Global value chain (GVC) governance is central to analyses of labour's strategic options. It frames the terrain on which labour campaigns and institutions -such as Private Social Standards and International Framework Agreements -contribute to the social regulation of value chains.GVC concepts help to emphasise how power in the employment relationship transcends organisational boundaries, as well as how industrial power is shifting from the sphere of production to that of consumption. Based on extensive case studies of the banana and cut flower value chains, we explore the implications of GVC restructuring for the scope and form of labour rights strategies.

In this paper I discus s the emergence and main features of International Framework Agreements (IFAs). I argue that they constitute an advance, both, over social dialogue in international organisations as well as Codes of Conduct. Although framework agreements dispense neither with international regulation nor national application they should be regarded as an important feature of international industrial relations. A discussion of the substantive and procedural provisions leads to a hierarchical distinction between 'rights' agreements and 'bargaining' agreements. Another crucial and distinctive aspect relates to the institutional relation of framework agreements to European Works Councils (EWCs) and World Works Councils (WWCs). Finally, some of the substantive and procedural aspects of framework agreements are discussed in the context of their respective supply chain structures.

This paper investigates how fundamental labour rights specified in International Framework Agreements are implemented and monitored in subcontracting chains. It shows how labour's capacity for workplace-based monitoring is influenced by factors such as ownership structures, the societal context, and, most importantly, the institutions and dynamics of local labour control.

This article focuses on the interlinkages between the labour process and global value chains. It draws on the renewed growth in UK apparel manufacturing, specifically within the fast fashion value chain, and asks how value chain requirements are translated into the labour process as well as how the latter enables quick response manufacturing. The case study shows how buyer-lead firms engender accelerated capital circuits of fast fashion which rely on an increased segmentation of manufacturers and workers, the elimination of unproductive spaces in the labour process, and a further rise in the informalisation and precarity of labour. The article demonstrates a strategic disconnection within the fast fashion value chain: upstream manufacturers are only able to satisfy lead firms’ economic and operational standards if they disconnect – informalise – labour from the latter’s ‘ethical’ standards.

Fast fashion's emphasis on quick response production and supply chain management is at the basis of renewed growth in UK apparel manufacturing. This article shows how increasing pressure from lead firms has resulted in manufacturers maintaining profit levels, mainly, through informal subcontracting and informal employment, as opposed to increasing productivity.