TY - JOUR T1 - Collective Labor Rights and Income Inequality JF - American Sociological Review Y1 - 2015 A1 - Kerrissey, Jasmine KW - collective action KW - collective labor rights KW - income inequality KW - labor rights AB -

This article examines the relationship between income inequality and collective labor rights, conceptualized as workers’ legal and practical ability to engage in collective activity. Although worker organization is central to explaining income inequality in industrialized democracies, worldwide comparative studies have neglected the role of class-based actors. I argue that the repression of labor rights reduces the capacity of worker organizations to effectively challenge income inequality through market and political processes in capitalist societies. Labor rights, however, are unlikely to have uniform effects across regions. This study uses unbalanced panel data for 100 developed and less developed countries from 1985 through 2002. Random- and fixed-effects models find that strong labor rights are tightly linked to lower inequality across a large range of countries, including in the Global South. Interactions between regions and labor rights suggest that the broader context in which class-based actors are embedded shapes worker organizations’ ability to reduce inequality. During the period of this study, labor rights were particularly important for mitigating inequality in the West but less so in Eastern Europe.

VL - 80 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The Impact of IMF and World Bank Programs on Labor Rights JF - Political Research Quarterly Y1 - 2015 A1 - Blanton, Robert G. A1 - Shannon Lindsey Blanton A1 - Dursun Peksen KW - human rights KW - International Monetary Fund KW - labor rights KW - structural adjustment KW - World Bank AB -

What effect do International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank programs have on collective labor rights? Labor rights advocacy networks and organized labor groups have long been critical of neoliberal policy prescriptions attached to loans by international financial institutions (IFIs), claiming that they harm the interests of workers. IFIs dispute these claims, noting that they work with relevant labor organizations and that many of their arrangements call for compliance with core labor standards. Yet very little research has been devoted to whether IFI programs affect labor laws and the actual labor practices of recipient countries. We argue that IFI programs undermine collective labor rights. Specifically, recommended policy reforms, as well as the broader signals connoted by participation in the programs, undermine labor organizations and the adoption of protective laws. To substantiate these claims, we use time-series cross-national data for a sample of 123 low- and middle-income countries for the years 1985 to 2002. Our findings suggest that programs from both IFIs are negatively and significantly related to labor rights, including laws designed to guarantee basic collective labor rights as well as the protection of these rights in practice.

VL - March 30, 2015 L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Legislating The Right To Strike In China: Historical Development And Prospects JF - Journal of Industrial Relations Y1 - 2015 A1 - Chang, Kai A1 - Fang Lee Cooke KW - China KW - labor rights KW - legislation KW - strikes KW - trade unions AB -

The strike as a confrontational form of expression of labour disputes has become an unavoidable phenomenon in China. However, knowledge about the politico-historical context of the right to strike in China remains patchy, despite growing interest in labour activism in the Chinese context. We aim to fill this gap by examining the Chinese jurisprudence of labour rights in general and the right to strike specifically. We do so by examining the policy and political stance adopted by the Chinese Communist Party on strikes; analysing the historical development of the legislation of the right to strike in Socialist China; highlighting the key features of labour disputes; and contemplating the legal foundation of, and implications for legislating for, the right to strike in China. This knowledge is essential to understanding the changing dynamics of industrial actions and workers’ activism, with wider implications for foreign direct investment and the management of labour relations.

VL - 57 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The Pressure Of Wildcat Strikes On The Transformation Of Industrial Relations In A Developing Country: The Case Of The Garment And Textile Industry In Vietnam JF - Journal of Industrial Relations Y1 - 2015 A1 - Cox, Anne KW - industrial relations KW - labor rights KW - strike KW - unofficial representation mechanism KW - unofficial worker representative KW - Vietnam AB -

