TY - BOOK T1 - Transnational, European, and National Labour Relations Y1 - 2016 A1 - Sander, Gerald G. A1 - Tomljenovic, Vesna A1 - Bodiroga-Vukobrat, Nada KW - European Labor Relations KW - European Union KW - globalization KW - internationization KW - labor relations KW - neo-liberalization KW - social standards KW - Transnational Labor Relations AB -

The future of labor relations and labor law, affected by globalization and internationalization processes is a matter which receives much attention, not only in the scientific legal community, but also wider public. For this reason, there is an increasing number of studies and research in this field, especially in the context of erosion of national prerogatives and decentralization of cross-border economic activities. Neo-liberal globalization, transnational corporations and the issue of labor and social standards have opened a variety of problems on global, European and national levels. The European Union endeavors in the recent years to deal with market challenges, posed particularly in the labor market, by positive, as well as negative harmonization.

PB - Springer International Publishing CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Bringing Workers’ Rights Back In? Propositions Towards a Labour–Trade Linkage for the Global South JF - Development and Change Y1 - 2015 A1 - Simon Pahle KW - Brazil KW - global political economy KW - global trade KW - globalization KW - international labor standards KW - South Africa KW - workers’ rights AB -

The idea of forging a linkage between global trade and labour standards has a long history and has been the subject of fierce debate. In a global political economy that incites ‘competition for jobs’, the idea cannot escape controversy. Crucially, it has failed to win significant support from trade unionists in the global South. Drawing on viewpoints voiced by workers’ rights activists in South Africa and Brazil, this article presents four propositions on the features and functions that a labour–trade linkage would have to possess if it is to serve workers’ interests, and explores whether and how these may be accommodated by the ILO and WTO regimes. It is argued that a linkage requiring a new single WTO undertaking is out of the question; a linkage would only make sense if it superimposes ILO rule onto the WTO, not the opposite; a linkage should be premised on positive trade measures; and, finally, it should serve the interests of presently unprotected and unorganized workers. Overall, the main challenge of such a linkage would be to achieve the necessary reform within the ILO.

VL - 46 L2 - eng CP - 1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Chinese Overseas Labour and Globalisation in the Early Twentieth Century: Migrant Workers, Globalisation and the Sino-French Connection Y1 - 2015 A1 - Bailey, Paul KW - China KW - Chinese laborers KW - Chinese workers KW - globalization AB - Chinese labourers were contracted in large numbers – over 140,000 of them – by the French and British governments for war-related work on the Western front. This book examines how this came about; and it explores the experiences of the Chinese workers involved. It discusses the wider extent of the use of Chinese labour worldwide, and considers the attitude of the French and British governments. It outlines the kind of work the Chinese labourers were involved in, and portrays their lives and conditions in detail. It shows how Chinese labourers continued to be used in the aftermath of the war, and places this use of Chinese labourers in the wider context of globalisation in the period. PB - Routledge CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective Y1 - 2015 A1 - Anita Chan KW - China KW - Chinese labor KW - Chinese workers KW - globalization KW - industrial relations AB -

As the “world’s factory” China exerts an enormous pressure on workers around the world. Many nations have had to adjust to a new global political and economic reality, and so has China. Its workers and its official trade union federation have had to contend with rapid changes in industrial relations. Anita Chan argues that Chinese labor is too often viewed from a prism of exceptionalism and too rarely examined comparatively, even though valuable insights can be derived by analyzing China’s workforce and labor relations side by side with the systems of other nations. The contributors to Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective compare labor issues in China with those in the United States, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. They also draw contrasts among different types of workplaces within China. The chapters address labor regimes and standards, describe efforts to reshape industrial relations to improve the circumstances of workers, and compare historical and structural developments in China and other industrial relations systems.

PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective Y1 - 2015 A1 - Chan, Anita KW - China KW - Chinese workers KW - comparative perspective KW - comparative studies KW - globalization AB -

As the “world’s factory” China exerts an enormous pressure on workers around the world. Many nations have had to adjust to a new global political and economic reality, and so has China. Its workers and its official trade union federation have had to contend with rapid changes in industrial relations. Anita Chan argues that Chinese labor is too often viewed from a prism of exceptionalism and too rarely examined comparatively, even though valuable insights can be derived by analyzing China’s workforce and labor relations side by side with the systems of other nations. The contributors to Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective compare labor issues in China with those in the United States, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. They also draw contrasts among different types of workplaces within China. The chapters address labor regimes and standards, describe efforts to reshape industrial relations to improve the circumstances of workers, and compare historical and structural developments in China and other industrial relations systems.

PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Employment and Labor Regulation in Industrial Countries JF - International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition Y1 - 2015 A1 - Katherine V.W. Stone KW - compensation and benefits KW - employment regulation KW - global production and trade regulations KW - globalization KW - international labor standards KW - labor standards AB -

This encyclopedia entry addresses employment regulation – i.e., the legal rules and institutions that constitute, govern, and structure the employment relationship. Until recently, most industrial countries had employment regulation that provided most employees with job security and an adequate package of social protection. However, these regulations have been relaxed in recent years as employers have moved away from hiring employees into long-term employment relationships and have created many types of short-term employment relationships instead. The decline of the standard form of employment and the regulatory regime that supported it have given rise to a number of controversies involving employment regulation. In addition, the spread of global trade and the diffusion of production around the world have put pressure on industrial countries to dilute their employment regulation and lower their labor standards. However, as global production and trade continue to proliferate, social pressures are building for more labor law protections both in the developed and in the developing world. Hence employment regulation is not likely to disappear, but it will be transposed as part of the emerging international regime.

VL - Law-Econ Research Paper No. 14-07 L2 - eng UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2440832 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Globalization: A Woman's Best Friend? Exporters and the Gender Wage Gap Y1 - 2015 A1 - Bøler, Esther Ann A1 - Javorcik, Beata Smarzynska A1 - Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe KW - exporters KW - gender KW - gender wage gap KW - globalization AB -

While the impact of globalization on income inequality has received a lot of attention, little is known about its effect on the gender wage gap (GWG). This study argues that there is a systematic difference in the GWG between exporting firms and non-exporters. By the virtue of being exposed to higher competition, exporters require greater commitment and flexibility from their employees. If commitment is not easily observable and women are perceived as less committed workers than men, exporters will statistically discriminate against female employees and will exhibit a higher GWG than non-exporters. We test this hypothesis using matched employer-employee data from the Norwegian manufacturing sector from 1996 to 2010. Our identification strategy relies on an exogenous shock, namely, the legislative changes that increased the length of the parental leave that is available only to fathers. We argue that these changes have narrowed the perceived commitment gap between the genders and show that the initially higher GWG observed in exporting firms relative to non-exporters has gone down after the changes took place.

PB - CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5296 CY - Munich, Germany L2 - eng UR - http://ssrn.com/abstract=2597988 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - A Hospitable World? Organising Work And Workers In Hotels And Tourist Resorts Y1 - 2015 A1 - Jordhus-Lier, David A1 - Anders Underthun KW - globalization KW - hospitality workers KW - hotel workers KW - organization or work KW - tourism AB -

The hospitality and tourism sector is a large and rapidly expanding industry worldwide, and can rightfully be described as a vehicle of globalization. Hotels are among the cornerstones of the industry often drawing workers from the most vulnerable segments of multicultural labour markets, accommodating and entertaining tourists and business travelers from around the world.This book explores the organisation of work, worker identities and worker strategies in hotel workplaces, as they are located in heterogeneous labour markets being changed by processes of globalization. It uses an explicitly geographical approach to understand how different groups of workers experience and respond to challenges in the hospitality industry, and is based on recent theoretical debates and empirical research on hotel workplaces in cities as different as Oslo, Goa, London, Las Vegas and Toronto. A multi-scalar analysis is taken where concrete worker bodies and their physical, emotional and embodied labour are seen in relation to, among other aspects: the regulation of national and regional labour markets, city governments with global city ambitions, and global corporate actors and labour migration patterns. The book sheds light on the hotel workplace as a hierarchical and fragmented social space as well as addressing questions on worker mobility, the fragmentation of work, scales of organisation and how workers can help shape the regulation of their industry.

PB - Routledge CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - International Trade Union Solidarity and the Impact of the Crisis JF - Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies Y1 - 2015 A1 - Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick A1 - Richard Hyman KW - Europe KW - globalization KW - solidarity KW - trade unions AB -

In this paper we first explore the diverse meaning(s) of solidarity, particularly with regard to trade unions. In particular we focus on understandings which focus on a shared identity, on common interests and on mutuality despite difference. We relate these different conceptions to the problematic concept of class. We then discuss the forms which international trade union solidarity takes and the difficulties which it encounters, at global and European levels. There is always a tension between long-term idealism and short-term pragmatism, which means that the achievement of solidarity is always incomplete. Solidarity is never ‘natural’, it must always be constructed against the odds. We go on to examine the impact of the financial and economic crisis at European level, which has accentuated some of the tensions in achieving solidarity within and between countries. We end with a discussion of how solidarity might be reconstructed under particularly adverse circumstances.

VL - 1 L2 - eng UR - http://www.sieps.se/sites/default/files/2015_1epa%20eng%20A4%20korr7.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Labor in the Twenty-First Century: The Top 0.1% and the Disappearing Middle-Class JF - Institute for New Economic Thinking Working Paper Series No. 4 Y1 - 2015 A1 - Lazonick, William KW - globalization KW - middle-class KW - wage gap AB -

The ongoing explosion of the incomes of the richest households and the erosion of middle-class employment opportunities for most of the rest have become integrally related in the now-normal operation of the U.S. economy. Since the beginning of the 1980s, employment relations in U.S. industrial corporations have undergone three major structural changes – summarized as “rationalization,” “marketization,” and “globalization” – that have permanently eliminated middle-class jobs in the United States. From the early 1980s, rationalization, characterized by plant closings, terminated the jobs of high-school educated blue-collar workers, most of them well-paid union members. From the early 1990s, marketization, characterized by the end of a career with one company as an employment norm, placed the job security of middle-aged white- collar workers, many of them college educated, in jeopardy. From the early 2000s, globalization, characterized by the movement of employment offshore to lower-wage nations, left all members of the U.S. labor force, whatever their educational credentials and work experience, vulnerable to displacement. Initially, these structural changes in employment could be justified as business responses to changes in technologies, markets, and competitors. Once U.S. corporations transformed their employment relations, however, they often pursued rationalization, marketization, and globalization to cut current costs rather than to reposition themselves to produce competitive products. Defining superior corporate performance as ever-higher quarterly earnings per share, companies turned to massive stock repurchases to “manage” their own corporations’ stock prices. Trillions of dollars that could have been spent on innovation and job creation in the U.S. economy over the past three decades have instead been used to buy back stock for the purpose of manipulating stock prices. Legitimizing this financialized mode of corporate resource allocation has been the ideology, itself a product of the 1980s and 1990s, that a business corporation should be run to “maximize shareholder value.” Through their stock options and stock awards, corporate executives who make these resource-allocation decisions are themselves prime beneficiaries of the focus on rising stock prices as the sole measure of corporate performance. While rationalization, marketization, and globalization undermined stable and remunerative employment structures, the “financialization” of the U.S. corporation entailed the distribution of corporate cash to shareholders through stock repurchases, often in addition to generous cash dividends, and, incentivizing these distributions, the stock-based remuneration of top corporate executives. In this essay, I review evidence on the fundamental structural changes related to rationalization, marketization, and globalization that, since the early 1980s, have eroded U.S. middle-class employment opportunities. Then, I analyze how, in many different ways and in many different industries, the financialized mode of corporate resource allocation has undermined the prosperity of the U.S. economy. I go on to show how justified by the ideology that companies should be run to “maximize shareholder value,” this financialized behavior boosts the remuneration of top corporate executives, providing a major explanation for the increasing concentration of income among the top 0.1% of U.S. households that is, through the very way it is achieved, based on the systematic destruction of middle-class employment opportunities available to members of the U.S. labor force.

