Trade Unions And The Global Crisis

If the recent global economic crisis has debilitated labour in many parts of the world, many segments of the trade union movement have been fighting back, combining traditional and innovative strategies and articulating alternatives to the dominant political and economic models. Trade unions and the global crisis offers a composite overview of the responses of trade unions and other workers' organizations to neoliberal globalization in general and to the recent financial crisis in particular. The essays here, by trade unionists and academics from around the world, explore the state of labour in Brazil, China, Nepal, South Africa, Turkey, Europe and North America. The authors offer a range of short-term strategies and actions, medium- and long-term policies, and alternative visions that challenge the current development paradigm. This book makes a stimulating contribution to the continuing debate on labour's role as an economic, political and social force in building a more democratic and just society.

Processes of neoliberal globalization have put national trade unions under pressure as the transnational organization of production puts these labour movements in competition with each other. The global economic crisis has intensified these pressures further. And yet, economic and political integration processes have also provided workers with new possibilities to organize resistance. Emphasizing the importance of agency, this book analyzes transnational labour action in times of crisis, historically and now. It draws on a variety of fascinating cases, across formal and informal collectives, in order to clarify which factors facilitate or block the formation of solidarity. Moving beyond empirical description of cases to an informed understanding of collective action across borders, the volume provides an insightful theorization of transnational action.

The global economy is still struggling to emerge from the worst financial crisis and global recession since the Second World War. In this context, TUAC, ETUI, GURN and ITUC created a Task Force to define the parameters of a new growth model. This publication which is the initial result of its work, takes up the challenge of developing progressive alternatives to the failed neo-liberal model that has dominated economic policy for over three decades. It consists of contributions by more than 30 authors, all with links to the global labour movement, and a preface by Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz. The different chapters analyse the causes and implications of the crisis and propose alternative ways toward more equitable and sustainable models of growth. A comprehensive approach is taken and the topics addressed include: the need for a new approach to macroeconomic policy to promote strong and stable growth and high employment; developing alternative welfare measures to GDP; how to re-regulate financial markets so that they serve the real economy; a development model for the global South; a new approach to labour markets that ensures that they deliver decent jobs and promote greater equality; the need for a comprehensive set of policies to make economic activity ecologically sustainable.

This study is the outcome of a series of investigations into the deep crisis in which the organized labour movement in the South finds itself as a result of changes in the global economy. The regional overviews and illustrative case studies from Asia, Latin America and Africa show how trade unions currently face a variety of difficult challenges. These include new management methods, the growing influence of the informal sector and casualization of labour, and the ever-growing participation of women workers who are not currently represented adaquately by trade unions. The volume concludes with an exploration of possible strategies for the future.

Prosser argues that labour movements respond to European integration in a manner which instigates competition between national labour markets. The book's hypothesis has key implications for debates about labour movements and the EU and its engaging style will captivate scholars, students and policymakers.

This book analyzes the adverse effects of globalization and liberalization — acutely manifest in the increased financialization of capital and the concomitant global financial crisis of 2008–09 — on the labour force, especially in the developing countries. Drawing upon case studies from several countries including India, Columbia, Malawi, Brazil and Thailand, it highlights the worsening plight of working class as a whole and informal labour in particular. The essays examine issues such as down-sizing, lowering of wages, insecurity and erosion of labour rights, and show how labour is grappling with the situation. The volume critically re-assesses varied aspects of the growing informal sector: its dubious credential as an employment provider during crises; its non-adherence to internationally recognized standards of decent work; the problems and potential of workers' unions; and the need for a regulatory regime. It also discusses changes in the Indian labour market induced by business environment and technology as well as its future dynamics. Presenting a historical review of labour markets, the work explores the deregulation wave under the globalization of 1980s and the interactions between existing unstable asset markets and labour markets. The book will prove especially useful to students and scholars in economics, labour studies and sociology, and those engaged in public policy and governance.

This book explores two recent crises in British political economy: the crisis of 1976–9, for which the trade unions were impugned, and the 2007 economic crisis, for which bankers were (at least initially) blamed. The author argues that the “crisis resolution” of the former – principally the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s – led to the emergence of the banking crisis. Further, Kirkland demonstrates how narratives of blame have emerged and were used in both instances to promote specific agendas. Narrations of blame and crises were used to curb the trade union powers in the 1980s, whilst the 2007 crisis was quickly reframed as one of excessive government spending, which in turn has led to policies of austerity.