year 2, 5% year 3) prior to the vote (to strike by the union). You can read the last and final offer here.

Image: flickr.com