VL - February 2015 L2 - eng UR - http://ssrn.com/abstract=2586239 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor Relations in a Globalizing World Y1 - 2015 A1 - Katz, Harry C. A1 - Thomas A. Kochan A1 - Alexander J. S. Colvin KW - Brazil KW - China KW - emerging countries KW - globalization KW - India KW - labor relations KW - South Africa AB -

Compelled by the extent to which globalization has changed the nature of labor relations, Harry C. Katz, Thomas A. Kochan, and Alexander J. S. Colvin give us the first textbook to focus on the workplace outcomes of the production of goods and services in emerging countries. In Labor Relations in a Globalizing World, they draw lessons from the United States and other advanced industrial countries to provide a menu of options for management, labor, and government leaders in emerging countries. They include discussions based in countries such as China, Brazil, India, and South Africa which, given the advanced levels of economic development they have already achieved, are often described as “transitional,” because the labor relations practices and procedures used in those countries are still in a state of flux.Katz, Kochan, and Colvin analyze how labor relations functions in emerging countries in a manner that is useful to practitioners, policymakers, and academics. They take account of the fact that labor relations are much more politicized in emerging countries than in advanced industrialized countries. They also address the traditional role played by state-dominated unions in emerging countries and the recent increased importance of independent unions that have emerged as alternatives. These independent unions tend to promote firm- or workplace-level collective bargaining in contrast to the more traditional top-down systems. Katz, Kochan, and Colvin explain how multinational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and other groups that act across national borders increasingly influence work and employment outcomes.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - We Don't Quit!: Stories of UAW Global Solidarity Y1 - 2015 A1 - Stillman, Don KW - globalization KW - UAW KW - unionization KW - United Auto Workers KW - workers’ rights AB -

We Don’t Quit! describes the crucial role the United Auto Workers (UAW) union has played in the global struggle for workers’ rights. At a time when labor’s power seems to be waning, the book establishes the UAW’s vigorous internationalism as a counterbalance to corporate globalization and anti-worker repression by foreign governments. The UAW joined independent black unions in South Africa in the struggle against apartheid. It supported the Solidarity union in Poland that toppled the communist regime there. In Central America, the UAW stood up for workers targeted by death squads. In moving detail, author Don Stillman describes the UAW’s efforts to win freedom for imprisoned worker activists in Burma, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Mexico. In addition, he outlines how the support of German workers helped the UAW organize workers in North Carolina in the face of a harsh anti-union campaign. At a time when corporations operate without national boundaries, We Don’t Quit! charts a path for workers to join together across borders to preserve and expand workers’ rights.

PB - UAW CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Working through the Past: Labor and Authoritarian Legacies in Comparative Perspective Y1 - 2015 A1 - Caraway, Teri L. A1 - Maria Lorena Cook A1 - Stephen Crowley KW - Asia KW - authoritarianism KW - Eastern Europe KW - globalization KW - Latin America KW - neoliberal globalization AB -

Democratization in the developing and postcommunist world has yielded limited gains for labor. Explanations for this phenomenon have focused on the effect of economic crisis and globalization on the capacities of unions to become influential political actors and to secure policies that benefit their members. In contrast, the contributors to Working through the Past highlight the critical role that authoritarian legacies play in shaping labor politics in new democracies, providing the first cross-regional analysis of the impact of authoritarianism on labor, focusing on East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Legacies from the predemocratic era shape labor’s present in ways that both limit and enhance organized labor’s power in new democracies. Assessing the comparative impact on a variety of outcomes relevant to labor in widely divergent settings, this volume argues that political legacies provide new insights into why labor movements in some countries have confronted the challenges of neoliberal globalization better than others.

PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China and ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Y1 - 2014 A1 - Roger Blanpain KW - China KW - globalization KW - ILO KW - International Labor Organization KW - labor law KW - workers’ rights AB -

Although China is not new to labour law – it was among the founders of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919 – labour conditions in China today are the subject of concern to observers both inside China and in the international community. In response, China has devoted much attention recently to reforming its labour law system, a process driven by a political reorientation towards labour protection in the context of economic globalization. However, labour disputes and labour unrest continue to proliferate. Using as its starting point an international research seminar held at Helsinki University in January 2013, this volume gathers a remarkable array of academic perspectives on China and its legal system by scholars from China, the United States, and Europe into a stimulating and unique combination of commentary and analysis of the challenges relating to implementation of fundamental labour rights as spelled out in the landmark 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in the Chinese setting. Importantly, the analysis fully takes into account action in relation to the promotion of labour rights by not only the Chinese government but local governmental authorities, trade unions, enterprises, and other actors. Each author focuses on a different aspect of how these fundamental labour rights operate in the Chinese legal environment and the kinds of obstacles met in their protection.

PB - Kluwer Law International CY - Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Climate Change And The Great Inaction: New Trade Union Perspectives Y1 - 2014 A1 - Sean Sweeney KW - climate change KW - environmental degradation KW - globalization KW - jobs versus environment KW - social movement unionism KW - trade unions AB -

This working paper recounts the history of trade union involvement with efforts at the international level to deal with climate change. In addition to its valuable account of history, it also provides an insightful analysis of why international efforts have failed and proposes a way forward for unions.

PB - Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (Working Paper No. 2) CY - New York L2 - eng UR - http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/climate-change-and-the-great-inaction/ ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Climate Change And The Great Inaction: New Trade Union Perspectives Y1 - 2014 A1 - Sean Sweeney KW - climate change KW - environmental degradation KW - globalization KW - jobs versus environment KW - social movement unionism KW - trade unions AB -

This working paper recounts the history of trade union involvement with efforts at the international level to deal with climate change. In addition to its valuable account of history, it also provides an insightful analysis of why international efforts have failed and proposes a way forward for unions.

PB - Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (Working Paper No. 2) CY - New York L2 - eng UR - http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/climate-change-and-the-great-inaction/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Comparative Labor Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies (eleventh edition) Y1 - 2014 A1 - R. Blanpain A1 - J. Baker KW - comparative labor law KW - globalization KW - industrial relations KW - labor law AB -

Comparativism is no longer a purely academic exercise but has increasingly become an urgent necessity for industrial relations and legal practitioners due to the growth of multinational enterprises and the impact of international and regional organizations aspiring to harmonize rules. The growing need for comprehensive, up-to-date and readily available information on labour law and industrial relations in different countries led to the publication of the International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, in which more than 70 international and national monographs have thus far been published. This book, Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies, goes a step further than the Encyclopaedia in as much as most of the chapters provide comparative and integrated thematic treatment. The aim is to describe the salient characteristics and trends in labour law and industrial relations in the contemporary world. This book is obviously not exhaustive, with respect to the coverage of countries and topics. The authors limit themselves mainly to the industrialized market economies. The book is divided in four main parts: an introduction relating to methodology and documentation, including the use of Internet. The second part concerns international actors, like the International Employer’s Organisations and the International Trade Union Movement, as well as Human Resources Management. The third concerns the sources of regulation, concentrating on International and European Labour Law, as well as on Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises and describes also the rules in case of conflict of laws. The last part deals with international developments and comparative studies in not less than 14 chapters.

PB - Kluwer Law International CY - Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America Y1 - 2014 A1 - Carnes, Matthew KW - Argentina KW - Chile KW - globalization KW - labor laws KW - labor regulation KW - Latin America KW - Peru AB - As the dust settles on nearly three decades of economic reform in Latin America, one of the most fundamental economic policy areas has changed far less than expected: labor regulation. To date, Latin America's labor laws remain both rigidly protective and remarkably diverse. Continuity Despite Change develops a new theoretical framework for understanding labor laws and their change through time, beginning by conceptualizing labor laws as comprehensive systems or "regimes." In this context, Matthew Carnes demonstrates that the reform measures introduced in the 1980s and 1990s have only marginally modified the labor laws from decades earlier. To explain this continuity, he argues that labor law development is constrained by long-term economic conditions and labor market institutions. He points specifically to two key factors—the distribution of worker skill levels and the organizational capacity of workers.Carnes presents cross-national statistical evidence from the eighteen major Latin American economies to show that the theory holds for the decades from the 1980s to the 2000s, a period in which many countries grappled with proposed changes to their labor laws. He then offers theoretically grounded narratives to explain the different labor law configurations and reform paths of Chile, Peru, and Argentina. His findings push for a rethinking of the impact of globalization on labor regulation, as economic and political institutions governing labor have proven to be more resilient than earlier studies have suggested. PB - Stanford University Press CY - Redwood City, CA L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Export Dependence and Institutional Change in Wage Bargaining in Germany JF - International Studies Quarterly Y1 - 2014 A1 - Damian Raess KW - collective bargaining KW - Germany KW - globalization KW - institutional convergence KW - labor relations KW - wage bargaining KW - work councils AB -

This article explores the adjustment of wage bargaining institutions to international trade in Germany. Embracing IPE as opposed to CPE lenses yields a novel interpretation of change in the institution of wage bargaining. Export dependence of a sector, we argue, has destabilizing effects for industry-wide bargaining by sparking an intra-sectoral cleavage between domestic- and export-oriented enterprises. Specifically, the greater the degree of export dependence of a sector, the greater the degree to which domestic-oriented enterprises within that sector will abandon collective bargaining. We also explain how workplace employee representation through works councils mitigates this effect, such that the presence of works councils helps domestically oriented firms to hold to collective bargaining agreements in the face of a sector's deepening exposure to export markets. These claims find empirical support in the history of labor relations developments in the metal industry and, especially, in extensive analysis of a cross-section of establishments. Our findings attribute major responsibility to the firms driving globalization for undermining collective bargaining institutions and suggest that economic globalization is a cause of dualization. In all, the article provides fresh ammunition for a version of globalization-induced institutional convergence.

VL - 58 L2 - eng CP - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Global Capitalism, Immigrant Labor, and the Struggle for Justice JF - Class, Race and Corporate Power Y1 - 2014 A1 - Robinson, William I. A1 - Santos, Xuan KW - anti-immigrant controls KW - anti-immigration KW - free trade agreement KW - global capitalism KW - globalization KW - immigrant workers KW - immigrants AB -

Around the world borders are militarized, states are stepping up repressive anti-immigrant controls, and native publics are turning immigrants into scapegoats for the spiraling crisis of global capitalism. The massive displacement and primitive accumulation unleashed by free trade agreements and neo-liberal policies, as well as state and “private” violence has resulted in a virtually inexhaustible immigrant labor reserve for the global economy. State controls over immigration and immigrant labor have several functions for the system: 1) state repression and criminalization of undocumented immigration make immigrants vulnerable and deportable and therefore subject to conditions of super-exploitation, super-control and hyper-surveillance; 2) anti-immigrant repressive apparatuses are themselves ever more important sources of accumulation, ranging from private for-profit immigrant detention centers, to the militarization of borders, and the purchase by states of military hardware and systems of surveillance. Immigrant labor is extremely profitable for the transnational corporate economy; 3) the anti-immigrant policies associated with repressive state apparatuses help turn attention away from the crisis of global capitalism among more privileged sectors of the working class and convert immigrant workers into scapegoats for the crisis, thus deflecting attention from the root causes of the crisis and undermining working class unity. This article focuses on structural and historical underpinnings of the phenomenon of immigrant labor in the new global capitalist system and on how the rise of a globally integrated production and financial system, a transnational capitalist class, and transnational state apparatuses, have led to a reorganization of the world market in labor, including deeper reliance on a rapidly expanding reserve army of immigrant labor and a vicious new anti-immigrant politics. It looks at the United States as an illustration of the larger worldwide situation with regard to immigration and immigrant justice. Finally, it explores the rise of an immigrant justice movement around the world, observes the leading role that immigrant workers often play in worker’s struggles and that a mass immigrant rights movement is at the cutting edge of the struggle against transnational corporate exploitation. We call for replacing the whole concept of national citizenship with that of global citizenship as the only rallying cry that can assure justice and equality for all.

