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E-book
Author McCallum, Jamie K., 1977- author.

Title Global unions, local power : the new spirit of transnational labor organizing / Jamie K. McCallum
Published Ithaca, NY : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Forging the new labor transnationalism : governance struggles and worker power -- The globalization of the "organizing model" -- The global campaign against G4S : globalizing governance struggles -- Transnationalism, mobilization, and renewal in South Africa -- Organizing the "unorganized" : varieties of labor transnationalism in India
Summary News about labor unions is usually pessimistic, focusing on declining membership and failed campaigns. But there are encouraging signs that the labor movement is evolving its strategies to benefit workers in rapidly changing global economic conditions. Global Unions, Local Power tells the story of the most successful and aggressive campaign ever waged by workers across national borders. It begins in the United States in 2007 as SEIU struggled to organize private security guards at G4S, a global security services company that is the second largest employer in the world. Failing in its bid, SEIU changed course and sought allies in other countries in which G4S operated. Its efforts resulted in wage gains, benefits increases, new union formations, and an end to management reprisals in many countries throughout the Global South, though close attention is focused on developments in South Africa and India. In this book, Jamie K. McCallum looks beyond these achievements to probe the meaning of some of the less visible aspects of the campaign. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in nine countries and historical research into labor movement trends since the late 1960s, McCallum's findings reveal several paradoxes. Although global unionism is typically concerned with creating parity and universal standards across borders, local context can both undermine and empower the intentions of global actors, creating varied and uneven results. At the same time, despite being generally regarded as weaker than their European counterparts, U.S. unions are in the process of remaking the global labor movement in their own image. McCallum suggests that changes in political economy have encouraged unions to develop new ways to organize workers. He calls these "governance struggles," strategies that seek not to win worker rights but to make new rules of engagement with capital in order to establish a different terrain on which to organize
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-203) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
In Title is part of the collection: De Gruyter Rights, Action, and Social Responsibility
Subject International labor activities.
Labor and globalization.
Labor movement -- International cooperation
Transnationalism.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Labor.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Labor & Industrial Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Sociology -- General.
International labor activities
Labor and globalization
Transnationalism
Globalisierung
Internationale Arbeiterbewegung
Gewerkschaftsbewegung
Transnationale Politik
Fackliga organisationer.
Globalisering.
Internationellt samarbete.
Transnationalisering.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019725585
ISBN 9780801469473
0801469473
0801469481
9780801469480
1322522820
9781322522821