Air India limps back to normal after costly strike

It was a year ago that escalating labor tensions in the country of South Africa ground its mining sector to a halt, when demands from striking workers for wage hikes were met with aggressive retaliation in the form of rubber bullets first and then very real ones, leading to a tragic collapse in the already tenuous relationship between foreign corporations and domestic labor unions.

A union said Saturday it was ready for unconditional talks to end a five-day walkout by pilots of national carrier Air India, as the airline fired 25 more strikers and cancelled more flights.Some 200 pilots from the debt-laden airline, which is facing mounting problems due to rising fuel prices, competition from low-cost rivals and a record of labour disputes, have been on strike since late Monday.

Article written by Prieur du Plessis, editor of the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog.As wage talks between South African mines and labour have become deadlocked, the mood among mine workers and labour in general is for strikes and I doubt it will be averted.

When Europe's politicians boldly said a few weeks ago what they have been repeatedly saying every year for the past three, namely that "Europe is fixed" usually just before it breaks all over again, what they meant was that the various stock markets were up. Because if they were actually referring to the European economies, Europe just broke (no pun intended) once more, with the Greek economy once again back to its "new normal" baseline state: a near complete halt as the cold of winter dissipates, and protests and strikes return.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has staked the future of the world’s 11th largest economy on natural resource wealth spreading across the country. Brandy Damm, a welder who lost her job from a locomotive factory in London, Ontario, last year, isn’t seeing the benefit.

Qantas services began returning to normal Tuesday after days of chaos, as the airline began the task of winning back the hearts and minds of passengers and a furious government.In a statement on its website, the carrier said domestic routes were scheduled as usual with all international flights returning to business by late in the day."All passenger backlog will be cleared by this afternoon," a spokesman said.

You might find it hard to believe, but high prices of onions can trigger the fall of the government in India. In 1998, a supply side shock led to a sharp increase in onion prices in the country and most notably, in the state of Delhi. In the following elections, the ruling party was routed in large part due to its failure to control the price of onions in the capital state. Today, onion prices in India are up again, rising by over 100% in just three weeks in December.