VL - 2 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol2/iss3/1/ CP - 3 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Globalization and the Pursuit of Decent Work: Can the ILO Deliver? Y1 - 2014 A1 - Hutchison, Harry G. KW - decent work KW - globalization KW - ILO KW - inequality KW - International Labor Organization KW - international labor standards KW - labor law KW - living wage KW - minimum wage KW - non-governmental organizations KW - OECD KW - Russia KW - South Africa AB -

Whether globalization is a relatively recent development or not, it appears that as nations and nongovernmental organizations focus on international competitiveness and the correlative commitment to liberalization and privatization, and the acceptance of interdependencies and integrations among the world’s major economies, these moves have consequences. Taken together with (1) the pursuit of trade liberalization by the West (the quest for open markets for Western products and capital markets), (2) increased international inequalities with respect to capital stock and flows favoring the richest countries, (3) the simultaneous rise in trade protection that reduces or constrains access by developing countries to Western markets, and (4) the incipient and growing emphasis on technology and innovation by many countries and firms including the emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) including the world wide web and the internet, the prospect of inequality in relationships and income advances. On the other hand, globalization has been accompanied by the instantiation of new institutions coupled with renewed attention being given to existing intergovernmental institutions such as the International Labor Organization that are designed to deal with problems that are either initiated or exacerbated by globalization. Given the difficult economic currents percolating throughout the world, many analysts suggest that the “real question is how labor law can respond to the challenges presented by globalization. In order to promote an efficacious labor law...[it is argued that a] new global goal should be added to the labor law agenda – decent work with a living wage.” The ILO program is advanced around the world through its promotion of “decent work,” an apparently ambiguous slogan calculated to level income inequalities within and between nations. It is the objective of this paper to briefly explore the promise, possibilities and failures of the ILO in an era that apparently features an increasing acceptance by elite opinion formers, banks and financial institutions, and Western world leaders of the presumed value and presumed legitimacy of increased trade integration.

PB - George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 14-51 CY - Arlington, VA L2 - eng UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2510955 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Has Globalization Affected Collective Bargaining? An Empirical Test, 1980–2009 JF - The World Economy Y1 - 2014 A1 - Zohal Hessami A1 - Thushyanthan Baskaran KW - collective bargaining KW - decentralized bargaining KW - emerging countries KW - globalization KW - government intervention KW - OECD KW - unionization AB -

We investigate whether globalization has affected the nature of collective bargaining in OECD and emerging countries. The main innovations over the existing empirical literature are (i) the consideration of three distinct aspects of collective bargaining (union density, decentralised bargaining and the extent of government intervention), (ii) the reliance on a sample with a larger cross-sectional and time dimension (44 countries from 1980 to 2009), and (iii) the application of a more appropriate empirical methodology (dynamic panel data models). We find that globalization, on average, depresses unionisation but neither affects the degree of decentralisation nor government intervention in collective bargaining. We also uncover significant effect heterogeneity, both across countries and over time.

VL - Article first published online: 16 DEC 2014 L2 - eng UR - http://www.uni-konstanz.de/FuF/wiwi/workingpaperseries/WP_02-Hessami-Baskaran_2013.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Has Globalization Affected Collective Bargaining? An Empirical Test, 1980–2009 JF - The World Economy Y1 - 2014 A1 - Zohal Hessami A1 - Thushyanthan Baskaran KW - collective bargaining KW - globalization KW - union density KW - unionization AB -

We investigate whether globalization has affected the nature of collective bargaining in OECD and emerging countries. The main innovations over the existing empirical literature are (i) the consideration of three distinct aspects of collective bargaining (union density, decentralized bargaining and the extent of government intervention), (ii) the reliance on a sample with a larger cross-sectional and time dimension (44 countries from 1980 to 2009), and (iii) the application of a more appropriate empirical methodology (dynamic panel data models). We find that globalization, on average, depresses unionization but neither affects the degree of decentralization nor government intervention in collective bargaining. We also uncover significant effect heterogeneity, both across countries and over time.

VL - Article first published online: 16 DEC 2014 L2 - eng UR - http://www.uni-konstanz.de/FuF/wiwi/workingpaperseries/WP_02-Hessami-Baskaran_2013.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor Economics (second edition) Y1 - 2014 A1 - Cahuc, Pierre A1 - Stephane Carcillo A1 - Andre Zylberberg KW - discrimination KW - employment protection KW - globalization KW - income redistribution KW - labor economics KW - labor markets KW - minimum wage AB -

This graduate-level text combines depth and breadth of coverage with recent, cutting-edge work in all the major areas of modern labor economics. Its command of the literature and its coverage of the latest theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments make it also a valuable resource for practicing labor economists. This second edition has been substantially updated and augmented. It incorporates examples drawn from many countries, and it presents empirical methods using contributions that have proved to be milestones in labor economics. The data and codes of these research publications, as well as numerous tables and figures describing the functioning of labor markets, are all available on a dedicated website (www.labor-economics.org), along with slides that can be used as course aids and a discussion forum. This edition devotes more space to the analysis of public policy and the levers available to policy makers, with new chapters on such topics as discrimination, globalization, income redistribution, employment protection, and the minimum wage or labor market programs for the unemployed. Theories are explained on the basis of the simplest possible models, which are in turn related to empirical results. Mathematical appendixes provide a toolkit for understanding the models.

PB - The MIT Press CY - Cambridge MA L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age Y1 - 2014 A1 - Huws, Ursula KW - digital era KW - global capitalist economy KW - globalization KW - information technology KW - labor AB -

For every person who reads this text on the printed page, many more will read it on a computer screen or mobile device. It’s a situation that we increasingly take for granted in our digital era, and while it is indicative of the novelty of twenty-first-century capitalism, it is also the key to understanding its driving force: the relentless impulse to commodify our lives in every aspect.Ursula Huws ties together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of the last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. She examines the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation: in culture and the arts, in the privatization of public services, and in the commodification of human sociality by way of mobile devices and social networking. These trends are in turn accompanied by the dramatic restructuring of work arrangements, opening the way for new contradictions and new forms of labor solidarity and struggle around the planet. Labor in the Global Digital Economy is a forceful critique of our dizzying contemporary moment, one that goes beyond notions of mere connectedness or free-flowing information to illuminate the entrenched mechanisms of exploitation and control at the core of capitalism.

PB - Monthly Review Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labour Market Deregulation In Japan And Italy: Worker Protection Under Neoliberal Globalization Y1 - 2014 A1 - Watanabe, Hiroaki KW - globalization KW - Italy KW - Japan KW - labour market deregulation KW - neoliberal globalization KW - neoliberalism KW - worker protection AB - Japan and Italy encountered severe economic problems in the early 1990s, and the governments had to deal with those issues effectively under the increasing neoliberal pressures of globalization. In this context, labor market deregulation was considered an effective tool to cope with those economic problems. However, the forms and degrees of labor market deregulation in the two countries were quite different.This book seeks to explain the differences in labor market deregulation policies between Japan and Italy, despite the fact that the two countries shared a number of similar political, social and labor market (if not cultural) characteristics. Uniquely, it takes a political, rather than economic or sociological perspective to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the processes of labor market deregulation in the two countries. The precarious working conditions of an increasing number of non-regular workers has become a prominent social issue in many industrialized countries including Japan and Italy, but the level of the protection for these workers depends on a country’s labor market policies, which are affected by the power resources of labor unions and labor policy-making structures. This book provides a useful perspective for understanding the root causes of this phenomenon, such as the diffusion of ‘neoliberal’ ideas aimed at promoting labor-market flexibility under globalization, and demonstrates that there is still room for politics to decide the extent of deregulation and maintain worker protection from management offensives even in an era of globalization. PB - Routledge CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Lessons for Social Change in the Global Economy: Voices from the Field Y1 - 2014 A1 - Garwood, Shae A1 - Sky Croeser A1 - Christalla Yakinthou KW - activists KW - globalization KW - inequality KW - labor activism KW - labor organizers KW - social activism KW - social change AB -

In the face of globalization’s massive social and economic transformations and the resulting persistent inequality, activists, labor organizers, and advocacy NGOs are seeking and creating change beyond the confines of formal state politics and across national borders. Given the breadth of local issues activists face, the ways they define the problem and seek redress vary widely. This book provides a unique perspective on these efforts, gathering into one volume concrete examples of the implementation of different strategies for social change that highlight the challenges involved. This provides useful lessons for those involved in social change, as well as for those studying it. Contributors to the volume are scholars and practitioners around the world, and they draw on strong connections with people working in the field to improve working conditions and environmental standards of global production systems. This allows readers to develop a more comprehensive and grounded understanding of strategies for social change.This book maintains a strong balance between breadth and specificity. It provides an overview of the themes of social change, which contextualizes and draws common threads from the chapters grounded in specific geographic locations and political spaces of change. The chapters analyze environmental and social problems and the varying degrees of success activists have had in regulating industries, containing environmental hazards, and/or harnessing aspects of an industry for positive social and economic change. Contributors draw upon different ways of creating change, which include corporate social responsibility schemes, fair trade regimes, and community radio. By providing insight into the potential and limitations of actions taken at different levels, the book encourages a critical perspective on efforts for social change, grounded in an understanding of how conditions around the world can affect these activities.

PB - Rowman & Littlefield CY - Lanham, MD L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Made in the EU: Foxconn in the Czech Republic JF - WorkingUSA Y1 - 2014 A1 - Andrijasevic, R. A1 - Sacchetto, D. KW - China KW - Czech Republic KW - electronics industry KW - Foxconn KW - globalization KW - labor relations KW - management KW - politics of production AB -

Next to its 32 factories in mainland China, Foxconn has another 200 factories and subsidiaries around the world on which there is little or no data. This article focuses on plants in the Czech Republic, Foxconn's most important European site and the hub for export-oriented electronics industry. It asks whether there are similarities between Foxconn's Chinese and European sites, two locations commonly imagined as separate and opposite in their management practices and treatment of the workforce. Drawing on sixty interviews with workers and privileged informants, the article outlines the labor process, forms of control, composition of labor, the role of the state, and the reach and impact of the trade unions in Foxconn's Czech plants. It makes visible the deterioration of working conditions in the Czech Republic, both under European Union regulations and just-in-time production by multinationals, and suggests that in order to understand the ongoing changes there is a need to move away from the idea of labor and labor markets as solely domestic actors, and toward a discussion on globally integrated politics of production.

VL - 17 L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The Politics of Labour Legislation in Southern China: How Foreign Chambers of Commerce and Government Agencies Influence Collective Bargaining Laws JF - International Labour Review Y1 - 2014 A1 - Hui, Elaine Sio-ieng A1 - Chan, Chris King-Chi KW - chamber of commerce KW - China KW - collective bargaining KW - comment KW - foreign capital KW - globalization KW - labor legislation KW - trade AB -

In 2010, labour protests spread across China, sparked by the Honda workers' strike. Hoping to pacify the aggrieved workers, the Shenzhen and Guangdong governments resumed discussion of the suspended draft Shenzhen Collective Consultation Ordinance and the Guangdong Regulations on the Democratic Management of Enterprises. However, following strong opposition from foreign chambers of commerce, discussion was once again suspended. The authors show that two factors determine how foreign chambers of commerce and government agencies influence labour legislation in southern China: the position in global production chains of the firms they represent, and the relevant industrial relations model.

VL - 153 L2 - eng CP - 4 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Resources, Empire and Labour: Crises, Lessons and Alternatives Y1 - 2014 A1 - Leadbeater, David KW - globalization KW - natural resources KW - resource development AB -

The interconnections of natural resources, empire and labor run through the most central and conflict-ridden crises of our times: war, environmental degradation, impoverishment and plutocracy. Crucial to understand and to change the conditions that give rise to these crises is the critical study of resource development and, more broadly, the resources question, which is the subject of this volume. Intended for researchers, students and activists, the chapters in Resources, Empire and Labour illuminate key aspects of the resources question from a variety of angles through concrete analyses and histories focused on the extractive industries (mining, oil, gas) by examining such issues as: resource-dependency at the international, country and regional levels; the neglected role of metropolitanization; environmental impacts and limits; the colonial basis of and imperial patterns in today’s globalized resource exploitation system; lessons of Indigenous and working-class resistance to corporation resource extraction; the importance of democratic control and public ownership; new avenues in shifting the debate on resources and hinterlands.

PB - Fernwood Publishing CY - Winnipeg, Canada L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Rewards of (Dis)Integration: Economic, Social, and Political Globalization and Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining Rights of Workers in Developing Countries JF - ILR Review Y1 - 2014 A1 - Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati KW - collective bargaining KW - developing countries KW - endogeneity KW - FACB rights KW - free association and collective bargaining rights KW - globalization KW - workers’ rights AB -

A much-debated issue regarding globalization is whether it translates into Free Association and Collective Bargaining (FACB) rights for workers. The author uses Dreher’s (2006) globalization index, which gauges globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions, and Mosley’s (2011) FACB rights index, which measures 37 aspects of both practices and laws violations of FACB rights, to examine the impact of globalization on FACB rights of workers. Using panel data for 142 developing countries during the 1985–2002 period, the author finds mixed evidence of the impact of globalization on FACB rights, controlling for a host of relevant factors, including endogeneity concerns using a System-GMM approach. While social globalization is associated with both strengthening laws and enforcing the laws to protect FACB rights, this is not the case for political globalization. In addition, the positive effect of economic globalization on FACB rights is sensitive to estimation specifications.