Focusing on seven organizations, one from Hong Kong, three South Korea, and three Taiwan, operating in the garment and textile industry, this paper argues that the transformation of the Vietnamese industrial relations system has had very limited impact on the nature and capacity of trade unions. At the workplace level, the ‘race to the bottom’ has led to violations of labor rights. In this context, unofficial worker representatives (UWRs) have emerged and gained significant power to coordinate large scale strikes across firms and inter-provinces. This paper provides a clear profile of UWRs and shows that the bottom-up pressure created by wildcat strikes has influenced labor legislation and improved working conditions. The unofficial representation mechanism in Vietnam presents a unique example where an effective representation mechanism can be achieved without the presence of ‘input legitimacy’. Furthermore, this paper argues that rapid industrialization and social transformation coupled with the increasing structural power of capital have escalated labor conflicts and strikes in Vietnam. It underlines the importance of involving workers and their representatives, be it official or unofficial, in the process of change and transition.

VL - 57 L2 - eng CP - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - External Governance, Convention Ratification And Monitoring: The EU, The ILO And Labour Standards In EU Accession Countries JF - European Journal of Industrial Relations Y1 - 2014 A1 - Kahn-Nisser, Sara KW - Central Europe KW - Eastern Europe KW - EU KW - European Union KW - external governance KW - ILO KW - International Labor Organization KW - labor rights KW - labor standards KW - labor standards monitoring AB -

This article presents an empirical analysis of the factors associated with trends in labour standards, in EU accession countries, using a new dataset of labour rights. It focuses on ratification of the ILO’s fundamental conventions, EU monitoring and ILO monitoring. It describes the similarities and differences between the two monitoring schemes and evaluates their roles in shaping labour rights. Generalized estimating equation analysis shows that EU monitoring is positively associated with improved labour rights while ILO monitoring is not. The results further indicate that ratification of ILO fundamental Conventions is positively associated with labour rights protection. The article returns to the notion of external governance to suggest possible explanations for these findings.

VL - 20 L2 - eng CP - 4 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Women’s Labour Rights in Collective Bargaining Agreements: Inventory of Women’s Labour Rights Clauses in Collective Bargaining Agreements in Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Y1 - 2014 A1 - Besamusca, J. A1 - Tijdens, K.G. KW - collective bargaining agreements KW - gender KW - Guatemala KW - Indonesia KW - Kenya KW - labor rights KW - Mozambique KW - Peru KW - South Africa KW - Tanzania KW - Uganda KW - women’s labor rights AB -

This report, written for the Labour Rights for Women project, examines the extent to which Collective Bargaining Agreements contributes to the empowerment of women in work. The new and innovative WageIndicator Collective Bargaining Agreements Database is used to compare 186 collective bargaining agreements in Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda in terms of pay, working hours and work-family clauses. Almost all agreements have clauses regarding wages, but only 26 out of 186 have detailed pay scales showing what workers in different occupations should earn. Up to 84% contain clauses on standard working hours, schedules and holidays. Just over six in ten agreements guarantee paid maternity leave and offer job security after maternity leave. On average, the agreements offer better working conditions than the legal requirements in every country. Only one of the collective agreements has set working hours that are longer than the legal standard, four in ten agreements copy the legal standard exactly, whereas nearly six in ten offer shorter hours. Two agreements offer shorter annual leaves than the statutory entitlement, three in ten agreements follow the law and all others offer longer leaves. However, the collective agreements do not always offer more maternity leave than the law. While three in four agreements copy the law, 17% offer less than the legal standard. In Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda, collective agreements sometimes offer only the compulsory leave, meaning the duration of weeks that it is legally forbidden for the mother to work, rather than the standard provisions for paid maternity leave.

