Robert O'Brienis, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Fellow of the Institute for Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University, Canada. Organized Labor Theory and Strategies in the Global Political Economy Edited by Jeffrey Harrod and Robert O'Brien.
Contributors
His most recent work on the environment has appeared in Environmental Strategies, Policies, and the International Political Economy of the Environment: Critical Perspectives (Lynne Rienner, 2001), which he co-edited. He is convener of the International Political Economy Group (IPEG) of British International Studies xiii Contributors.
Series editors’ preface
At another level, the end of the Cold War and the associated revival of liberal political and economic ideas and practices reflect a deeper transformation in the global political economy, and of labor as a social force. We are grateful to the International Studies Association for their financial contribution to organizing the workshop.
Acknowledgements
CNM Confederacao Nacional dos Metalurgicos COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions CPP Communist Party of the Philippines. PMFTU Pan-Malaysian Federation of Trade Unions PRI Party of Institutional Revolution RAC Ravenswood Aluminum Corporation.
International political economy and organized
The title of this collection - Global Trade Unions? - was evaluated by the editor as a concise way of indicating the range of contemporary problems, goals and frustrations of organized labor in the global political economy. The juxtaposition of "union" and "global" in the title evokes the merging of an established social and political phenomenon - the union - with a contemporary concern and development - globalization.
1 Organized labour and the global political economy
Regionalization of the global political economy is one of the dynamic areas of structural change. Organized labor is clearly dissatisfied with the functioning of the international political economy.
2 Work, production and social relations
The study of the firm in international political economy has become closely related to the understanding of globalization. The second step was a direct attempt to capture the political and social character of the company.
3 Towards an international political economy of labour
It has also been involved in the development and implementation of labor law and therefore as part of the state Towards a labor IPE 55. Shortly after the theory was promoted, FDI in the South fell to an all-time low in 1984. An IPEL approach can also produce a view on contemporary history through the use of the concept of work control and motivation.
The neoliberal onslaught had only one essential project from an IPEL point of view, to restore the disciplinary (coercive) power of the labor market. Finally, an IPEL that uses the power relations in production approach can be used in the debate about the rise of the corporation and the weakening of the state.
4 Internationalization,
Of particular contemporary interest is the influence of internationalization and its political companion, regionalization, on the traditional national focus in the analysis of industrial relations. For example, does industrial relations theory deal effectively with the effects of transnational capital or the industrial relations aspects of the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. What changes in industrial relations theory should be considered if we are to better understand these impacts from an industrial relations perspective.
We address these questions first by providing a brief commentary on the post-World War II political economy and the rise of economic internationalization and regionalization; second, by assessing gaps in analysis of industrial relations related to this political economy; third, by highlighting, on a tentative basis, the emergence of both regional and global industrial relations regimes; fourth, by establishing a link between labor relations theory and international relations theory that provides an analytical basis for such regimes, using the example of the International Labor Organization (ILO); and finally by suggesting some implications of the concept of an international labor market relationship for industrial relations. From an industrial relations perspective, three processes—the internationalization of capital, the creation of global trade regimes, and regionalization—are important contemporary determinants of the relationship between capital, labor, and the state.
From the perspective of industrial relations theory and analysis, the domestic consequences of the transformation have attracted much attention. We believe that this accommodation is achieved in the concept of an international industrial relations regime. The second is to understand the relationship between national industrial relations systems and international industrial relations regimes.
Convergence thinking therefore could not foresee the potential scope of an international labor market relationship. The ILO is an example of international regime formation in industrial relations.
National and regional strategies
To date, much writing on how unions should adapt to the new realities of the global economy has assumed, somewhat uncritically, that workers will naturally have to operate transnationally if they are to successfully challenge transnational corporations (TNCs). ). In this chapter I want to question the uncritical acceptance of this argument, because I believe it is based on what is, at best, a partial reading of the nature of the contemporary transformation of the world's economic geography. At first glance, such a localist strategy may seem somewhat strange, because the impetus for TNCs to 'go global' with their operations has often been precisely so that they can play off communities and workforces in different parts of the world.