VL - Oct 24, 2014 L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Union Responsibility to Migrant Workers: A Global Justice Approach JF - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies Y1 - 2014 A1 - Albin, Einat KW - global justice KW - globalization KW - Laval KW - migrant workers KW - trade unions KW - Viking KW - work migration AB -

At a time when trade union activity is becoming more global, the article provides a theoretical framework that places a moral obligation on unions towards work migrants from the time they take a first step in the direction of movement, and continuing after they enter the receiving country and throughout the period of their work. The argument is based on theories of global justice and offers a three-axis framework that enables a complex analysis of union responsibility: direct and political responsibility, labor connectedness and solidarity. The moral obligation of unions stemming from global justice differs from the citizenship-based model or that of human rights. Its basis is global. Such an obligation should be recognized by various institutions, including the courts, thereby adding a global dimension to rights relating to collective action, such as the right to unionize, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike. The article analyses the ECJ’s decisions in the Viking and Laval cases, showing how the court failed to recognize this global dimension, and claiming that if such recognition were to be extended, a more accurate balance could be achieved between rights relating to collective action and economic interests in an era of globalization.

VL - 34 L2 - eng CP - 1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Unions' Response to Globalization Y1 - 2014 A1 - Chaison, Gary KW - collective bargaining KW - globalization KW - labor economics AB -

Globalization is commonly described in trade and cultural terms but its impact on unions and collective bargaining is seldom assessed. The few studies of unions and globalization are mostly collections of cases studies of how unions can work together or with other alliance partners to defend against the power of multinational corporations. This book goes beyond the current research by asking how unions have tried to deal with globalization and how globalization might threaten the fundamental union mission of taking wages, hours and conditions of employment out of competition. The introductory chapter defines globalization and uses the case of the Detroit Three automakers (GM, Chrysler and Ford) to show how globalization can affect employment and union size, influence and relevancy. The second chapter shows how unions deal globalization through collective bargaining regarding outsourcing, alliances, strikes and political action, including lobbying and international work standards. The final chapter argues that the unions cannot continue unchanged in this age of globalization and asks what they must do to be effective and relevant.

PB - Springer CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Why is Income Inequality Increasing in the Developed World? JF - Review of Income and Wealth Y1 - 2014 A1 - Max Roser A1 - Jesus Crespo Cuaresma KW - FDI KW - globalization KW - income inequality KW - inequality KW - international trade AB -

We address empirically the factors affecting the dynamics of income inequality among industrialized economies. Using a panel for 32 developed countries spanning the last four decades, our results indicate that the predictions of the Stolper–Samuelson theorem concerning the effects of international trade on income inequality find support in the data if we concentrate on imports from developing countries as a trade measure, as theory would imply. We find that democratization, the interaction of technology and education, and changes in the relative power of labor unions affect inequality dynamics robustly.

VL - Article first published online: 14 NOV 2014 L2 - eng UR - http://www.emod.ox.ac.uk/sites/emod.ox.ac.uk/files/CrespoCuaresmaRoser_Submitted.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Workers and Labor in a Globalized Capitalism: Contemporary Themes and Theoretical Issues Y1 - 2014 A1 - Atzeni, Maurizio KW - capitalism KW - globalization KW - human resources KW - management KW - sociology AB -

An introduction to work and society for undergraduate and postgraduate students. This new text brings together international experts on work and employment from a range of disciplines to debate key themes and issues related to work in a globalised economy.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Workers and Labour in a Globalised Capitalism: Contemporary Themes and Theoretical Issues Y1 - 2014 A1 - Atzeni, Maurizio KW - employment KW - globalization KW - work AB -

An introduction to work and society for undergraduate and postgraduate students. This new text brings together international experts on work and employment from a range of disciplines to debate key themes and issues related to work in a globalized economy.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor Y1 - 2013 A1 - Mezzadra, Sandro A1 - Brett Neilson KW - Asia KW - border struggles KW - borderlands KW - Europe KW - globalization KW - migration AB -

Far from creating a borderless world, contemporary globalization has generated a proliferation of borders. In Border as Method, Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson chart this proliferation, investigating its implications for migratory movements, capitalist transformations, and political life. They explore the atmospheric violence that surrounds borderlands and border struggles across various geographical scales, illustrating their theoretical arguments with illuminating case studies drawn from Europe, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, and elsewhere. Mezzadra and Neilson approach the border not only as a research object but also as an epistemic framework. Their use of the border as method enables new perspectives on the crisis and transformations of the nation-state, as well as powerful reassessments of political concepts such as citizenship and sovereignty.

PB - Duke University Press CY - Durham, NC L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Broken Paradigms: Labor Law in the Wake of Globalization and the Economic Crisis JF - Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal Y1 - 2013 A1 - Coutu, Michel A1 - Martine Le Friant A1 - Gregor Murray KW - collective bargaining KW - economic recession KW - globalization KW - labor law KW - labor relations KW - precarious employment KW - trade unionization KW - workers rights VL - 34 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Building Global Worker Power in a Time of Crisis JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2013 A1 - Feingold, Cathy KW - anti-worker policies KW - employment protection KW - global economy KW - globalization KW - International Financial Institutions KW - labor market flexibilization KW - trade unions AB -

The article focuses on issues concerning the global economy and employment protection. It notes that governments and the International Financial Institutions (IFI) have utilized the global economic and jobs crisis to impose an anti-worker policy agenda. Critical topics such as labor market flexibilization as well as trade unions are discussed.

VL - 22 L2 - eng CP - 2 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives Y1 - 2013 A1 - Hart-Landsberg, Martin KW - capitalist globalization KW - economic development KW - economics KW - globalization KW - market forces AB -

“Globalization,” surely one of the most used and abused buzzwords of recent decades, describes a phenomenon that is typically considered to be a neutral and inevitable expansion of market forces across the planet. Nearly all economists, politicians, business leaders, and mainstream journalists view globalization as the natural result of economic development, and a beneficial one at that. But, as noted economist Martin Hart-Landsberg argues, this perception does not match the reality of globalization. The rise of transnational corporations and their global production chains was the result of intentional and political acts, decisions made at the highest levels of power. Their aim—to increase profits by seeking the cheapest sources of labor and raw materials—was facilitated through policy-making at the national and international levels, and was largely successful. But workers in every nation have paid the costs, in the form of increased inequality and poverty, the destruction of social welfare provisions and labor unions, and an erratic global economy prone to bubbles, busts, and crises. This book examines the historical record of globalization and restores agency to the capitalists, policy-makers, and politicians who worked to craft a regime of world-wide exploitation. It demolishes their neoliberal ideology—already on shaky ground after the 2008 financial crisis—and picks apart the record of trade agreements like NAFTA and institutions like the WTO. But, crucially, Hart-Landsberg also discusses alternatives to capitalist globalization, looking to examples such as South America’s Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) for clues on how to build an international economy based on solidarity, social development, and shared prosperity.

PB - Monthly Review Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Comparitive Employment Relations in the Global Economy Y1 - 2013 A1 - Carola Frege A1 - John Kelly KW - employment relations KW - global economy KW - globalization KW - human resource management KW - industrial relations KW - labor politics KW - political economy AB - "Employment Relations" is widely taught in business schools around the world. Increasingly however more emphasis is being placed on the comparative and international dimensions of the relations between employers and workers. It is becoming ever more important to comprehend today’s work and employment issues alongside a knowledge of the dynamics between global financial and product markets, global production chains, national and international employment actors and institutions and the ways in which these relationships play out in different national contexts. This textbook is the first to present a cross-section of country studies, including all four BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China alongside integrative thematic chapters covering all the important topics needed to excel in this field. The textbook also benefits from the editors' and contributors' experience as leading scholars in Employment Relations. The book is an ideal resource for students on advanced undergraduate and postgraduate comparative programs across areas such as Employment Relations, Human Resource Management, Political Economy, Labour Politics, Industrial and Economic Sociology, Regulation and Social Policy.(publisher's statement) PB - Routledge CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Labor Insurgency in China: Strikes, Unions, and the Role of the Government JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2013 A1 - Quan, K. KW - China KW - collective bargaining KW - democracy KW - globalization KW - insurgency KW - organizing KW - strikes KW - unions KW - working class AB -

A conversation with a Chinese labor organizer.
 

VL - 22 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Labor, Risk, and Uncertainty in Global Supply Networks—Exploratory Insights JF - Journal of Business Logistics Y1 - 2013 A1 - Jörg Sydow A1 - Stephen J. Frenkel KW - employer–employee issues KW - Europe KW - global production networks KW - globalization KW - interorganizational networks KW - labor relations KW - outsourcing KW - risk KW - supply chain risk management KW - supply chains KW - uncertainty AB -

Arising from widespread outsourcing and, in particular, offshoring, goods and services are increasingly provided by supply networks that rely on global logistic systems. While the risks and uncertainties involved in this strategy have been widely acknowledged in the literature on interorganizational networks and supply chain management, labor conditions and labor relations—and related human resource management issues—have thus far been neglected. Starting from a perspective that takes into consideration that global supply networks are not only confronted with calculable risks but also genuine uncertainties, we explore the conditions under which labor may constitute a source as well as a means for dealing with risk and uncertainty. The study is based on a review of the relevant interorganizational network and supply chain management literature and is informed by an investigation of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) in 10 European corporations and their supply networks. IFAs—in addition to unilateral codes of conduct—could be used to detect and cope with labor-related risk and uncertainties. However, our findings reveal that this is not the case. This leads to some tentative theoretical conclusions and implications for dealing with risk and uncertainty in global supply networks.

VL - 34 L2 - eng CP - 3 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Multinational Companies and Their Attitude Towards Union Activity JF - USV Annals Of Economics & Public Administration Y1 - 2013 A1 - Bălăneasa, Maria Cristina KW - Europe KW - globalization KW - multinational companies KW - syndicates KW - workers’ rights KW - working relations AB -

The intensification of the global economic activity has generated changes in working relations. The intensification of the activities within multinational companies has determined greater employment flexibility, but also a lower collective bargaining power of the employees, because the multinationals attempted to weaken the power of trade unions. The purpose of this paper is precisely to identify the attitude of these companies towards trade union activity and the reaction of labour organizations in response to the challenges of the globalization. The policy of multinational companies is, as it comes from the results presented in this paper, to avoid as far as possible syndicates recognition for collective bargaining of the reciprocal rights and obligations. One of the reasons would be that trade unions recognition would imply for the managers of these companies some restrictions of control management prerogatives. In order to show strength against multinational companies, trade unions have joined at European and international level, trying to formulate a strategic response to the challenges of the globalization. Through global trade unions such as Global Syndicate Federations (GSF) and the European Trade Union Confederation, employees have obtained the right to be consulted, informed and negotiate their rights through international and European social dialogue. Although multinational companies have an attitude of avoiding trade union recognition, the internationalization and Europeanization of syndicates contribute to maintaining the strategic partner role of the union in the struggle to ensure satisfactory life and working conditions of its members.