PB - University of Amsterdam, AIAS Working Paper 155 CY - Amsterdam L2 - eng UR - http://www.uva-aias.net/uploaded_files/publications/WP155-Besamusca,Tijdens.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Community in Conflict: A Working Class History of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike and the Italian Hall Tragedy Y1 - 2013 A1 - Kaunonen, Gary A1 - Aaron Goings KW - Italian Hall Tragedy KW - labor history KW - labor rights KW - Michigan KW - Michigan Copper Strike AB -

A mirror of great changes that were occurring on the national labor rights scene, the 1913–14 Michigan Copper Strike was a time of unprecedented social upheaval in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With organized labor taking an aggressive stance against the excesses of unfettered capitalism, the stage was set for a major struggle between labor and management. The Michigan Copper Strike received national attention and garnered the support of luminaries in organized labor like Mother Jones, John Mitchell, Clarence Darrow, and Charles Moyer. The hope of victory was overshadowed, however, by violent incidents like the shooting of striking workers and their family members, and the bitterness of a community divided. No other event came to symbolize or memorialize the strike more than the Italian Hall tragedy, in which dozens of workers and working-class children died. In Community in Conflict, the efforts of working people to gain a voice on the job and in their community through their unions, and the efforts of employers to crush those unions, take center stage. Previously untapped historical sources such as labor spy reports, union newspapers, coded messages, and artifacts shine new light on this epic, and ultimately tragic, period in American labor history.

PB - Michigan State University Press CY - East Lansing, MI L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws JF - Industrial and Labor Relations Review Y1 - 2013 A1 - Bernhardt, A. A1 - Michael Spiller A1 - Nik Theodore KW - labor law KW - labor rights KW - workers’ rights KW - workplace violations AB -

Drawing on an innovative, representative survey of workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, the authors analyze minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace violations in the low-wage labor market. They document significant interindustry variation in both the mix and the prevalence of violations, and they show that while differences in workforce composition are important in explaining that variation, differences in job and employer characteristics play the stronger role. The authors suggest that industry noncompliance rates are shaped by both product market and institutional characteristics, which together interact with labor supply and the current weak penalty and enforcement regime in the United States. They close with a research agenda for this still young field, framing noncompliance as an emerging strategy in the reorganization of work and production at the bottom of the U.S. labor market.

VL - 66 L2 - eng CP - 4 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Industrial Disputes in Vietnam: The Tale of the Wildcat JF - Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources Y1 - 2013 A1 - Bernadine Van Gramberg A1 - Julian Teicher A1 - Tien Nguyen KW - labor rights KW - unions KW - Vietnam KW - Vietnam Labor Code KW - Vietnam labor relations KW - wildcat strikes KW - working conditions AB -

Vietnam has experienced a combination of sustained high economic growth and high inflation over the last ten years. This has been a ‘double-edged sword’ for the country as rapid price rises have also fuelled the growth in labour conflicts and strikes, which have the potential to negatively affect Vietnam's continuing economic growth. Added to this potent mix is the increasing evidence that some employers' strict use of managerial prerogative combined with poor working conditions and harsh treatment of employees have precipitated the growth of ‘wildcat’ strikes particularly in the country's growing export-oriented private sector. In the absence of publicly available statistics on industrial action in Vietnam, this paper draws on an analysis of strikes reported in the nation's key newspapers and three elite interviews to explore the types of disputes and their causes as well as the industries most affected. We find that in order to improve the management of workplace conflict, reform to the Labour Code alone is insufficient. There is also a need to train all parties in dispute resolution and to ensure that unions are independent of management.

VL - 51 L2 - eng CP - 2 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy Y1 - 2013 A1 - Locke, Richard M. KW - global supply chains KW - globalization KW - International Labor Organization KW - KW – workers’ rights KW - labor rights KW - labor standards KW - supply chains KW - wages KW - working conditions AB -

This book examines and evaluates various private initiatives to enforce fair labor standards within global supply chains. Using unique data (internal audit reports, and access to more than 120 supply chain factories and 700 interviews in 14 countries) from several major global brands, including NIKE, HP, and the International Labor Organization's Factory Improvement Program in Vietnam, this book examines both the promise and the limitations of different approaches to actually improve working conditions, wages, and working hours for the millions of workers employed in today's global supply chains. Through a careful, empirically grounded analysis of these programs, this book illustrates the mix of private and public regulation needed to address these complex issues in a global economy. (publisher's statement)

