The Chinese workers who have been striking around China posted detailed accounts of the walkout online, spreading word not only among themselves but also to restive and striking workers elsewhere in China.  The workers fired off cellphone text messages urging colleagues to resist pressure from factory bosses.  They logged onto a state-controlled Web site and uploaded video of Honda’s security guards roughing up employees. The disgruntled workers took cues from earlier groups of Web-literate strikers who set up Internet forums and made online bulletin board postings about their battle with Honda.  They also tapped into a broader communications web enabling the working class throughout China to share grievances and strategies. 

“In China, Labor Movement Enabled by Technology,” New York Times, 6/16/2010; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/business/global/17strike.html?scp=23&sq=china&st=cse

Hundreds of thousands of French workers took to the streets on Thursday, June 23 to complain about the government’s plans to push back the retirement age from 60 to 62.  The general strike and protest marches were aimed at President Sarkozy’s decision to abolish legal retirement at age 60.  Many workers have come to regard age 60 retirement as an inalienable guarantee since it was added 27 years ago.  A banner carried by protesters said “The ministers are the ones who should be working more.  The protesters marched in more than 100 communities. 

“Thousands of striking French workers hold nationwide protests,” Washington Post, 6/24/2010; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062402719.html

A new survey of in-house salaries around the world by the international legal recruiting firm Laurence Simons finds that Brazil might be the best place to work abroad for in-house counsel.  Lawyers with solid experience in corporate banking, compliance and tax are most in the demand and can command the highest premium to move.  In the Eurozone, Ireland has the highest in-house salaries with salaries in Belgium, Spain and Poland taking a hit after the recession.  In Germany in-house salaries for those with 10 years of experience has dropped 30 percent.  In the United Kingdom, in-house lawyers with less experience had greater salary increases than their more experienced counterparts.  Over the last four years salaries for in-house lawyers in Russia have increased more than any other country in the world.  In the Middle East, lawyers with five years of experience rose 41 percent.  The influx of law firms into San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro has pushed up the salaries of both in-house and outside lawyers in Brazil. 

“Global Survey of In-House Lawyers Shows Where the Money Is,” Law.com, 6/18/2010.