Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Organized labor faces enormous challenges in the increasingly global economy. The effect of multinational corporations, the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers in international commerce have all sparked widespread prophecies of trade union demise. This book, however, presents compelling evidence that unions can survive and grow if labor is willing to cooperate across national borders. Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions is a seminal study of such cooperation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.After assessing the challenges confronting organized labor, the authors turn their attention to specifics. They describe and evaluate the most important transnational labor associations, campaigns, and transnational cooperatives in a variety of industries. Contributors include academics who have assessed the status of union-management relations and international labor organizations as well as participants in union campaigns organized across national boundaries.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-291) and index.
Table of Contents
The industrial relations environment for transnational cooperation. Going global / Michael E. Gordon and Lowell Turner. Know thine enemy : understanding multinational corporations as a requirement for strategic international laborism / Harvie Ramsay. Labor law and cross-border cooperation among unions / Jean-Michel Servais. Export processing zones / Michael E. Gordon -- Interorganizational structures that promote transnational cooperation. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions : bread, freedom, and peace / Michael E. Gordon. The international trade secretariats / John P. Windmuller. European integration and the europeanization of labor / Andrew Martin and George Ross -- The practice of transnational cooperation. From "solidarity" to convergence : international trade union cooperation in the media sector / Jim Wilson. Organizing in export processing zones : the Bibong experience in the Dominican Republic / David Jessup and Michael E. Gordon. Globalization and de-unionization in telecommunications : three case studies in resistance / Larry Cohen and Steve Early. Solidarity across borders : the UMWA's corporate campaign against Peabody and Hanson PLC / Kenneth Zinn. Local and transnational campaigns to end sweatshop practices / Mark S. Anner. Making transnational collaboration work / Michael E. Gordon and Lowell Turner.