PB - Cambridge University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Towards Joint Liability in Global Supply Chains: Addressing the Root Causes of Labor Violations in International Subcontracting Networks JF - Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal Y1 - 2013 A1 - Anner, M. A1 - Jennifer Bair A1 - Jeremy Blasi KW - activism KW - global supply chains KW - globalization KW - labor rights KW - subcontracting KW - sweatshops AB -

This article situates today’s campaign for “buyer responsibility agreements” with companies like Adidas in a much longer struggle against sweatshops. The downward pressure that pervasive subcontracting networks put on garment workers’ wages and working conditions is not a new problem unique to the era of economic globalization; indeed, it as old as industrial apparel production itself. Yet the scholarly debate about how to combat contemporary sweatshops has been peculiarly ahistorical. One of goals on this article is to remedy the amnestic tone of this debate by reflecting on how the sweatshop problem was effectively solved, albeit only for a time, in the United States. Our case for the contemporary relevance of jobbers agreements unfolds as a three-part answer to a straightforward question: Why are working conditions and labor practices in the apparel industry essentially unchanged despite the widespread implementation of codes of conduct and compliance auditing regimes at the factory level, and what alternative approaches might prove more effective in securing garment worker rights in global supply chains?

VL - 35 L2 - eng CP - 1 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Workers and Communities Versus Walmart: A Comparison of Organized Resistance in the United Stated and China T2 - Walmart in China Y1 - 2011 A1 - Quan, K. ED - A. Chan KW - community-based campaigns KW - labor rights KW - organized resistance KW - organizing KW - Walmart AB -

Assesses resistance to Walmart in China in comparison to the United States. This chapter reviews more recent protest and growing awareness of labour rights in China and uses the US case of community-based campaigns around Walmart to argue for the importance of building US-Chinese union relations.
 

JA - Walmart in China PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor Rights and Multinational Production Y1 - 2010 A1 - Mosley, Layna KW - global supply chains KW - globalization KW - labor rights KW - labor standards KW - multinational production KW - supply chains KW - wages KW - workers’ rights KW - working conditions AB -

Labor Rights and Multinational Production investigates the relationship between workers’ rights and multinational production. Mosley argues that some types of multinational production, embodied in directly owned foreign investment, positively affect labor rights. But other types of international production, particularly subcontracting, can engender competitive races to the bottom in labor rights. To test these claims, Mosley presents newly generated measures of collective labor rights, covering a wide range of low- and middle-income nations for the 1985–2002 period. This book suggests that the consequences of economic openness for developing countries are highly dependent on foreign firms’ modes of entry and, more generally, on the precise way in which each developing country engages the global economy. The book contributes to academic literature in comparative and international political economy, and to public policy debates regarding the effects of globalization.(publisher's statement)

PB - Cambridge University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Women and Union Leadership in the UK and USA: First Findings From a Cross-National Research Project Y1 - 2010 A1 - Gill Kirton A1 - Geraldine Healy A1 - Alvarez, S. A1 - Lieberwitz, R. A1 - Gatta, M. KW - gender KW - Great Britain KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - union leadership KW - unions KW - United States KW - women AB -

This is a report prepared for Cornell Conference on Women and Union Leadership held at Cornell University, New York City on May 8th 2010 and for Queen Mary/SERTUC Workshop on Women and Union Leadership held at Congress House, London on 11th September 2010. The project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

[Excerpt] This report offers the first findings of a unique comparative research project on women in union leadership in the UK and the USA. It is the first study that seeks to systematically investigate the experiences of women in union leadership in two countries using the same research methodologies and carried out by an American/British research team.

PB - Queen Mary University of London CY - London L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/28/ ER - TY - CONF T1 - The Emerging Anglo-American Model: Convergence in Industrial Relations Institutions? T2 - 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association Y1 - 2009 A1 - A. J. Colvin A1 - Darbishire, O. R. KW - Australia KW - Canada KW - dispute resolution KW - industrial relations KW - Ireland KW - labor rights KW - New Zealand KW - United Kingdom KW - United States AB -

The Thatcher and Reagan administrations led a shift towards more market oriented regulation of economies in the Anglo-American countries, including efforts to reduce the power of organized labor. In this paper, we examine the development of employment and labor law in six Anglo-American countries (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) from the Thatcher/Reagan era to the present. At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems in these countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model based industrial relations systems of the United States and Canada; the voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, such a historical perspective contradicts the idea that there has been a longstanding Anglo-American model of liberal market economic ordering as has sometimes been suggested, e.g. in the varieties of capitalism literature. However, looking at the current state of the employment relations systems in these six countries, we argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas.

