Global and local subcontracting: Space, ethnicity, and the organization of apparel production

Christerson, Brad; Appelbaum, Richard P.

doi:10.1016/0305-750x(95)00048-h

Cited by 54 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This trend was particularly visible in low-skilled industries, such as the garment, footwear, and toy industries (e.g., Christerson and Appelbaum, 1995;Hathcote and Nam, 1999). However, from a European and US perspective, working conditions in developing countries were poor (cf.…”

Section: The Rise and Fall Of The Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign 199mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Effects of Union–NGO Relationships on Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Egels‐Zandén

Hyllman

2006

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: The Rise and Fall Of The Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign 199mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Effects of Union–NGO Relationships on Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Egels‐Zandén

Hyllman

2006

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In pursuit of lower costs, TNCs have used offshoring to allocate production and other parts of their value chains to developing countries where labour costs are significantly lower than in most developed countries (Christerson and Appelbaum, 1995;Hathcote and Nam, 1999;Jones, 2005;Taylor, 2005). Along with these lower wages come generally poorer working conditions as well (Chan and Senser, 1997;Chan, 1998Chan, , 2000Lee, 1998Lee, , 1999, and a common position is that this development is leading to a 'race to the bottom' in terms of workers' rights (Chan and Ross, 2003;Valor, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Strategies for Negotiating Workers’ Rights in Transnational Corporations: The Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy

Egels‐Zandén¹,

Hyllman

2007

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Following the offshoring of production to developing countries by transnational corporations (TNCs), unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have criticised working conditions at TNCs' offshore factories. This has led to the emergence of two different approaches to operationalising TNC responsibilities for workers' rights in developing countries: codes of conduct and global agreements. Despite the importance of this development, few studies have systematically compared the effects of these two different ways of dealing with workers' rights. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how codes of conduct and global agreements both independently and interactively affect workers' rights. We do this based on a qualitative study of the Sri Lankan operations of a Swedish TNC in Sri Lanka, and on interviews with union and NGO representatives actively involved in codes of conduct and global agreements. Our results indicate that global agreements independently address all the aspects included in codes of conduct, while also addressing additional, more process-oriented aspects of workers' rights. Hence, on their own, global agreements seem to comprise the superior approach to promoting workers' rights. Furthermore, our results indicate that promoting codes of conduct has negative interactive effects on global agreements. Based on these results, we argue that the current focus on codes of conduct is counterproductive for the promotion of workers' rights.

show abstract

“…The transnational organisation of production started becoming prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s as European and American TNCs started to offshore much of their production to developing countries (e.g., Jones, 2005;Taylor, 2005). This trend was particularly evident in low-skill industries, such as the garment, footwear, and toy industries, in which TNCs largely pursue low-cost strategies (e.g., Christerson and Appelbaum, 1995;Hathcote and Nam, 1999).…”

Section: A Changing Industrial Relations Landscape Trend I: From Natimentioning

confidence: 98%

Transnational Governance of Workers’ Rights: Outlining a Research Agenda

Egels‐Zandén

2008

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global and local subcontracting: Space, ethnicity, and the organization of apparel production

Cited by 54 publications

References 18 publications

Exploring the Effects of Union–NGO Relationships on Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Exploring the Effects of Union–NGO Relationships on Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Evaluating Strategies for Negotiating Workers’ Rights in Transnational Corporations: The Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy

Transnational Governance of Workers’ Rights: Outlining a Research Agenda

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About