Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism

Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism PDF Author: Rohini Hensman
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231519567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
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.

Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism

Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism PDF Author: Rohini Hensman
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231519567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 585

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Working Class of India

Working Class of India PDF Author: Sukomal Sen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor unions
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Labor Movement in India

The Labor Movement in India PDF Author: Rajani Kanta Das
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description


Global Unions, Local Power

Global Unions, Local Power PDF Author: Jamie K. McCallum
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801469473
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
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.

The Labor Movement in India

The Labor Movement in India PDF Author: Rajani Kanta Das
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description


Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement

Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement PDF Author: William E. Forbath
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674037081
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Why did American workers, unlike their European counterparts, fail to forge a class-based movement to pursue broad social reform? Was it simply that they lacked class consciousness and were more interested in personal mobility? In a richly detailed survey of labor law and labor history, William Forbath challenges this notion of American “individualism.” In fact, he argues, the nineteenth-century American labor movement was much like Europe’s labor movements in its social and political outlook, but in the decades around the turn of the century, the prevailing attitude of American trade unionists changed. Forbath shows that, over time, struggles with the courts and the legal order were crucial to reshaping labor’s outlook, driving the labor movement to temper its radical goals.

Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region

Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region PDF Author: Byoung-Hoon Lee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429576080
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Recent developments in the world economy, including deindustrialisation and the digital revolution, have led to an increasingly individualistic relationship between workers and employers, which in turn has weakened labour movements and worker representation. However, this process is not universal, including in some countries of Asia, where trade unions are closely aligned with the interests of the dominant political party and the state. This book considers the many challenges facing trade unions and worker representation in a wide range of Asian countries. For each country, full background is given on how trade unions and other forms of worker representation have arisen. Key questions then considered include the challenges facing trade unions and worker representation in each country, the extent to which these are a result of global or local developments and the actions being taken by trade unions and worker representative bodies to cope with the challenges. This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Keith Thurley, London School of Economics.

The Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon

The Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon PDF Author: Kumari Jayawardena
Publisher: Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press
ISBN:
Category : Labor movement
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Based on a section of the author's thesis, University of London.

Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India

Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India PDF Author: Rina Agarwala
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107311101
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Since the 1980s, the world's governments have decreased state welfare and thus increased the number of unprotected 'informal' or 'precarious' workers. As a result, more and more workers do not receive secure wages or benefits from either employers or the state. This book offers a fresh and provocative look into the alternative social movements informal workers in India are launching. It also offers a unique analysis of the conditions under which these movements succeed or fail. Drawing from 300 interviews with informal workers, government officials and union leaders, Rina Agarwala argues that Indian informal workers are using their power as voters to demand welfare benefits from the state, rather than demanding traditional work benefits from employers. In addition, they are organizing at the neighborhood level, rather than the shop floor, and appealing to 'citizenship', rather than labor rights.

The History of Trade Union Movement in Kerala

The History of Trade Union Movement in Kerala PDF Author: K. Ramachandran Nair
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description
The work, a comprehensive documentation of the chequered history of the trade union movement in Kerala, is based on published and unpublished sources and reminiscences of senior union leaders. The book traces the early phase of the union movement in Alappuzha and its rapid spread and growth across the state. The close networking relationship between trade union centres and political parties is also critically traced in the book and it throws light on the emergence of pro-labour policies of the State, division and fragmentation of the union movement in recent times and public s changing perception of trade unions in society.