There has been a convergence in the area of labour rights toward private ordering of employment relations and away from the idea of work and employment being a matter subject to public ordering. By private ordering, we mean the idea that work and employment terms and conditions are primarily determined at the level of the individual organization, whether through collective bargaining between unions and employers at the organizational level, through individual negotiations, or through unilateral employer establishment of the terms and conditions of employment. The shift away from public ordering of work and employment is most dramatic in the cases of Australia and New Zealand, where the publicly established system of centralized Awards has given way to organizational level ordering of employment relations through workplace or individual level agreements. In the United Kingdom, the shift to greater private ordering is most evident in the breakdown of multi-employer collective bargaining, the weakening of industry wide standards enforced by strong unions, and the growth of nonunion representation at the enterprise level. By contrast, the much lesser degree of change in the labour rights area in North America reflects the historical situation that the Wagner Act model was from the outset a model built around the idea of private ordering. When we turn to the area of employment rights, we also see a convergence across the six Anglo-American countries toward a model in which the role of employment law is to establish a basket of minimum standards that are built into the employment relationship, which can then be improved upon by the parties.

Within these general trends, we do see some variation in the degree of convergence on these models of labour and employment rights regulation across the Anglo-American countries. The strongest degree of similarity in adoption of the private ordering in labour rights and the minimum standards basket in employment rights is found in four of the countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and, with recent legislative changes, Australia. Each of these countries has adopted labour laws that favour organizational level economic ordering, but with reasonably substantial protections of trade union organizing and bargaining rights, and a set of minimum employment standards that includes similar sets of minimum wage, basic leave entitlements and unfair dismissal protections.

The first outlier in this study is Ireland. The Irish employment relations system stands out as the only one that has continued to have a significant degree of central coordination and public ordering of employment relations. Although there is substantial coordination at the central level, at the organizational level, the Irish system resembles the other Anglo-American countries much more closely, suggesting that it has the potential to evolve in a similar direction. The other outlier is the United States. Structurally its system is similar to the other Anglo-American countries in emphasizing private ordering in labour law and the role of employment law as being to establish a minimum basket of basic standards. However, where the United States diverges from the other countries is that its system has involved a general favouring of the interests of employers over those of employees and organized labour in the implementation of the model.

JA - 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association CY - Sydney, Australia L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/conference/32 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives Y1 - 2009 A1 - Gross, J. A. A1 - L. Compa KW - human rights KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - organization KW - public policy KW - union AB -

[Excerpt] This volume is intended to collect the best current scholarship in the new and growing field of labor rights and human rights. We hope it will serve as a resource for researchers and practitioners as well as for teachers and students in university-level labor and human rights courses. The animating idea for the volume is the proposition that workers' rights are human rights. But we recognize that this must be more than a slogan. Promoting labor rights as human rights requires drawing on theoretical work in labor studies and in human rights scholarship and developing closely reasoned arguments based on what is happening in the real world. Citing labor clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one thing; relating them to the real world where workers seek to exercise their rights is something else. The contributors to this volume provide a firm theoretical foundation grounded in the reality of labor activism and advocacy in a market-driven global economy.

