Download or read book Global Unions Global Business written by Richard Croucher and published by Libri Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2009 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outlining the ways in which global union federations relate to multinational companies through agreements and structured collaboration, this study features an in-depth case study of one such dealing with a major company. Exploring the previously unknown internal lives of the global union federations, this reference, which proposes ideas about how the organizations can strengthen their position internationally as well as their resource base, will be of interest to all those interested in the future of trade unionism, multinational companies, and corporate social responsibility.
Download or read book Global Unions Local Power written by Jamie K. McCallum and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: News about labor unions is usually pessimistic, focusing on declining membership and failed campaigns. But there are encouraging signs that the labor movement is evolving its strategies to benefit workers in rapidly changing global economic conditions. Global Unions, Local Power tells the story of the most successful and aggressive campaign ever waged by workers across national borders. It begins in the United States in 2007 as SEIU struggled to organize private security guards at G4S, a global security services company that is the second largest employer in the world. Failing in its bid, SEIU changed course and sought allies in other countries in which G4S operated. Its efforts resulted in wage gains, benefits increases, new union formations, and an end to management reprisals in many countries throughout the Global South, though close attention is focused on developments in South Africa and India. In this book, Jamie K. McCallum looks beyond these achievements to probe the meaning of some of the less visible aspects of the campaign. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in nine countries and historical research into labor movement trends since the late 1960s, McCallum’s findings reveal several paradoxes. Although global unionism is typically concerned with creating parity and universal standards across borders, local context can both undermine and empower the intentions of global actors, creating varied and uneven results. At the same time, despite being generally regarded as weaker than their European counterparts, U.S. unions are in the process of remaking the global labor movement in their own image. McCallum suggests that changes in political economy have encouraged unions to develop new ways to organize workers. He calls these "governance struggles," strategies that seek not to win worker rights but to make new rules of engagement with capital in order to establish a different terrain on which to organize.
Download or read book Workers Unions and Global Capitalism written by Rohini Hensman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-27 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Global Unions Local Power written by Jamie K. McCallum and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: News about labor unions is usually pessimistic, focusing on declining membership and failed campaigns. But there are encouraging signs that the labor movement is evolving its strategies to benefit workers in rapidly changing global economic conditions. Global Unions, Local Power tells the story of the most successful and aggressive campaign ever waged by workers across national borders. It begins in the United States in 2007 as SEIU struggled to organize private security guards at G4S, a global security services company that is the second largest employer in the world. Failing in its bid, SEIU changed course and sought allies in other countries in which G4S operated. Its efforts resulted in wage gains, benefits increases, new union formations, and an end to management reprisals in many countries throughout the Global South, though close attention is focused on developments in South Africa and India. In this book, Jamie K. McCallum looks beyond these achievements to probe the meaning of some of the less visible aspects of the campaign. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in nine countries and historical research into labor movement trends since the late 1960s, McCallum’s findings reveal several paradoxes. Although global unionism is typically concerned with creating parity and universal standards across borders, local context can both undermine and empower the intentions of global actors, creating varied and uneven results. At the same time, despite being generally regarded as weaker than their European counterparts, U.S. unions are in the process of remaking the global labor movement in their own image. McCallum suggests that changes in political economy have encouraged unions to develop new ways to organize workers. He calls these “governance struggles,” strategies that seek not to win worker rights but to make new rules of engagement with capital in order to establish a different terrain on which to organize.
Download or read book Global Unions written by Kate Bronfenbrenner and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Global Unions' features 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.
Download or read book Global Unions written by Kate Bronfenbrenner and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Global Unions written by Jeffrey Harrod and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Going Global written by James A. Piazza and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can organized labor survive in a globalizing world? Going Global explores the impact of increasingly globalized manufacturing on the labor movement in the industrialized West. In a detailed comparative study of metalworking and textiles unions in the United States, Sweden, and Germany James A. Piazza reveals an international labor movement under threat, crippled by falling union membership and waning political influence. Piazza illustrates--through statistical analysis and industry-specific case studies--organized labor's urgent need for effective structures of collective bargaining, strong political connections, and democratic workplace institutions. Going Global will be of great interest to scholars of international political economy and industrial relations seeking a blueprint for organized labor's survival in the new global economy.
Download or read book Globalization and Labor written by Dimitris Stevis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unions have long been a central force in the democratization of national and global governance, and this timely book explores 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. 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
Download or read book A Global Union for Global Workers written by Nathan Lillie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Organizing Matters written by Guy Mundlak and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organizing Matters demonstrates the interplay between two distinct logics of labour’s collective action: on the one hand, workers coming together, usually at their place of work, entrusting the union to represent their interests and, on the other hand, social bargaining in which the trade union constructs labour’s interests from the top down. The book investigates the tensions and potential complementarities between the two logics through the combination of a strong theoretical framework and an extensive qualitative case study of trade union organizing and recruitment in four countries – Austria, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands. These countries still utilize social-wide bargaining but find it necessary to draw and develop strategies transposed from Anglo-American countries in response to continuously declining membership.