VL - 13 L2 - eng UR - http://seap.usv.ro/annals/ojs/index.php/annals/article/viewFile/542/568 CP - 1 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 - BOOK T1 - East Asian Labor and Employment Law: International and Comparative Context Y1 - 2012 A1 - Brown, R. C. KW - Asia KW - China KW - employment law KW - globalization KW - Japan KW - labor law KW - South Korea AB -

This book deals with international labor and employment law in the East Asia Region (EA), particularly dealing with China, South Korea, and Japan. It explores and explains the effects of globalization and discusses the role of international lawyers, business personnel, and human resource directors who are knowledgeable, culturally sensitive, and understand the issues that can arise when dealing in EA trade and investment. The text and readings (from area experts) are organized and written to provide the reader with, first, a broad understanding and insight into the global dimensions of the fast-emerging area of labor and employment issues (e.g., global legal standards and their interplay with domestic and foreign laws); and second, to show how these laws and approaches play out in specific EA countries (comparing global approaches with the specific laws of each country on four common agenda items: regulatory administration, workers' rights, trade unions, and dispute resolution). The book should be of interest not only to lawyers, students, human resource personnel, and government officials, but also to business investors, managers, and members of the public interested in the growing phenomenon of changing labor laws and societies in China, South Korea, and Japan. (publisher's statement)

PB - Cambridge University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Non-Standard Workers: Good Practices Of Social Dialogue And Collective Bargaining Y1 - 2012 A1 - Minawa Ebisui KW - collective bargaining KW - globalization KW - informal employment KW - precarious employment KW - self employment KW - social dialogue KW - temporary employment KW - trade unions AB -

This paper provides a comparative synthesis analysis of a series of national studies on non-standard work, collective bargaining and social dialogue in selected countries (Argentina,Colombia, India, Indonesia, Hungary, Japan and South Africa), which the Industrial and Employment Relations Department (DIALOGUE) of the ILO has conducted as a pilot project under the ILO’s Global Product on “Supporting collective bargaining and sound industrial relations”. The national studies aimed at identifying current and emerging non-standard forms of work arrangements within which workers are in need of protection; examining good practices in which people in non-standard forms of work are organized; analysing the role that collective bargaining and other forms of social dialogue play in improving the terms and conditions as well as the status of non-standard workers; and identifying good practices in this regard.

PB - International Labour Office Working Paper No. 36 CY - Geneva L2 - eng UR - http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---dialogue/documents/publication/wcms_179448.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy: Negotiating for Social Justice Y1 - 2011 A1 - Hayter, Susan KW - collective bargaining KW - global economy KW - globalization KW - social justice KW - workers’ rights AB -

Participation in the global economy can contribute to growth and development, but as the recent financial crisis demonstrated, such participation can also threaten employment, wages and labour standards. This volume examines the role that collective bargaining plays in ensuring that participation in the global economy is balanced, fair and just. Collective bargaining is often seen as either an impediment to the smooth functioning of markets, or as ineffective. This volume focuses on the other side of the story and demonstrates the positive contribution that collective bargaining can make to both economic and social goals. No one size fits all and the various contributions examine how this fundamental principle and right at work is realized in different country settings and how its practice can be reinforced across borders. The volume also highlights the numerous challenges in this regard and the critically important role that governments play in rebalancing bargaining power in a global economy. The chapters are written in an accessible style and deal with practical subjects (e.g. employment security, workplace change and productivity and working time). (publisher's statement) Co-published with Edward Elgar.

PB - International Labor Office CY - Geneva, Switzerland L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism: Lessons From India Y1 - 2011 A1 - Hensman, R. KW - employees’ unionism KW - global capitalism KW - globalization KW - India KW - labor movement KW - workers’ rights AB -

While it's easy to blame globalization for shrinking job opportunities, dangerous declines in labor standards, and a host of related discontents, the "flattening" of the world has also created unprecedented opportunities for worker organization. By expanding employment in developing countries, especially for women, globalization has formed a basis for stronger workers' rights, even in remote sites of production.

Using India's labor movement as a model, Rohini Hensman charts the successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses, of the struggle for workers' rights and organization in a rich and varied nation. As Indian products gain wider acceptance in global markets, the disparities in employment conditions and union rights between such regions as the European Union and India's vast informal sector are exposed, raising the issue of globalization's implications for labor.

Hensman's study examines the unique pattern of "employees' unionism," which emerged in Bombay in the 1950s, before considering union responses to recent developments, especially the drive to form a national federation of independent unions. A key issue is how far unions can resist protectionist impulses and press for stronger global standards, along with the mechanisms to enforce them. After thoroughly unpacking this example, Hensman zooms out to trace the parameters of a global labor agenda, calling for a revival of trade unionism, the elimination of informal labor, and reductions in military spending to favor funding for comprehensive welfare and social security systems. (publisher's statement)

PB - Columbia University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies (10th Edition) Y1 - 2010 A1 - Roger Blanpain KW - globalization KW - industrial relations KW - industrialized market economies KW - labor law AB -

Comparativism is no longer a purely academic exercise but has increasingly become an urgent necessity for industrial relations and legal practitioners due to the growth of multinational enterprises and the impact of international and regional organizations aspiring to harmonize rules. The growing need for comprehensive, up-to-date and readily available information on labour law and industrial relations in different countries led to the publication of the International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, in which more than 70 international and national monographs have thus far been published.

This book, Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies, goes a step further than the Encyclopaedia in as much as most of the chapters provide comparative and integrated thematic treatment. The aim is to describe the salient characteristics and trends in labour law and industrial relations in the contemporary world. This book is obviously not exhaustive, with respect to the coverage of countries and topics. The authors limit themselves mainly to the industrialized market economies. The book is divided in four main parts: an introduction relating to methodology and documentation, including the use of Internet. The second part concerns international actors, like the International Employer’s Organisations and the International Trade Union Movement, as well as Human Resources Management. The third concerns the sources of regulation, concentrating on International and European Labour Law, as well as on Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises and describes also the rules in case of conflict of laws. The last part deals with international developments and comparative studies in not less than 15 chapters.

The Xth edition, will like the previous editions, serve as a textbook and reference work to facilitate the task of teachers and students of comparative labour law and industrial relations. It will also provide labour lawyers with the necessary insights to cope with a world which is increasingly international. (publisher's statement)

PB - Kluwer Law International CY - The Netherlands L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Developing Standards of Workplace Justice Within International Organizations JF - American Society of International Law International Organizations Interest Group Review Y1 - 2010 A1 - A. M. Zack KW - globalization KW - human rights KW - workers’ rights KW - workplace justice AB -

[Excerpt] A little explored aspect of our growing global interdependence has been the proliferation of international access to the workplace protections ...The expansion of such international organizations from the fledgling focus of the League of Nations on inter‐government regulation of health, post, telegraph, labor standards and the like to the broader role of the United Nations ... has occurred in the context of negotiated privileges and immunities treaties with member states.

VL - Summer 2010 L2 - eng UR - http://www.globalcitizen.net/topic_1236_work-environment/knowledge_papers_40658_developing-standards-of-workplace-justice-within-international-organizations/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation Y1 - 2010 A1 - Fenwick, C. A1 - Novitz, T. KW - globalization KW - human rights KW - labor standards KW - workers’ rights AB -

Concerns associated with globalisation of markets, exacerbated by the 'credit crunch', have placed pressure on many nation states to make their labour markets more 'flexible'. In so doing, many states have sought to reduce labour standards and to diminish the influence of trade unions as the advocates of such standards. One response to this development, both nationally and internationally, has been to emphasise that workers' rights are fundamental human rights. This collection of essays examines whether this is an appropriate or effective strategy.

The book begins by considering the translation of human rights discourse into labour standards, namely how theory might be put into practice. The remainder of the book tests hypotheses posited in the first chapter and is divided into three parts. The first part investigates, through a number of national case studies, how, in practice, workers' rights are treated as human rights in the domestic legal context. These ten chapters cover African, American, Asian, European, and Pacific countries. The second part consists of essays which analyse the operation of regional or international systems for human rights promotion, and their particular relevance to the treatment of workers' rights as human rights. The final part consists of chapters which explore regulatory alternatives to the traditional use of human rights law. The book concludes by considering the merits of various regulatory approaches. (publisher's statement)

PB - Hart Publishing CY - Portland, OR 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 - BOOK T1 - Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World Y1 - 2010 A1 - Rodriguez, R. M. KW - global capitalism KW - global labor market KW - globalization KW - labor brokerage KW - Philippines AB -

Robyn Magalit Rodriguez investigates how and why the Philippine government transformed itself into what she calls a labor brokerage state, which actively prepares, mobilizes, and regulates its citizens for migrant work abroad. Drawing on ethnographic research of the Philippine government’s migration bureaucracy, interviews, and archival work, Rodriguez presents a new analysis of neoliberal globalization and its consequences for nation-state formation. (publisher's statement)

PB - University of Minnesota Press CY - Minneapolis L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Understanding Union Power: Resources and Capabilities for Renewing Union Capacity JF - Transfer Y1 - 2010 A1 - Christian Lévesque A1 - Gregor Murray KW - deliberative vitality KW - framing KW - globalization KW - learning KW - power resources KW - strategic capabilities KW - union power KW - union renewal AB -

Power is at the core of current debates over the future of trade unionism. This article provides a framework to assess the power resources and strategic capabilities central to union capacity building. We identify four key power resources: internal solidarity; network embeddedness; narrative resources that frame understandings and union actions; and infrastructural resources (material, human, processes, policies and programmes). Resources alone are not enough; unions must also be capable of using them. We identify four strategic capabilities: intermediating between contending interests to foster collaborative action and to activate networks; framing; articulating actions over time and space; and learning. Much experimentation and research on the interactions between these resources and capabilities in particular contexts is required to advance our understanding of the renewal of union power.

VL - 16 L2 - eng UR - http://trs.sagepub.com/content/16/3/333.full.pdf+html CP - 3 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism Y1 - 2009 A1 - Hung, H. KW - China KW - economy KW - globalization KW - income distribution KW - international market system KW - labor KW - market economy AB -

With one of the world's fastest-growing economies and a population quickly approaching two billion, China holds substantial sway over global financial, social, and cultural networks. This volume explains China's economic rise and liberalization and assesses how this growth is reshaping the structure and dynamics of global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

China has historically been the center of Asian trade, economic, and financial networks, and its global influence continues to expand in the twenty-first century. In exploring the causes for and effects of China's resurging power, this volume takes a broad, long-term view that reaches well beyond economics for answers. Contributors explore the vast web of complex issues raised by China's ascendancy.

The first three chapters discuss the global and historical origins of China's shift to a market economy and that transformation's impact on the international market system. Subsequent essays explore the ability of large Chinese manufacturers to counter the might of transnational retailers, the effect of China's rise on world income distribution and labor, and the consequences of a stronger China for its two most powerful neighbors, Russia and Japan. The concluding chapter questions whether China's growth is sustainable and if it will ultimately shift the center of global capitalism from the West to the East.

This cutting-edge collection of works by leading global political economists links current events to long-term trends in global capitalist development to provide a comprehensive analysis of China's impact on the world. Scholars of China, world systems and globalization, international relations, and political economy will find this assessment worthy of study and an important starting point for further research.

Contributors: Richard P. Appelbaum, Giovanni Arrighi, Edna Bonacich, József Böröcz, Paul S. Ciccantell, John Gulick, Ho-Fung Hung, Stephanie Luce, Beverly J. Silver, Alvin Y. So, and Lu Zhang. (publisher's statement)

PB - The Johns Hopkins University Press CY - Baltimore L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Global Unions, Global Business: Global Union Federations and International Business Y1 - 2009 A1 - Croucher, R. A1 - Cotton, E. KW - global union federations KW - globalization KW - international employment relations KW - international industrial relations AB -

Global Unions, Global Business takes a unique approach to the topic of Global Unions. It looks at a little-understood aspect of globalization: the role of the Global Union Federations in international employment relations. The book outlines the way that trade unions at international level relate to multinational companies using detailed and up-to-date illustrations of their activities.

Importantly, the book includes an in-depth case study of one of the GUF’s dealings with a major multinational company. Throughout the book the authors also explore the previously unknown internal lives of the Global Union Federations and propose ideas about how they can strengthen their position internationally.

Global Unions, Global Business is a unique contribution to existing literature on globalization and international employment relations, throwing new light both on the international trade union movement and its relations with multinational companies. The book will be of interest to all those interested in the future of trade unionism, multinational companies and the future of international industrial relations. (publisher's statement)

PB - Middlesex University Press CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - International Trends In ADR: An Asian View Y1 - 2009 A1 - A. M. Zack KW - ADR KW - alternative dispute resolution KW - Asia KW - dispute resolution KW - globalization KW - international law AB -

[Excerpt] In globalization we like to refer to trends in international law, or international trends in national law. But the reality is that in the international arena there is no legal recourse or workplace protection as there is in the national arena leaving ADR as the only forum for moving forward. Much as we would like to report on the sweeping and expanding success of labor and employment ADR in Asia, with two exceptions, the pickings are slim.