PB - Labor and Employment Relations Association CY - Champaign, IL L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/328/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Measuring Progress Under China’s Labor Law: Goals, Processes, Outcomes JF - Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal Y1 - 2009 A1 - Josephs, H. K. KW - China KW - Employment Contract Law KW - labor law KW - labor rights KW - legislation KW - workers’ rights KW - workplace abuses AB -

In 2007 the PRC legislature approved a three-part package of statutes intended to improve on, and fill gaps left by, the Labor Law of 1994, which itself was the first major labor-related statute of the post-reform period. This article will focus on the first of the three laws to be passed, and the most significant, the Employment Contract Law (ECL). The ECL clearly demonstrates maturation of the legislative process, especially with respect to representation of various interest groups and an effort to gather input from a wide range of perspectives. The ECL further exemplifies the influence of prior law-making by the courts and by administrative agencies, in essence, codifying earlier subsidiary forms of law. In terms of responding to egregious workplace abuses, the ECL corrects in some ways for the inherent imbalance of economic power between employers and employees. However, the ECL does not provide a legal basis for the establishment of unions or quasi-unions independent of the control of the Chinese Communist Party. In that sense, the ECL still does not constitute that crucial breakthrough which international labor rights activists have eagerly awaited. The spread of "decent working conditions" in China will continue to depend on an overall improvement in living standards and the government's willingness to prioritize equity concerns ahead of growth.

VL - 30 L2 - eng UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1294909 CP - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Corporate Social Responsibility and Workers’ Rights JF - Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal Y1 - 2008 A1 - L. Compa KW - corporations KW - human rights KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - social responsibility KW - workers’ rights AB -

[Excerpt] Corporate social responsibility (CSR) brings an important dimension to the global economy. CSR can enhance human rights, labor rights, and labor standards in the workplace by joining consumer power and socially responsible business leadership—not just leadership in Nike headquarters in Oregon or Levi Strauss headquarters in California, but leadership in trading house headquarters in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and leadership at the factory level in Dongguan and Shenzhen. Ten years ago, I would not have said this. I viewed corporate social responsibility and corporate codes of conduct as public relations maneuvers to pacify concerned consumers. Behind a facade of social responsibility, profits always trumped social concerns. CSR was only a fig leaf hiding abusive treatment of workers. But in recent years some concrete, positive results from effectively applied CSR programs convinced me of their value. In Mexico in 2001, workers at the Korean-owned KukDong sportswear factory succeeded in replacing a management and government dominated trade union with a democratic union of the workers' choice. Compliance officials from Nike and Reebok, two of the largest buyers, joined forces with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) enforcing their codes of conduct to achieve this result.

VL - 30 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/183/ CP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Neutrality Agreements: Innovative, Controversial, and Labor’s Hope for the Future JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2008 A1 - Richard Hurd KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - neutrality agreements KW - organization KW - unions KW - UNITE-HERE AB -

[Excerpt] In spite of the criticisms, there can be little doubt that labor’s campaigns to achieve and enforce neutrality agreements offer hope that the long-term decline in union density actually can be reversed. A high-profile example of a strategic blend of bargaining and organizing demonstrates the potential of this approach.

VL - 17 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/302/ CP - 1 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - The U.S. Experience of Organising in the Context of the Global Economy T2 - The State of the Unions: Challenges Facing Organized Labour in Ireland Y1 - 2008 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner ED - Hastings, T. KW - globalization KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - organizing KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] There is no question that some unions, such as the UAW in auto-transplants and auto-parts, CWA/IUE in high tech and electronics, USWA in metal production and fabrication or the UFCW in food processing, face much greater challenges organising in their primary jurisdictions because they are confronted with more mobile, more global, and more powerful and effective employer opposition, and, in some cases, a workforce less predisposed to unionisation. Yet, as we have seen, even in the most adverse organising environments, union organising success can dramatically improve when unions utilise a comprehensive campaign strategy. Given these differences, what is perhaps most striking about our findings is how few unions are actually running comprehensive campaigns, or even consistently using any of the ten elements of our comprehensive campaign model. Most significant of all, only a smattering of unions today see themselves as global unions taking on global employers. They are not doing the strategic corporate research necessary to develop the kind of critique of the company needed to launch a truly multifaceted comprehensive campaign. They are not developing lasting labour and community networks, locally, nationally and internationally to help them build and leverage their power in the company and the industry. And they are not getting out in front on the issues that resonate with workers and the public ranging from universal health care, to the war in Iraq, global outsourcing, to affordable higher education.

