Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Globalization has adversely affected working-class organization and mobilization, increasing inequality by redistribution upwards from labour to capital. However, workers around the world are challenging their increased exploitation by globalizing corporations. In developed countries, many unions are transforming themselves to confront employer power in ways more appropriate to contemporary circumstances; in developing countries, militant new labour movements are emerging.Drawing upon insights in anti-determinist Marxian perspectives, Verity Burgmann shows how working-class resistance is not futile, as protagonists of globalization often claim. She identifies eight characteristics of globalization harmful to workers and describes and analyses how they have responded collectively to these problems since 1990 and especially this century. With case studies from around the world, including Greece since 2008, she pays particular attention to new types of labour movement organization and mobilization that are not simply defensive reactions but are offensive and innovative responses that compel corporations or political institutions to change. Aging and less agile manifestations of the labour movement decline while new expressions of working-class organization and mobilization arise to better battle with corporate globalization.This book will be of interest to students and scholars of labour studies, globalization, political economy, Marxism and sociology of work.

Tweeting and Retweeting for Fight for $15: Unions as Dinosaur Opinion Leaders?

“…) and develop and reinforce relationships with CSOs (Geelan and Hodder ; Sanderson ; Upchurch and Grassman ). Social media may provide public visibility to union actions and stances, thus stimulating substantial public support (Burgmann ; Sanderson ).…”

“…At the same time, social media may undermine union power (Geelan and Hodder ; Upchurch and Grassman ). Workers may perceive online communities as a possible substitute for trade unions to promote their rights (Burgmann ), countermobilizing ‘elites’ can attack unions and ‘close down’ a union point of view (see Hodder and Houghton ), and collaboration with allied CSOs may become fierce competition for an audience and support on social media (Chivers et al . ).…”

“…; Maiorescu ). Most unions seem to engage in social media mainly to broadcast their official point of view rather than to engage in dialogues with other users to nurture a solid network of supporters (Burgmann ; Hodder and Houghton ; Maiorescu , ). Their reputation is not enhanced by their content production, since it is mostly non‐attractive to others, and unions have limited ability to engage in real‐time communication because of an overly long process of content production (Fowler and Hagar : 223; Rego et al .…”

“…The ability of technology to empower unions has been of considerable interest since the beginning of unionism (Burgmann ). Recent structural changes in US industrial relations and new information and communication technologies make this topic even more compelling today (Panagiotopoulos , ).…”

Self-Organization Against Trade Unions and the State: A Case Study from Argentina

“…Among the academic literature, we can find works that insist on the decline of trade unions as a steady tendency associated with globalization, attributed to their ineffectiveness in dealing with a wholly new environment (a detailed review of this literature can be found in Silver ); other, more optimistic views, sustain that after a period of disorientation, unions are experiencing a revitalization or trying new forms of worker organization (Moody ; Phelan ; Ness ). A third view can be found among those claiming that, with the recent capitalist transformations, new possibilities and new methods of confrontation have arisen, creating or allowing to create new forms of collective association among workers (Burgmann ; Moody ). Amidst these different views—not always clear cut in their formulations—the question of the ability of trade unions to organize and fight has become a concern of global proportions, raising doubts over whether trade unions can still adequately respond to the scale of problems faced by working classes worldwide…”