Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy PDF Author: Richard P. Appelbaum
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170334X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The world was shocked in April 2013 when more than 1100 garment workers lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka. It was the worst industrial tragedy in the two-hundred-year history of mass apparel manufacture. This so-called accident was, in fact, just waiting to happen, and not merely because of the corruption and exploitation of workers so common in the garment industry. In Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy, Richard P. Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein argue that such tragic events, as well as the low wages, poor working conditions, and voicelessness endemic to the vast majority of workers who labor in the export industries of the global South arise from the very nature of world trade and production. Given their enormous power to squeeze prices and wages, northern brands and retailers today occupy the commanding heights of global capitalism. Retail-dominated supply chains—such as those with Walmart, Apple, and Nike at their heads—generate at least half of all world trade and include hundreds of millions of workers at thousands of contract manufacturers from Shenzhen and Shanghai to Sao Paulo and San Pedro Sula. This book offers an incisive analysis of this pernicious system along with essays that outline a set of practical guides to its radical reform.

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy PDF Author: Richard P. Appelbaum
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170334X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The world was shocked in April 2013 when more than 1100 garment workers lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka. It was the worst industrial tragedy in the two-hundred-year history of mass apparel manufacture. This so-called accident was, in fact, just waiting to happen, and not merely because of the corruption and exploitation of workers so common in the garment industry. In Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy, Richard P. Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein argue that such tragic events, as well as the low wages, poor working conditions, and voicelessness endemic to the vast majority of workers who labor in the export industries of the global South arise from the very nature of world trade and production. Given their enormous power to squeeze prices and wages, northern brands and retailers today occupy the commanding heights of global capitalism. Retail-dominated supply chains—such as those with Walmart, Apple, and Nike at their heads—generate at least half of all world trade and include hundreds of millions of workers at thousands of contract manufacturers from Shenzhen and Shanghai to Sao Paulo and San Pedro Sula. This book offers an incisive analysis of this pernicious system along with essays that outline a set of practical guides to its radical reform.

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy PDF Author: Richard Appelbaum
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501703358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The world was shocked in April 2013 when more than 1,100 garment workers lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka. It was the worst industrial tragedy in the two-hundred-year history of mass apparel manufacture. This so-called accident was, in fact, just waiting to happen, and not merely because of the corruption and exploitation of workers so common in the garment industry. In Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy, Richard P. Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein argue that such tragic events, as well as the low wages, poor working conditions, and voicelessness endemic to the vast majority of workers who labor in the export industries of the global South arise from the very nature of world trade and production. Given their enormous power to squeeze prices and wages, northern brands and retailers today occupy the commanding heights of global capitalism. Retail-dominated supply chains—such as those with Walmart, Apple, and Nike at their heads—generate at least half of all world trade and include hundreds of millions of workers at thousands of contract manufacturers from Shenzhen and Shanghai to Sao Paulo and San Pedro Sula. This book offers an incisive analysis of this pernicious system along with essays that outline a set of practical guides to its radical reform. Contributors: Mark Anner, Penn State University; Richard P. Appelbaum, University of California, Santa Barbara; Jennifer Bair, University of Colorado Boulder; Renato Bignami, labor inspector, Brazil; Jeremy Blasi, UNITE HERE Local 11, Los Angeles, and Penn State; Anita Chan, Australian National University; Jenny Chan, University of Oxford; Jill Esbenshade, San Diego State University; Gary Gereffi, Duke University; Jeff Hermanson, International Union League for Brand Responsibility; Jason Kibbey, Sustainable Apparel Coalition; Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; Xubei Luo, World Bank; Anne Caroline Posthuma, International Labour Organization; Scott Nova, Worker Rights Consortium; Ngai Pun, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley; Brishen Rogers, Temple University; Robert J. S. Ross, Clark University; Mark Selden, Cornell University and New York University; Chris Wegemer, Santa Barbara, California

Globalization and Labor Conditions

Globalization and Labor Conditions PDF Author: Robert J. Flanagan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190294280
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This book explains how three major mechanisms of globalization international trade, international migration, and the activities of multinational companies have altered working conditions and labor rights around the world during the late 20th century. Drawing on analyses of a database on international labor conditions assembled for this project and a growing research literature on globalization and labor conditions, the book finds that trade, migration, and multinational companies are associated with improvements in world labor conditions.

Labor Regulation in a Global Economy

Labor Regulation in a Global Economy PDF Author: George Tsogas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317466578
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This work categorizes and comprehensively analyzes all of the practical aspects of international labour regulation for researchers and students of human resource management (HRM). It offers realistic policy guidelines for non-academic HRM practitioners, non governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions and governments. The book focuses primarily upon the issues, organizations and individuals in the US that influence labour regulation - NAFTA, the US GSP programme, trade unions, activists and "grass roots" movements. Major attention is also given to corresponding European Union and International Labour Organisation issues, organizations and individuals.

Are Worker Rights Human Rights?

Are Worker Rights Human Rights? PDF Author: Richard P. McIntyre
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472050427
Category : Employee rights
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In a global economy, workers must assert their collective rights as workers in order to win human rights as individuals. By introducing Marxian and Institutional analysis, this book reveals the class relations and power structures that determine the position of workers in the global economy.

Global Governance of Labour Rights

Global Governance of Labour Rights PDF Author: Axel Marx
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1784711462
Category : LAW
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Stories and images of collapsed factories, burned down sweatshops, imprisoned migrant workers, child workers and many other violations of internationally recognized labour rights continue to spread across the globe. This highly topical book examines the different instruments which are intended to protect labour rights on a transnational scale, and asks whether they make a difference. With perspectives from law, management, sociology, political science and political economy, the topics discussed include the protection of international labour rights in a globalizing economy, the EU’s social dimension in its external trade relations, Asian and US perspectives on labour rights in international trade agreements, the role of (trade) unions in global labour governance and the transformative capacity of private labour governance regimes. Academics and advanced students from different disciplines will benefit from the up-to-date empirical material in this study. Policymakers, NGOs and Unions will find the discussions of the instruments used to protect labour rights of great value to their work.

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law PDF Author: Aneta Tyc
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000395928
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

Human Rights and Labor Solidarity

Human Rights and Labor Solidarity PDF Author: Susan L. Kang
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812206029
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
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.

Workers' Rights in the Global Economy

Workers' Rights in the Global Economy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description


The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy

The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy PDF Author: Susan Hayter
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849809836
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The book examines the ways in which collective bargaining addresses a variety of workplace concerns in the context of today.s global economy. Globalization can contribute to growth and development, but as the recent financial crisis demonstrated, it also puts employment, earnings and labourstandards at risk. This book examines the role that collective bargaining plays in ensuring that workers are able to obtain a fair share of the benefits arising from participation in the global economy and in providing a measure of security against the risk to employment and wages. It focuses on a commonly neglected side of the story and demonstrates the positivecontribution that collective bargaining can make to both economic and social goals. The various contributions examine how this fundamental principle and right at work is realized in different countries and how its practice can be reinforced across borders. They highlight the numerouschallenges 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, including employment security, workplace change and productivity and working time.