JA - The State of the Unions: Challenges Facing Organized Labour in Ireland PB - The Liffey Press CY - Dublin, Ireland L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/247/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Corporate Social Responsibility and Workers’ Rights (Chinese) JF - Peking University Law Journal Y1 - 2006 A1 - L. Compa KW - corporations KW - human rights KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - social responsibility KW - workers’ rights AB -

[Excerpt] Corporate social responsibility (CSR) brings an important dimension to the global economy. CSR can enhance human rights, labor rights, and labor standards in the workplace by joining consumer power and socially responsible business leadership—not just leadership in Nike headquarters in Oregon or Levi Strauss headquarters in California, but leadership in trading house headquarters in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and leadership at the factory level in Dongguan and Shenzhen. Ten years ago, I would not have said this. I viewed corporate social responsibility and corporate codes of conduct as public relations maneuvers to pacify concerned consumers. Behind a facade of social responsibility, profits always trumped social concerns. CSR was only a fig leaf hiding abusive treatment of workers. But in recent years some concrete, positive results from effectively applied CSR programs convinced me of their value. In Mexico in 2001, workers at the Korean-owned KukDong sportswear factory succeeded in replacing a management and government dominated trade union with a democratic union of the workers' choice. Compliance officials from Nike and Reebok, two of the largest buyers, joined forces with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) enforcing their codes of conduct to achieve this result.

VL - 18 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/382/ CP - 5 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Significant Victories: An Analysis of Union First Contracts T2 - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States Y1 - 2006 A1 - Juravich, T. A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner A1 - Robert S. Hickey ED - Block, R. N. ED - Friedman, S. ED - Kaminski, M. ED - Levin, A. KW - contract KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - negotiation KW - organizing KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] After two decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy and exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the U.S. labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives and practices, union organizing today remains a tremendously arduous endeavor, particularly in the private sector, as workers and their unions are routinely confronted with an arsenal of aggressive legal and illegal antiunion employer tactics. This vigorous opposition to unions in the private sector does not stop once an election is won, but continues throughout bargaining for an initial union agreement, all too often turning organizing victories into devastating first-contract defeats.

Despite these overwhelming obstacles, workers still organize and win—through certification elections and voluntary recognition campaigns in both the private and public sectors. And each year unions successfully negotiate thousands of first contracts in the United States, providing union representation for the first time to hundreds of thousands of new workers. This research takes an in-depth look at what unions achieve in these initial union contracts. Why, when confronted with such powerful opposition, do unorganized workers continue to want to belong to unions and newly organized workers want to stay union? What do these first contracts provide that makes the struggle worthwhile?

To explore these questions, we analyze and evaluate union first contracts along four primary dimensions. First, we inventory the basic workers’ rights provided by these contracts, which go beyond the very limited rights provided by federal and state labor law under the “employment at will” system. Second, we evaluate how first contracts provide workers and their unions with the institutional power to shape work and the labor process on a day-to-day basis. Third, we explore how first contracts codify the presence and power of unions in daily work life, and we evaluate which institutional arrangements provide a meaningful role for workers and their unions in their workplaces. Fourth, we examine the kinds of workplace benefits that are codified and supplemented in first contracts, gaining important insights into the types of human resource practices that exist in newly unionized workplaces. Finally, by examining the interactions among these four dimensions, we explore the limitations of what first contracts have been able to achieve in the current organizing environment, and what it would take for unions to improve the quality of first contracts.

JA - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States PB - W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research CY - Kalamazoo, MI L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/248/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - What is Labor’s True Purpose? The Implications of SEIU’s Unite to Win Proposals for Organizing JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2005 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner KW - contract KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - negotiation KW - organizing KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] That labor is in a crisis cannot be questioned. While there may be some labor leaders who are content to keep ministering to an ever less powerful, shrinking base, there were few in the room that day that would disagree with the words expressed by SEIU International Executive Vice President Gerry Hudson on the opening panel, that the U.S. "labor movement is becoming dangerously close to being too small to matter."