Download or read book Parties And Unions In The New Global Economy written by Katrina Burgess and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of the twentieth century, unions played a vital role in shaping political regimes and economic development strategies, particularly in Latin America and Europe. However, their influence has waned as political parties with close ties to unions have adopted neoliberal reforms harmful to the interests of workers.What do unions do when confronted with this "loyalty dilemma"? Katrina Burgess compares events in three countries to determine the reasons for widely divergent responses on the part of labor leaders to remarkably similar challenges. She argues that the key to understanding why some labor leaders protest and some acquiesce lies essentially in two domains: the relative power of the party and the workers to punish them, and the party's capacity to act autonomously from its own government.
Download or read book Trade Union Responses to Globalization written by Verena Schmidt and published by International Labor Office. This book was released on 2007 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together papers from national and international experts from the Global Union Research Network (GURN), this book provides an overview of how trade unions around the world are responding to globalisation.Globalisation has proved a complex and multi-faceted process for workers, as are the strategies they must develop to face its challenges. The case studies in this volume demonstrate successful strategies undertaken by trade unions in Brazil, Bulgaria, the Caribbean, Colombia, India, Poland, the United Kingdom, Turkey as well as Southern and Eastern Africa. In the process, the contributors highlight issues crucial to trade unions in this period of fast-paced change, such as the struggle for transparent governance for a fairer globalisation, the implementation of labour standards, employment creation, social protection, poverty alleviation including meeting the UN's Millennium Development Goals and gender equality and more.It shows how trade unions are a key part in influencing the rules of globalisation to achieve a fairer globalisation, while also playing a role in implementing and enforcing these rules
Download or read book Trade Unions and Global Governance written by Gerda van Roozendaal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Young Workers and Trade Unions written by A. Hodder and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an understanding of the processes in which unions engage with young people, and views and opinions young people hold relating to collective representation. It features a selection of specific national cases of high relevance to contemporary debates of precariousness, trade union revitalization strategies and austerity policies.
Download or read book Human Rights and Labor Solidarity written by Susan L. Kang and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the economic pressures of globalization, many countries have sought to curb the fundamental right of workers to join trade unions and engage in collective action. In response, trade unions in developed countries have strategically used their own governments' commitments to human rights as a basis for resistance. Since the protection of human rights remains an important normative principle in global affairs, democratic countries cannot merely ignore their human rights obligations and must balance their international commitments with their desire to remain economically competitive and attractive to investors. Human Rights and Labor Solidarity analyzes trade unions' campaigns to link local labor rights disputes to international human rights frameworks, thereby creating external scrutiny of governments. As a result of these campaigns, states engage in what political scientist Susan L. Kang terms a normative negotiation process, in which governments, trade unions, and international organizations construct and challenge a broader understanding of international labor rights norms to determine whether the conditions underlying these disputes constitute human rights violations. In three empirically rich case studies covering South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Kang demonstrates that this normative negotiation process was more successful in creating stronger protections for trade unions' rights when such changes complemented a government's other political interests. She finds that states tend not to respect stronger economically oriented human rights obligations due to the normative power of such rights alone. Instead, trade union transnational activism, coupled with sufficient political motivations, such as direct economic costs or strong rule of law obligations, contributed to changes in favor of workers' rights.
Download or read book From Migrant to Worker written by Michele Ford and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when local unions begin to advocate for the rights of temporary migrant workers, asks Michele Ford in her sweeping study of seven Asian countries? Until recently unions in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand were uniformly hostile towards foreign workers, but Ford deftly shows how times and attitudes have begun to change. Now, she argues, NGOs and the Global Union Federations are encouraging local unions to represent and advocate for these peripheral workers, and in some cases succeeding. From Migrant to Worker builds our understanding of the role the international labor movement and local unions have had in developing a movement for migrant workers' labor rights. Ford examines the relationship between different kinds of labor movement actors and the constraints imposed on those actors by resource flows, contingency, and local context. Her conclusions show that in countries—Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand—where resource flows and local factors give the Global Union Federations more influence local unions have become much more engaged with migrant workers. But in countries—Japan and Taiwan, for example—where they have little effect there has been little progress. While much has changed, Ford forces us to see that labor migration in Asia is still fraught with complications and hardships, and that local unions are not always able or willing to act.