PB - Labor Employment Relations Association CY - San Francisco, California L2 - eng UR - http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/people/staffPapers/zack/INTernational_trends_in_ADR_SF_Jan_2009.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Studies of Labor Market Intermediation (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report) Y1 - 2009 A1 - D. H. Autor KW - globalization KW - hiring KW - job market KW - labor market intermediaries KW - LMIs AB -

From the traditional craft hiring hall to the Web site Monster.com, a multitude of institutions exist to facilitate the matching of workers with firms. The diversity of such Labor Market Intermediaries (LMIs) encompasses criminal records providers, public employment offices, labor unions, temporary help agencies, and centralized medical residency matches. Studies of Labor Market Intermediation analyzes how these third-party actors intercede where workers and firms meet, thereby aiding, impeding, and, in some cases, exploiting the matching process.

By building a conceptual foundation for analyzing the roles that these understudied economic actors serve in the labor market, this volume develops both a qualitative and quantitative sense of their significance to market operation and worker welfare. Cross-national in scope, Studies of Labor Market Intermediation is distinctive in coalescing research on a set of market institutions that are typically treated as isolated entities, thus setting a research agenda for analyzing the changing shape of employment in an era of rapid globalization and technological change. (publisher's statement)

PB - University of Chicago Press CY - Chicago L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Think Global, Act Local: Employee Representation in a World of Global Labor and Product Market Competition JF - The Labor Lawyer Y1 - 2009 A1 - Estreicher, S. KW - collective bargaining KW - competition KW - global labor KW - global labor markets KW - global product markets KW - globalization KW - integrative bargaining KW - labor law KW - product market competition KW - public policy KW - redistributive bargaining KW - unionization AB -

The decline of unionization rates in private companies, while at an especially low point below 10% in the U.S., is a worldwide phenomenon, hastened by the emergence of global labor and product market competition. The dilemma for public policy is that while strong unions can promote worker voice and economic participation, they do so in a manner that harms firm performance where all companies competing in the same product market are not subject to the same union standards. Global markets make it increasingly difficult for unions to pursue traditional redistributive goals, bringing to the fore an alternative model of workplace representation that emphasizes pursuit of objectives that do not undermine firm profits. Although global labor standards are often suggested as a means of improving the ability of U.S. workers to compete on a "level playing field" with workers in other countries, this approach is not likely to succeed if developing countries are to pursue their competitive advantage as lower-cost producers. Rather, the path for U.S. public policy should be two-pronged: (1) strengthening the protections for workers seeking collective representation, while (2) removing disincentives in current institutional arrangements that retard the evolution of unions as integrative bargaining agents.

VL - 24 L2 - eng UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1292369 CP - 3 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political Y1 - 2009 A1 - Rebick, J. KW - globalization KW - grassroots activism KW - mass communication technology KW - social justice AB -

Veteran activist Judy Rebick explains how globalization and mass communication technology are revolutionizing our understanding of power and producing profound new ideas about social and political life. Whether it’s the election of President Obama, the rise of democracy in Bolivia, or the success of Wikipedia, it’s the process that’s key: bringing communities of people together to produce something new; building a movement from the bottom up; sharing experience, knowledge and wisdom; emphasizing co-operation and consensus over confrontation and political partisanship.

Meaningful response to the environmental crisis and social injustice requires substantial, sustainable change at every level, which can only come through building power from the grass roots, from the people most impacted. In Transforming Power we discover the ideas, the people and the practices that can provide the paths to the change we need. (publisher's statement)

PB - Penguin Canada CY - Toronto L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Cross-Border Social Dialogue and Agreements: An Emerging Global Industrial Relations Framework? Y1 - 2008 A1 - Papadakis, K. KW - codes of conduct KW - employment conditions KW - globalization KW - IFAs KW - industrial relations KW - international framework agreements KW - workers’ rights AB -

The book examines various facets of international framework agreements (IFAs), as one of numerous private initiatives that have emerged in the absence of a state-driven multilateral framework, in view of organising a common labour relations framework at cross-border level. It also addresses relevant issues such as the possibility of cross-border solidarity action as a complement to cross-border dialogue.

PB - International Institute for Labour Studies CY - Geneva L2 - eng UR - http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_093423.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Globalization and Labor: Democratizing Global Governance Y1 - 2008 A1 - Stevis, D. A1 - Boswell, T. KW - global capitalism KW - global governance KW - global union politics KW - globalization KW - labor movement KW - social movements AB -

Unions have long been a central force in the democratization of national and global governance, and this timely book examines the role of labor in fighting for a more democratic and equitable world. In a clear and compelling narrative, Dimitris Stevis and Terry Boswell explore the past accomplishments and the formidable challenges still facing global union politics. Outlining the contradictions of globalization and global governance, they assess the implications for global union politics since its inception in the nineteenth century. The authors place this key social movement in a political economy framework as they argue that social movements can be fruitfully compared based on their emphases on egalitarianism and internationalism. Applying these concepts to global union politics across time, the authors consider whether global union politics has become more active and more influential or has failed to rise to the challenge of global capitalism. All readers interested in global organizations, governance, and social movements will find this deeply informed work an essential resource. (publisher's statement)

PB - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. CY - Plymouth, UK L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Laboring of Communications: Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite? Y1 - 2008 A1 - Mosco, V. A1 - McKercher, C. KW - communication workers KW - globalization KW - information society KW - new media KW - organized labor KW - outsourcing AB -

Examines the transformation of work and of worker organizations in today's Information Society. The book focuses on how traditional trade unions and new worker associations growing out of social movements are coming together to address the crisis of organized labor. It concentrates on the creative responses of the technical and cultural workers in the mass media, telecommunications, and information technology industries.

Concentrating on political economy, labor process, and feminist theory, it proceeds to offer several ways of thinking about communication workers and the nature of the society in which they work. Drawing on interviews and the documentary record, the book offers case studies of successful and unsuccessful efforts among both traditional and alternative worker organizations in the United States and Canada. It concludes by addressing the thorny issue of outsourcing, describing how global labor federations and nascent worker organizations in the developing world are coming together to develop creative solutions. (publisher's statement)

PB - Lexington Books CY - Lanham, MD L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labour and the Challenges of Globalization: What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity? Y1 - 2008 A1 - Bieler, A. A1 - Lindberg, I. A1 - Pillay, D. KW - Argentina KW - Brazil KW - Canada KW - China KW - Germany KW - globalization KW - India KW - Japan KW - South Africa KW - South Korea KW - Sweden KW - trade unions AB -

This book critically examines the responses of the working classes of the world to the challenges posed by the neoliberal restructuring of the global economy. Neoliberal globalisation, the book argues, has created new forms of polarisation in the world. A renewal of working class internationalism must address the situation of both the more privileged segments of the working class and the more impoverished ones. The study identifies new or renewed labour responses among formalised core workers as well as those on the periphery, including street-traders, homeworkers and other 'informal sector' workers. The book contains ten country studies, including India, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. It argues that workers and trade unions, through intensive collaboration with other social forces across the world, can challenge the logic of neoliberal globalization. (publisher’s statement)

PB - Pluto Press CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - A Modest Proposal for Mediating Code of Conduct Challenges Y1 - 2008 A1 - A. M. Zack KW - code of conduct KW - globalization KW - job protection KW - mediation KW - worker’s rights AB -

[Excerpt] Globalization has brought many changes in workplace job protection. One has been increased attention paid to the fact that many jobs which had been performed by workers with statutory and collective bargaining protections in industrialized nations are now being performed by workers in countries which fail to provide comparable levels of workplace protection. The urge of local factories to maximize their profits has often outpaced their willingness to adhere to generally accepted levels of workplace fairness. This is facilitated in many countries by the unwillingness, disinterest, or incompetence of the officials of such host countries to fully implement their own laws or even the international labor standards accepted as norms by promulgation of ILO conventions.

Many of the brand name companies which have taken advantage of the subcontracting and outsourcing opportunities in developing countries have developed Codes of Conduct as commitments to investors and consumers that they will assure compliance with fair labor conditions in the factories which produce for their markets. Most of these Codes provide internal or external monitoring to assure compliance with their proclaimed standards.

This paper suggests the adoption of a complaint procedure culminating in mediation as a preferred procedure for
1. Enhancing factory adherence to codes
2. Increasing consumer and investor confidence in the Brands’ pursuit of code compliance
3. Reassuring local workers that the factories in which they work will be held to compliance with Code standards
4. Assuring local communities of the sincerity of the brand providers in protecting local workers
5. Encouraging a sense within the local communities of the importance of fair working conditions, even in the absence of diligent local law enforcement
6. Initiating the local development of a team of respected mediators to resolve disputes over code compliance
7. Empowering local universities and NGOs charged with the establishment of such a mediation facility
8. Promoting local rule of law by providing a greater measurement of enforcement for standards of workplace fairness.
9. Furthering the development of private voluntary dispute resolution in localities and countries where existing statutes and legal process are suspect, corrupt or ineffective
10. Setting an example of private dispute resolution machinery with potential applicability to other arenas of conflict such as statutory enforcement or resolution of commercial disputes

PB - NYU School of Law CY - New York L2 - eng UR - http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/people/staffPapers/zack/A_Modest_Proposal_for_Mediating_Code_of_Conduct_Challenges.pdf 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 - BOOK T1 - Break or Weld? Trade Union Responses to Global Value Chain Restructuring Y1 - 2007 A1 - Huws, U. KW - global value chain restructuring KW - globalization KW - organizing KW - representation KW - trade unions AB -

How should trade union respond to globalisation?

This book addresses questions of strategy and organisation: What should be the balance between protecting jobs on existing sites and developing solidarity with workers in other parts of the world up or down the value chain? Are new forms of organisation emerging and, if so, how effective are they?

How can workers build on past traditions of organising in changed circumstances? How can traditional European national social dialogue models adapt to globalisation? How can trade unions organise across value chains in a context where, increasingly, the terms and conditions of employment of workers around the world are set not by their direct employers but by the terms of contracts agreed between their employers and their employers' clients.

Can initiatives to establish labour standards and good corporate governance at a global level provide answers? How can trade union work with campaigns and community-based organisations? (publisher's statement)

PB - Merlin Press Ltd CY - Monmouth, United Kingdom L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Convergence and/or Divergence in Labor Law Systems? A European Perspective JF - Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal Y1 - 2007 A1 - Weiss, M. KW - European Community KW - globalization KW - labor law KW - labor legislation KW - labor standards KW - neo-liberal ideology KW - workers’ rights AB -

This article engages an ongoing debate among labor law scholars over whether the spread of globalization and neo-liberal ideology necessarily lead to a "convergence" or homogenization of labor standards whether that convergence is accomplished by a "race to the bottom," i.e., a general decrease in workers' rights. The author argues that European Community labor legislation has in fact contributed to a "convergence" among member States, but that it has often done so by setting minimum standards whose overall effect is to increase workers' rights with respect to workplace discrimination, health and safety standards, wage and hour laws and alternative forms of employment. The article also points out how EC legislation has promoted worker "voice" by requiring employers to provide information and consult with designated workers' representatives. On balance, the author sees these developments as contributing at least as much to the creation and expansion of workers' rights as to a downward spiraling "convergence" of labor standards.

VL - 28 L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns Y1 - 2007 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner KW - collective bargaining KW - globalization KW - labor movement KW - organizing AB -

To meet the challenges of globalization, unions must improve their understanding of the changing nature of corporate ownership structures and practices, and they must develop alliances and strategies appropriate to the new environment. Global Unions includes original research from scholars around the world on the range of innovative strategies that unions use to adapt to different circumstances, industries, countries, and corporations in taking on the challenge of mounting cross-border campaigns against global firms.

This collection emerges from a landmark conference where unionists, academics, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from the Global South and the Global North met to devise strategies for labor to use when confronting the most powerful corporations such as Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil. The workplaces discussed here include agriculture (bananas), maritime labor (dock workers), manufacturing (apparel, automobiles, medical supplies), food processing, and services (school bus drivers).

Kate Bronfenbrenner's introduction sets the stage, followed by contributions describing specific examples from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Bronfenbrenner's conclusion focuses on the key lessons for strengthening union power in relation to global capital.

Contributors: Terry Boswell, Emory University; Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University; Henry Frundt, Ramapo College; Samanthi Gunawardana, University of Melbourne; Tom Juravich, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Kevin Kolben, Rutgers Business School; Valeria Pulignano, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; Darryn Snell, Monash University; Dimitris Stevis, Colorado State University; Ashwini Sukthankar, International Commission for Labor Rights; Amanda Tattersall, University of Sydney; Peter Turnbull, Cardiff University; Peter Wad, Copenhagen Business School. (publisher's statement)

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/books/33/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Globalization and Change in Asia Y1 - 2007 A1 - D. A. Rondinelli A1 - Heffron, J. M. KW - Asia KW - economics KW - globalization KW - inclusive governance KW - information technology AB -

Explores three decades of adjustment on the part of governments, civil society, and the private sector to the complex new forces of international competition.

Recognizing that the benefits of globalization have not accrued equally to all Asian countries, nor to all stratums of society, the authors seek lessons that can help shape development policy to effect the greatest good. Thus, they focus on the essential ingredients of the most broadly successful globalization strategies—strategies that can most optimally respond to the economic, social, and technological challenges that lay ahead. (publisher's statement)

PB - Lynne Rienner Publishers CY - Boulder, CO L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Improving Work Conditions in a Global Supply Chain JF - MIT Sloan Management Review Y1 - 2007 A1 - Locke, Richard M. A1 - Monica Romis KW - child labor KW - developing countries KW - global brands KW - globalization KW - labor standards KW - Nike KW - supply chain KW - wages KW - workers’ rights KW - working conditions AB -

[Excerpt] Globalization and the diffusion of industry supply chains to developing countries have provoked a fierce debate over how best to improve labor standards in these emerging centers of production. Child labor, hazardous working conditions, excessive working hours and poor wages continue to be a problem at many factories in developing countries, creating scandal and embarrassment for the global brands that source from those factories. Given the limited capacity of many developing-country governments to enforce their own labor laws, multinational corporations have developed their own “codes of conduct” for suppliers, as well as a variety of monitoring mechanisms aimed at enforcing compliance with these codes. Monitoring for compliance with codes of conduct is currently the principal way that both global corporations and labor rights nongovernmental organizations address poor working conditions in global supply chain factories.Corporate codes of conduct and various efforts aimed at monitoring compliance with these codes have been around for decades. While initially these efforts focused primarily on corporate or supplier compliance with national regulations and laws, over time they have become increasingly concerned with compliance with private, voluntary codes of conduct, especially as they apply to labor and environmental standards. Information is central to this model of private, voluntary regulation. The underlying assumption is that information collected through factory audits will be used by labor rights NGOs to exert pressure on global brands to reform their sourcing practices and by the brands themselves, which rely on this information to police and pressure their suppliers to improve standards within their factories. Should these factories fail to remediate workplace problems, brands are expected to switch their orders to other producers. This model of workplace change has provoked debate over not only the particularities of the codes of conduct and compliance efforts but also their relation to other forms of regulation, especially government regulation. Critics of corporate codes of conduct argue that they displace more thorough government and union intervention and are not designed to protect labor rights or improve working conditions but to limit the legal liability of global brands and prevent damage to their reputations. Others, however, argue that private codes and monitoring are not attempts to undermine the state but rather are appropriately flexible responses to the reality of global production networks and the low capacity of developing-country governments to enforce labor laws and regulations fully. How well do corporate monitoring systems measure actual workplace conditions? And how effective is this system of private, voluntary regulation at improving labor standards? To gain more insights into these questions, we conducted a structured comparison of two factories in Mexico that supply the same global brand — NIKE Inc. (See “About the Research.”) Although these factories had very similar scores on one of Nike’s principal monitoring tools, the two factories in some ways had quite different working conditions. One plant paid higher wages, limited workers’ overtime and gave them greater discretion over their work on the shop floor, and the other plant paid workers less, worked them longer hours and employed more traditional, hierarchical work systems. Our findings suggest that interventions aimed at reorganizing work and empowering labor on the shop floor in global supply chain factories can lead to significant improvements in working conditions.

VL - 48 L2 - eng UR - http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/182/Locke,Romis.pdf CP - 2 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - A Global Union for Global Workers: Collective Bargaining and Regulatory Politics in Maritime Shipping Y1 - 2006 A1 - Lillie, N. KW - global collective bargaining KW - global unionism KW - globalization KW - maritime shipping KW - union bargaining strategy AB -

This is a book about how global unionism was born in the maritime shipping sector. It argues that the industrial structure of shipping, and specifically the interconnected nature of shipping production chains, facilitated the globalization of union bargaining strategy, and the transnationalization of union structures for mobilizing industrial action. This, in turn, led to global collective bargaining institutions and effective union participation in global regulatory politics. This study uses a variety of source and analytical techniques, relying heavily on interviews with union official and other maritime industry people in many countries. (publisher's statement)

PB - Routledge CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Globalization and Industrial Relations of China, India and South Korea: An Argument for Divergence Y1 - 2005 A1 - Ali, M. A. KW - China KW - Dunlop’s model KW - globalization KW - India KW - industrial relations KW - South Korea AB -


Driven by technological advances, improved communications, economic liberalization, and increased international competition, globalization
has brought in an era of economic, institutional and cultural integration. Under globalization the workplace practices are under a constant state of flux. Academics are not only analyzing the benefits and the deleterious effects of this phenomenon on the employment relations of deve loped and under-developed nations. They have also stirred up the old controversy regarding the longer-run trajectory of employment relations systems under the pressures of globalization. The debate is on the question that whether the industrial relations systems of countries are converging or diverging. This paper analysis employment relation systems of three Asian countries-China, India, and Korea- and makes a case for diversion in employment relation systems.
 

PB - University of Rhode Island CY - Kingston, RI L2 - eng UR - http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/research/papers/Ali_Globalization.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - A Trade Union Guide to Globalisation Y1 - 2005 A1 - Ryder, G. KW - global trade unionism KW - globalization KW - international solidarity KW - international trade union movement KW - organizing KW - trade unions KW - workers’ rights AB -

[Excerpt] The impact of globalisation is ever more evident to trade unionists in all countries and in all sectors. The increasing integration of national economies in a single global market and the appearance of new world production systems are bringing about a convergence of national and international trade union agendas. Trade unions face the double challenge of representing workers effectively in the rapidly changing conditions of the global economy, and of bringing about fundamental change in the workings of globalisation so that it distributes its benefits more fairly and contributes to socially just and sustainable development. This “Trade Union Guide to Globalisation” aims to help trade unionists to participate actively in the urgent task of meeting these challenges. It sets out the meaning of globalisation for working people, describes the role and potential of the major actors in the global economy, and focuses in particular on the structures, campaigns, and policies of the international trade union movement and how international solidarity can make the difference.

PB - ICFTU CY - Brussels, Belgium L2 - eng UR - http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/report.complete.pdf ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Conciliation of Disputes Over International Labor Standards Y1 - 2004 A1 - A. M. Zack KW - Asia KW - dispute resolution KW - globalization KW - international labor standards KW - labor relations KW - mediation AB -

[Excerpt] In the decades between the Second World War and the current era of globalization and free trade, those of us in the labor relations world functioned nationally within our borders working with a prescribed set of laws and practices, which we viewed as difficult enough without having to add an international dimension to that mix. Despite the fact that the International Labor Organization since 1919 has promulgated 184 International Conventions on a wide range of workplace inequities. most countries have operated with scant regard for, let alone adoption of those Conventions. In each of our countries we have applied our own domestic mix of law and practice to channel union, management, employment disputes into established procedures which were able to achieve resolution of those disputes whether through the use of law and the judicial system, or special labor courts, or through private dispute resolution systems. Even though none of our systems of dispute resolution has been perfect, they have usually been successful in forestalling greater conflict and unrest over unresolved claims of worker rights or workplace justice. We have had a distinct roster of players, a prescribed legal structure for resolving anticipated disputes and players who were usually committed to the resolution of their disputes and the continued operation of the economy in which they worked.

In the United States the dispute resolution system does not include works councils, industry councils, labor courts or multiple unionism. Rather we have a system, which provides trade union representation to a scant 12 % of the work force. The remainder of our 125,000,000 workers operates under the doctrine of termination at the employers’ option, with resort to the traditional legal and judicial system only on issues involving allegations of statutory violation. The parties traditionally use mediation and arbitration as the standard procedures for bringing resolution to collective bargaining disputes. Nonunionized employers often develop their own internal medition and arbitration structures for resolving employee complaints with or without employee option on access to the courts. Nevertheless, in our system as in yours, the established metes and bounds of our formal and informal structures have generally minimized industrial unrest and conflict, hopefully with an eye to protecting fairness in the workplace. Throughout this period we had little more than perhaps academic concern as to work practices in other nations.

PB - Fifth Asian Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association L2 - eng UR - http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/people/staffPapers/zack/ArnoldZack_korean_paper.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labour and Globalisation: Results and Prospects Y1 - 2004 A1 - Munck, R. KW - globalization KW - globalization of labor KW - labor movement KW - labor transnationalism KW - trade unionism AB -

Globalization is transforming the world in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. It is often assumed that social movements, such as that of labor, will simply be overwhelmed by these changes. This book carries out a wide-ranging examination of theoretical and practical dimensions of globalization and the responses of the labor movement to the challenges it poses. Contributors explore the trend towards the globalization of labor, the influences of globalization at the sub-global spatial level, and the effects of globalization in a social dimension. In different ways, from different angles and taking up different positions, all the chapters in Labour and Globalisation can be seen as contributions to the development of a labor-based challenge to the ravages of globalization. They are, on the whole, neither optimistic nor pessimistic but seek out possibilities as well as establishing limits to labor transnationalism in the era of globalization. (publisher's statement)

PB - Liverpool University Press CY - Liverpool, UK L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Offshoring: The Evolving Profile of Corporate Global Restructuring JF - Multinational Monitor Y1 - 2004 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner A1 - Luce, S. KW - globalization KW - off shoring KW - offshore AB -

For all of the increase in international trade and rising concern about shifting of manufacturing and service jobs away from the United States, there is remarkably little detailed data on the scope of outsourcing. In part that reflects corporation's reluctance to announce plans to shift production or office work overseas. Even more, it is a consequence of the U.S. government's failure to collect data on the phenomenon.

This article reports on the results of a study intended to fill this information gap. Our research involves a combination of online media tracking and corporate research and the creation of a database including information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media during a specified period. The study examines production shifts from January 1 through March 31, 2004. (authors' statement)

VL - 25 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cbpubs/18/ CP - 12 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Varieties of Unionism: Strategies for Union Revitalization in a Globalizing Economy Y1 - 2004 A1 - Carola Frege A1 - John Kelly KW - coalition building KW - economics KW - globalization KW - organizational restructuring KW - political action KW - social partnership KW - union decline KW - union organizing KW - union politics KW - union strategy KW - union structure AB -

As unions face an ongoing crisis all over the industrialized world, they have often been portrayed as outmoded remnants of an old economic structure. This book argues that despite structural shifts in the economy and in politics, unions retain important functions for capitalist economies as well as for political democracy. Union revitalization in the face of their current difficulties is therefore of fundamental importance. This book charts the strategies unions use to respond to global union decline and to revive their fortunes in five countries — the liberal market economies of the US and the UK; the coordinated economy of Germany and the Mediterranean economies of Italy and Spain — thus providing a wide range of institutional settings, union structures, identities, and union responses. Each chapter provides a comparative analysis of a particular strategy, looking in turn at union organizing, social partnership, political action, organizational restructuring, coalition-building, and international action. It provides a rich source of documentation about union activity, but more importantly it goes beyond description to address two of the big questions in comparative research: How can we explain cross-country differences in union responses to global decline? And how effective are these actions in helping to revitalize national labour movements? (publisher's statement)

PB - Oxford University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement Y1 - 2003 A1 - R. Abrami KW - global trade KW - globalization KW - international trade agreements KW - labor standards KW - workers’ rights AB -

Examines the political and economic dimensions of the campaign to improve workers' rights around the world through the inclusion of labor standards in international trade agreements. The U.S.-Cambodia Textile Trade Agreement was the first agreement of its kind to link increased access to U.S. markets to improved working conditions in an exporting country. Some argue that labor standards are becoming a new form of protectionism. Others see them as necessary to preserve open markets and fair trade. How this debate is resolved will undoubtedly have great implications for investors in developing countries and ultimately for the economic development of the poorer countries themselves. (publisher's statement)

PB - Harvard Business Publishing CY - Boston L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Global Unions? Theory and Strategies of Organized Labour in the Global Political Economy Y1 - 2002 A1 - Harrod, J. A1 - O’Brien, R. KW - global economy KW - globalization KW - industrial relations KW - international relations KW - trade unions AB -

This edited collection examines the interaction between industrial relations and international relations in the global economy. The role of trade unions has changed significantly in the era of economic globalization and this book analyzes the key developments in union strategy on a local, national, regional and global level. (publisher's statement)

PB - Routledge CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor Relations in China’s Socialist Market Economy: Adapting to the Global Market Y1 - 2002 A1 - Oakley, S. KW - China KW - economic conditions KW - global market KW - globalization KW - industrial relations KW - labor policy AB -

Ideological and cultural factors do not define or influence the way labor relations are conducted in China's workplace, as many suppose they do. Oakley shows that the impact of the global market has significantly altered the way labor relations are actually practiced in China, which follows what she calls a global market paradigm. Nevertheless, Maoism and Confucianism continue to influence labor relations in China, and the ideological and cultural remnants still to be found could affect China's relations with other nations for years to come. Instead of taking a macro-level, industrial-relations approach common to other studies of Chinese labor, Oakley provides an in-depth look at the problems emerging on the shop floor, in the wake of economic reform. She provides translations of actual case histories, each of which details the causes of disputes, the various methods that were found to resolve them, and their eventual outcomes. At a broader level of analysis, her book tends to support convergence theories, of which globalization is the latest, proving that there are other features in contemporary market labor relations that have emerged in China in direct response to the demands of global competition. The result is a superbly detailed examination of a topic too little covered and seldom well understood. Oakley begins by considering the features of market labor relations and the emergence of a globalization-friendly style, in both Western and Asian economics. She continues with an analysis of the ideological and cultural dimensions of the relationship between managers and managed. In the next three chapters, she discusses the causes, resolution methods, and labor dispute outcomes. In each case she refers to the evidence of market, Maoist, and Confucian influences. The conclusion she draws is that while Confucian ideas and traces of Maoism continue to have an impact on the development and resolution of labor disputes in post-reform China overall, Chinese labor relations conform to the demands of the global, not the provincial, marketplace. (publisher's statement)

PB - Quorum Books CY - Westport, CT L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Trade Unions and Global Governance: The Debate on a Social Clause Y1 - 2002 A1 - van Roozendaal, G. KW - economic internationalization KW - global governance KW - globalization KW - ICFTU KW - International Confederation of Free Trade Unions KW - labor standards KW - social clause KW - trade sanctions KW - trade unions AB -

As the world economy is liberalized, and national economies become more intertwined, the national decision making of states is also increasingly interdependent, and it has become vital for non-governmental organizations to create an international agenda. This title is an important study of what makes such organizations successful on an international level. The focus is on trade unions, as a key international group of NGOs. It asks whether a global system can be designed to stimulate countries to observe a set of minimum or core standards. It explores three important questions: how have unions attempted to influence the debate on the inclusion of minumum labour standards in the WTO agreement?; what accounts for their success or lack of success?; and what conclusions, with respect to the effective behaviour of trade unions in the construction of international policy, can be drawn from these experiences? In exploring these questions the text looks at social clause debates within a number of international bodies: the ILO, OECD and the EU, and within two countries: the USA and India. (publisher's statement)

PB - Continuum CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Unions in a Globalized Environment: Changing Borders, Organizational Boundaries, and Social Roles Y1 - 2002 A1 - Nissen, B. KW - AFL-CIO KW - globalization KW - labor movement KW - labor unions KW - Mexico KW - NAFTA KW - TNCs KW - transnational corporations AB -

How can American unions survive in our increasingly globalized business environment? With the trend toward multinational corporations, free trade pacts, and dismantling import barriers, organized labor has been steadily losing ground in the United States. To reverse this trend, this book argues that U.S. unions must create ties with workers and unions in other countries, and include the ever-increasing number of immigrant workers in their ranks. And it calls for a shift toward "social movement unionism," which would change unions' orientation from exclusively market-focused and more toward social issues and rights. The first two parts of the book examine union attempts at cross-border solidarity with workers and unions abroad, and unions' relations with immigrants. Expanding on these ideas, the third section explores the types of internal transformations needed to revitalize the flagging U.S. labor movement. (publisher's statement)

PB - M. E. Sharpe CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China’s Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy Y1 - 2001 A1 - A. Chan KW - China KW - globalization KW - human rights KW - salary KW - worker abuse KW - workers’ rights KW - working conditions AB -

This important book contains case studies with substantive analysis of Chinese workers in a variety of settings: state enterprises, urban collectives, township and village enterprises, domestic private enterprises, and foreign funded enterprises. The cases include urban workers, migrant workers from the countryside, and workers who are sent to work outside of China.

The analytical framework for these case studies lays out why labor rights violations have been occurring in China and highlights the context in which these violations operate and the extent to which these selected cases are not isolated incidents. Moreover, the dilemma of Chinese workers is put into international perspective: the context of the international labor market, the setting of competitive minimum wages in Asia, and the concern for Chinese workers' rights taken up by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

This book debunks the conventional wisdom that Chinese workers are thriving because the Chinese economy is booming. Indeed the wage structures of these enterprises of different ownership types contribute to widening income disparities in China. The book uncovers what exactly the overseas Chinese entrepreneurship (Taiwan and Hong Kong), means at the factory level. And it calls for a new approach to scrutinizing the phenomena of the so-called Chinese economic "miracle" and its repercussions on other economies and labor markets. (publisher's statement)

PB - M. E. Sharpe, Inc. CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Understanding European Trade Unionism: Between Market, Class and Society Y1 - 2001 A1 - Richard Hyman KW - Europe KW - globalization KW - trade unionism KW - trade unions KW - unionism AB -

In this comprehensive overview of trade unionism in Europe and beyond, Richard Hyman offers a fresh perspective on trade union identity, ideology and strategy. He shows how the varied forms and impact of different national movements reflect historical choices on whether to emphasize a role as market bargainers, mobilizers of class opposition or partners in social integration. The book demonstrates how these inherited traditions can serve as both resources and constraints in responding to the challenges which confront trade unions in today's working world.

PB - Sage Publications CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage Y1 - 2001 A1 - Hall, P. A. A1 - Soskice, D. KW - comparative political economy KW - economic policy KW - economics KW - globalization KW - social policy AB -

Applying the new economics of organization and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterize the 'varieties of capitalism' found among the developed economies. Building on a distinction between 'liberal market economies' and 'coordinated market economies', it explores the impact of these variations on economic performance and many spheres of policy-making, including macroeconomic policy, social policy, vocational training, legal decision-making, and international economic negotiations. The volume examines the institutional complementarities across spheres of the political economy, including labour markets, markets for corporate finance, the system of skill formation, and inter-firm collaboration on research and development that reinforce national equilibria and give rise to comparative institutional advantages, notably in the sphere of innovation where LMEs are better placed to sponsor radical innovation and CMEs to sponsor incremental innovation. By linking managerial strategy to national institutions, the volume builds a firm-centered comparative political economy that can be used to assess the response of firms and governments to the pressures associated with globalization. Its new perspectives on the welfare state emphasize the role of business interests and of economic systems built on general or specific skills in the development of social policy. It explores the relationship between national legal systems, as well as systems of standards setting, and the political economy. The analysis has many implications for economic policy-making, at national and international levels, in the global age. (publisher's statement)

PB - Oxford University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Comparative Employee Relations: An Introduction Y1 - 2000 A1 - Eaton, J. KW - employment relations KW - globalization KW - human resource management KW - industrial relations AB -

Provides a concise introduction to employment and industrial relations. Unlike many other textbooks, this adopts a comparative approach, examining the changing nature of employment practices in relation to the processes of globalization, and engaging critically with the literature on Human Resource Management. By taking account of the international dimension of employment relations, this book is at the forefront of new developments in the field.

The thematic approach of Comparative Employment Relations makes it distinctive from the country-by-country studies of this topic. Jack Eaton synthesizes recent work in the field to establish a basis for further study in the most important areas of industrial relations, including Japanese-style employment practices; comparative collective bargaining; the rules of employment and routes to skill formation; collective labour law; globalization and transnational companies. He concludes by examining the prospects for comparative employment relations. By equipping students with a set of useful concepts and perspectives, this book will give them the confidence to explore the now extensive international literature on employment management, and to utilize the methods of comparative analysis in their own work. Essential reading for second- and third-year undergraduates studying business, management, economics and the sociology of work and industry. (publisher's statement)

PB - Polity Press CY - Cambridge, UK L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Trade Unions in Western Europe Since 1945 Y1 - 2000 A1 - Ebbinghaus, B. A1 - Jelle Visser KW - collective bargaining KW - Europe KW - globalization KW - organizing KW - trade unions AB -

This comparative data handbook offers an empirical base to a long-term and comparative understanding of changes and variations in European union movements. It provides information on the context and history of union development, the changes in the structure of post-war unionism until today, the long-term trends in union membership and union density, and the shifts in the cross-sectional composition of union membership.
 
Introduction and references are included, as well as standardised tables for each country and comparative indicators.This book is the result of many years of research by the authors in collaboration with an international research team, and provides an original source for comparative and national studies or individual enquiries. It offers cross-checked and often newly-calculated statistics from the project's unique comprehensive database on national union organisations and their membership series.
 
An original, comprehensive and up-to-date data collection on postwar union movements, Trade Unions in Western Europe since 1945 will act as an indispensable tool for anyone comparing labour relations across Europe. (publisher's statement)

PB - Macmillan CY - London L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Transnational Cooperation Among Labor Unions Y1 - 2000 A1 - Gordon, M. E. A1 - L. Turner KW - globalization KW - multinational corporations KW - organized labor KW - transnational collaboration AB -

Organized labor faces enormous challenges in the increasingly global economy. The effect of multinational corporations, the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers in international commerce have all sparked widespread prophecies of trade union demise. This book, however, presents compelling evidence that unions can survive and grow if labor is willing to cooperate across national borders. Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions is a seminal study of such cooperation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.

After assessing the challenges confronting organized labor, the authors turn their attention to specifics. They describe and evaluate the most important transnational labor associations, campaigns, and transnational cooperatives in a variety of industries. Contributors include academics who have assessed the status of union-management relations and international labor organizations as well as participants in union campaigns organized across national boundaries. (publisher's statement)

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy Y1 - 1997 A1 - Moody, K. KW - downsizing KW - globalization KW - labor relations KW - national unions AB -

In this study of current labor relations worldwide, Kim Moody surveys both sides of the picket lines. He provides a measured assessment of multinational managements’ strategies to downsize, introduce flexible production and compel workers to accept less pay for more work. He emphasizes the need, in the face of these changes, for renewal and international coordination among national unions and provides examples, from North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, of how this has been achieved. (publisher's statement)

PB - Verso CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Workers of Nations: Industrial Relations in a Global Economy Y1 - 1995 A1 - S. M. Jacoby KW - globalization KW - regional trading pacts KW - work organization KW - workplace KW - workplace policies AB -

The new international economy is today the single most important factor shaping relations between employers, unions, and governments in the world's advanced industrial societies. While companies compete in global markets with firms around the world, workers remain fixed in each country and are influenced by local customs and institutions. mores. This book explores how globalization affects the contemporary workplace and how workplace policies can make nations more internationally competitive. Unlike other country-by-country treatments of the subject, this analysis compares and contrasts the experiences of different nations around important developments, such as the labor market consequences of regional trading pacts, the international diffusion of new forms of work organization, and the strategies that nations are pursuing to keep their work systems competitive. The contributors come from a variety of disciplines but all bear expertise in international industrial relations. (publisher's statement)

PB - Oxford University Press CY - New York L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Comparative Industrial Relations: An Introduction to Cross-National Perspectives Y1 - 1994 A1 - Bean, R. KW - Eastern Europe KW - globalization KW - human resource management KW - industrial relations KW - macro-economics AB -

A well-established student text giving a thematic and analytical treatment to the comparative and international aspects of industrial relations. By surveying, integrating and reviewing the expanding body of literature and research findings relating to comparative studies in industrial relations, this volume examines the similarities and differences between countries and institutions around the world. New sections cover the 'individualising' of industrial relations through human resource management, the 1992 EC dimension in relation to multinationals, developments in Eastern European trade unions, and the economic democracy of financial participation by workers in their own companies. In addition a chapter on industrial relations systems and the macro-economic performance of countries has been added, and all the existing chapters have been updated to include findings of recent research studies. (from Amazon.com)

PB - Routledge CY - London L2 - eng ER -