Of course, which of these two strategies - which we call 'global organizing' and 'local organizing' - is more effective in specific cases, will depend on the contingencies of the situation in which workers find themselves. Likewise, I do not want to suggest that workers have an either/or choice, because organizing at both scales simultaneously may best serve their goals.
5 Organizing globally, organizing locally
There are three important points I would like to emphasize here regarding the issue of the acceleration of contemporary social life. Taking advantage of the fact that the USWA and the AFL-CIO were both members of a number of international labor organizations, including the International Metalworkers'. There are a number of aspects of the geographical and temporal distribution of this dispute that I would like to explore in the remainder of this section.
Certainly, there are a number of things that are unique to each of the disputes described here. My final set of comments relates to the politics of the ideology of globalization and transnational solidarity.
6 Trade unions, globalization and training
The implementation of vocational training for employed metalworkers is still at an early stage. The conduct of the research is negotiated with the employers in the workplaces, and the results form the basis of the bilateral negotiations on the appropriate training courses for the workers. 4 Connections must be made between training/action/citizenship building and the empowerment of the trade union movement.
5 It is necessary to establish links between vocational training and technical competence of the first and second level. The partnership between employers and trade unions is the basis of the first initiative in the case study we are now considering.
7 The international dimension of labour federation economic
As a consequence, while the AFL-CIO opposed all post-Kennedy round trade liberalization initiatives, the CLC opposed only bilateral or neoliberal departures from the original spirit of the GATT. The precise timing of the shift to the third moment of international economic strategy in Canada is debatable. Protection of workers' rights must extend beyond trade agreements to International Monetary Fund and World Bank policies (CLC 1994a: §20).
The alternative vision advanced by the AFL-CIO now closely resembles that of the CLC. But the international dimension of the economic strategy now championed by the AFL-CIO and CLC is morally sound and intellectually coherent.
8 Unions, capitals and states
Union politics in the creation of the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement The European Union. On the other hand, the Union of Industries of the European Community (UNICE) would welcome labor policies that increase competitiveness, workplace cooperation, skills and flexibility (Eironline 1999c; 2000a: 2). Organisationally, the pan-European labor network consists of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), fourteen trade federations, approximately forty inter-regional trade union councils (councils that bring together trade unions in different regions of the EU) and some networks involving individual trade unions or activists. Eionline 1999a).
Canadian unions opposed NAFTA for reasons similar to those of the AFL-CIO. One thing unions must recognize is that most working people (especially immigrants) are vulnerable and must promote rules and practices that take them into account (Harrod 1987).
9 International labour and regional integration in the
Elsewhere (e.g. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Chinese Taipei), the future of labor representation in the HRDWG is not so clear. Third, the change can be seen as a logical consequence of the pursuit of free trade and investment in the APEC region. In this case, legitimacy in the eyes of the APEC process may require burying traditional hatchets.
Chinese workers will see during the trip [by the ICFTU-APRO delegation] a tacit recognition of the ACFTU by the international trade union movement. For JTUC/Rengo, the discourse around a social dimension for APEC is therefore as much in the interests of the ACFTU as it is for the ICFTU.
The global arena
At first glance, the relative weakness of labor mobility in the face of highly flexible and rapidly restructured capital appears to severely limit possible labor strategies. I suggest that the possibilities for creating a "global labor movement" that transcends and "delimits" countries is very limited (Albert and Brock 1996). Why, with such a threat of globalization, do unions adopt such strategies based on "national unionism".
In answering these questions, this chapter will develop four related arguments about the impact of globalization on labor movements. Examples will be drawn largely from various federations in the EU and the US, where attempts to create these transnational ties are most visible.
10 The constraints on labour internationalism
It is estimated that only 15 percent of the labor force in low-income countries is in the formal sector (ILO 1997). Most jobs in the modern global economy are actually created in the non-tradable (service) white-collar sector rather than in the tradable (manufacturing) sector. These fragmented labor markets are also at the heart of disputes over labor's response to trade liberalization.
Such examples are especially common in Texas, on the U.S. side of the Mexican border. Whether we are witnessing a total end to the welfare state or an overhaul of it is beyond the scope of this chapter.