For the first time in decades, both organizing activity and union membership numbers have dropped precipitously. Where in past years unions had to organize 500,000 new workers just to keep union density stable, this year unions may have to organize as many as 800,000 new workers just to stand still. And they will not even come close. In fact, after a year when unions shifted enormous resources away from organizing towards electoral politics, it is likely that we will see the lowest organizing gains we have seen in more than two decades, possibly fewer than 200,000 new workers overall. Worse yet, this has occurred at a time when we are faced with the most labor unfriendly political and legal climate that we have seen in nearly a century. As Bill Fletcher noted in his opening remarks at the conference, this is indeed "the winter of our discontent."

VL - 14 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/246/ CP - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Labor Rights in the Generalized System of Preferences: A 20-Year Review JF - Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal Y1 - 2001 A1 - L. Compa KW - generalized system of preferences KW - GSP KW - labor rights KW - trade AB -

[Excerpt] In the fall of 1982, a small group of labor, religious, and human rights activists began charting a new course for human rights and workers' rights in American trade policy. The principles of these labor rights advocates were straightforward:

1. No country should attract investment or gain an edge in international trade by violating workers' rights;

2. No company operating in global trade should gain a competitive edge by violating workers' rights; and,

3. Workers have a right to demand protection for labor rights in the international trade system, and to have laws to accomplish it.

The coalition that took shape 20 years ago made a labor rights amendment to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the chief policy vehicle in U.S. law to promote these principles. This article reviews 20 years' experience with the GSP labor rights clause.

VL - 22 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/171/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Is Organizing Enough? Race, Gender, and Union Culture JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2000 A1 - Fletcher, B. A1 - Richard Hurd KW - AFL-CIO KW - gender KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - organization KW - race KW - revitalization KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] We argue that the quantitative interpretation of Changing to Organize is self-limiting, if not self-defeating. If unions hope to attract a mass influx of new members, they must first address seriously the internal transformation required to build a labor movement of all working people. The highest priority should be on creating a culture of inclusion. We envision a movement that embraces, attracts, and promotes women, people of color, immigrants, and lesbians and gays. We reach this conclusion in large part based on work with local unions that have endorsed the change to organizing. Although national unions play a central role in establishing the organizing priority and coordinating the organizing efforts, the changes that affect the day-to-day life of unionism occur at the local level. And the reality is that locals engaged in organizing face a host of substantial internal challenges. To the extent that these challenges relate to the organizing itself, they are well understood and are receiving attention at the national level (for example, the shortage of trained organizers and experienced lead organizers is widely recognized).

VL - 6 SN - 1095-7960 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/316/ N1 - ID: 4897155989 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Human Rights, Labor Rights, and International Trade Y1 - 1996 A1 - L. Compa A1 - Diamond, S. F. KW - human rights KW - international trade KW - labor rights KW - workers’ rights AB -

Labor rights have traditionally been a concern of labor law scholars and practitioners whose work concentrates exclusively on domestic developments. In the past decade, however, the globalization of investment and production has expanded the bounds of labor rights discourse.

Contributors to this volume provide the first comprehensive view of labor rights in the international system of commerce. They consider the avenues open to worker rights claims in the global economy under international human rights instruments, U.S. trade laws, free trade agreements, labor rights litigation, and corporate codes of conduct. They address worker rights from the standpoints of human rights concerns, trade and development policy, and labor law principles. (publisher's statement)

PB - University of Pennsylvania Press CY - Philadelphia, PA L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law Y1 - 1994 A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Richard Hurd A1 - Oswald, R. A. A1 - Seeber, R. L. KW - employment law KW - labor law KW - labor rights KW - workers’ rights AB -

The product of an October 1993 conference on labor law reform jointly sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell U. and the Department of Economic Research at the AFL-CIO, this volume both argues the need for fundamental reform of the legal and institutional underpinnings of the US system of workplace representation and offers proposals for the content of that reform.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER -