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This article provides an overview of theoretical and empirical efforts to understand the multiple dimensions enabling and hindering (transnational) labour organising in the context of globalised production. It situates the contributions to this special issue in the broader debate on the role of labour and workers’ agency in global value chains and production networks. For this, it brings together chain and network approaches with labour studies in a highly productive dialogue. Focusing on labour as a transnational actor, the article further identifies different approaches of and actors within transnational organising and provides empirical insights on the complexity of the politics of scale in organising efforts. Four key issues are identified as complicating labour organising along global value chains: (i) asymmetrical power relations within organising, particularly between the global North and South, (ii) the continued importance of the local and national scale, (iii) difference and dividing lines between workers, and (iv) the red-green divide. The article argues for the importance of a multi-scalar and intersectional perspective on transnational organising beyond binaries. Such an approach recognises the key role of local alliances as well as the possibilities and limits arising from transnational organising initiatives to confront globalised capital.
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labour, transnational organising, activism, global value chains, global production networks, politics of scale
Transnational labour alliance (TLA) campaigns have been the subject of sustained scholarly inquiry for more than two decades. Nevertheless, little is known about the overall characteristics of TLA campaigns in general, in part because the full population of cases remains unknown. This article begins to fill this lacuna by introducing the Transnational Labor Alliances Database Project, an archive of primary and secondary documents and researcher-assembled case summaries created by the author over six years, with the help of over 100 undergraduate research assistants. This article explains the methodology of the project as well as several important limitations of the database in its current state. Additionally, this article provides a theoretical overview of key themes relevant to the analysis of TLAs and an empirical overview of broad trends in TLA campaigns. It makes a first step towards developing a typology of TLAs and argues that TLAs vary across at least five key dimensions: (1) who the main actors are; (2) what workers want; (3) where the campaign occurs; (4) why the TLA forms in the first place; and (5) how tactics are deployed.
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van Barneveld, Kristin/Quinlan, Michael/Kriesler, Peter/Junor, Anne/Baum, Fran/Chowdhury, Anis/Junankar, PN (Raja)/Clibborn, Stephen/Flanagan, Frances/Wright, Chris F./Friel, Sharon (2020): The COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons on building more equal and sustainable societies. In: The Economic and Labour Relations Review 31(2), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304620927107
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activism, database, labour, transnational, unions
This article analyses the impact on workers’ power of two Transnational Industrial Relations Agreements (TIRAs) in the garment industry. A company-based Global Framework Agreement (GFA) is contrasted with the Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) Initiative, which includes more than one lead firm and more extensive commitments. By applying a Power Resource perspective, we explore how vertical and horizontal power relations shape the implementation of both agreements, and how the agreements in turn affect those power relations. The research focuses on the implementation of the GFA and ACT in Bangladesh and Cambodia, respectively, drawing on document analysis and interviews with key stakeholders. We conclude that the GFA allows workers to pressure employers to comply with basic labour standards but also helps lead firms to better contain labour struggles and monitor their supply chain. ACT, in its design, gives unions the power to negotiate structural issues and therefore increases workers’ power to a greater extent. However, ACT has so far lacked successful implementation. While both institutional approaches have the potential to influence asymmetric power relations in the garment sector, they have not, so far, substantially changed them.
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Anner, Mark (2012): Corporate Social Responsibility and Freedom of Association Rights: The Precarious Quest for Legitimacy and Control in Global Supply Chains. In: Politics & Society 40(4), 609–644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329212460983
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ApparelCorp/IndustriALL, Global Union, IF Metall (2015): Global Framework Agreement between H&M Hennes & Mauritz GBC AB and IndustriALL Global Union and Industrifacket Metall.
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transnational industrial relations, trade union power, global production networks, garment, social upgrading
This paper looks at the processes that constrain worker organising at Indonesia’s largest manufacturer, PT Nikomas-Gemilang, where 68,000 workers produce athletic footwear for brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma. The paper critically applies the power resource approach to understand labour relations and (barriers to) transnational worker contestation at this mega-supplier. The paper gives special attention to the power dynamics that surround the factory, including the role local elites play in undermining trade union rights. This case study casts significant doubt upon the degree of freedom of association workers enjoy at Nikomas. It argues that traditional power structures in the region where the factory is located in combination with a long history of union-busting and the existence of a legacy union has constrained the organising possibilities of the Nikomas workers. However, it also highlights a case of a successful campaign against forced overtime. This way, the article shows that even in highly globalised sectors, local context enables and limits organising possibilities.
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Zajak, Sabrina/Egels-Zandén, Niklas/Piper, Nicola (2017): Networks of Labour Activism: Collective Action across Asia and Beyond: An Introduction to the Debate. In: Development and Change 48 (5), 899–921. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12336
power resource approach, global production networks, Nike, mega-suppliers, trade unions, freedom of association
Between 2012 and 2014, South Africa witnessed an unprecedented labour movement culminating in a five-month strike at what were then the three largest platinum mining companies in the world. Drawing from ethnographic research and in-depth interviews, this article traces the multiple scales within which mineworkers organised collectively, forging unity outside of traditional trade union affiliations. What began as a ‘living wage’ demand amongst a small number of a specific category of workers at one shaft, in one company, soon spread across the entire industry capturing the hearts and minds of 80,000 platinum mineworkers. Mineworkers’ ability to exercise power was intensified by their decision to jump scale and build bridges across companies and regions and to a lesser extent transnationally. The article also describes forms of solidarity in communities, especially by women, and the broader trade union movement and concludes by focusing on the fragmented nature of the working class in South Africa more generally. With few important exceptions, the extent to which mineworkers were able to exercise power beyond a relatively local or narrow scale is quite limited, despite this large-scale mobilisation.
Alexander, Peter (2013): Marikana: Turning Point in South African History. In: Review of African Political Economy 40 (138), 605-619. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2013.860893
Antonsich, Marco (2010): Grounding Theories of Place and Globalisation. In: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 102 (3), 331-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.2010.00614.x
Benya, Asanda (2016): The Invisible Hands: Women in Marikana. In: Review of African Political Economy 42 (146), 545-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087394
Bond, Patrick (2019): Lessons Unlearned as Lonmin Expires and Sibanye Rises Amid Ongoing Labour-Community-Feminist Revolts. In: Swart, Mia/Rodny-Gumede, Ylva (eds.): Marikana Unresolved: The Massacre, Culpability and Consequences. Cape Town: UTC Press, 222-240.
Castree, Noel/Coe, Neil M./Ward, Kevin/Samers, Michael (2004): Spaces of Work: Global Capitalism and the Geographies of Labour. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221044
Chinguno, Crispen (2015a): The Shifting Dynamics of the Relations between Institutionalisation and Strike Violence: A Case Study of Impala Platinum, Rustenburg (1982-2012). PhD thesis, University of Witwatersrand. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087396
Chinguno, Crispen (2015b): The Unmaking of Industrial Relations: The Case of Impala Platinum and the 2012-2013 Platinum Strike Wave. In: Review of African Political Economy 42 (146), 577-590.
Chinguno Crispen (2019): The Marikana Paradox: “Gaining the Remuneration but Losing the Union”. In: Swart, Mia/Rodny-Gumede, Ylva (eds.): Marikana Unresolved: The Massacre, Culpability and Consequences. Cape Town: UTC Press, 67-86.
Giokos, Heidi/Mahlati, Zintle (2016): Struggling NUM has Lost 40% of Members. Business Report, 3 June 2016. www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/struggling-num-has-lost-40-of-members-2029959, 8.5.2018.
Kenny, Bridget (2020): The South African Labour Movement: A Fragmented and Shifting Terrain. In: Tempo Social 32 (1), 119-136. https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2020.166288
Mndebele, Magnificent (2021): South Africa: The Deadly Cost of Union Membership in the Northwest. Mail and Guardian Online, 6 September 2021. https://allafrica.com/stories/202108280267.html, 15.10.2021.
Merk, Jeroen (2009): Jumping Scale and Bridging Space in the Era of Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-border Labour Struggles in the Garment Industry. In: Third World Quarterly 30 (3), 599-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590902742354
Nieftagodien, Noor (2017): South Africa`s New Left Movements. In: Paret, Marcel/Runciman, Carin/Sinwell, Luke (eds.): Southern Resistance in Critical Perspective: The Politics of Protest in South Africa’s Contentious Democracy. London/New York: Routledge, 171-188. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315585017-11
Ntswana, Nyonde (2014): The Politics of Workers’ Control in South Africa’s Platinum Mines: Do Workers’ Committees in the Platinum Mining Industry Represent a Practice of Renewing Worker Control? Masters diss., University of Witwatersrand.
Sinwell, Luke (2019): Turning Points on the Periphery? The Politics of South Africa’s Platinum-Belt Strike Wave in Rustenburg, Northwest and Northam, Limpopo, 2012-2014. In: Journal of Southern African Studies 45 (5), 877-894. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2019.1664185
Sinwell, Luke/Mbatha, Siphiwe (2016): The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa. London: Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ddr6gs
Wilderman, Jesse (2015): From Flexible Work to Mass Uprising: The Western Cape Farm Workers’ Struggle. SWOP Working Paper 4, Witwatersrand University.
Interviews, Speeches and Legal Documents
Da Costa, Michael (n. d.): Supplementary Statement to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the events at Marikana Mine in Rustenburg. Vice-President of Karee Mine, Lonmin. Unpublished and undated.
Da Costa, Michael (2012): Witness Statement to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (chaired by Justice Farlam), 23 November 2012. Unpublished.
Makhanya, Siphamandla (2013): Speech: “South Africa after Marikana”, at Marxism 2013, Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party, London, 22 August 2013.
Makhanya, Siphamandla (2014): Personal communication with author. Rustenburg, 19 January 2014.
Mathunjwa, Joseph (2014): Speech at Olympia Stadium, Rustenburg, 19 January 2014. I personally recorded this public speech at the stadium.
Molapo (pseudonym). Interview on 28 September 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader at Karee Shaft, Lonmon.
Mbatha, Siphiwe (2013): Interview on 23 October 2013 (in Johannesburg). Community-based leader who joined the struggle in Marikana.
Mbulelo (Pseudonym). Interview on 15 August 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader of Karee Shaft, Lonmin.
Zakhele (Pseudonym). Interview on 3 November 2013 (in Marikana). Mineworker leader at Lonmin.
mineworkers, Marikana, trade unions, jumping scale
Australian NGO and trade union initiatives seek to improve conditions for women garment workers in the global South. This small-scale study sought perceptions of Australian-based civil society staff about the power of garment workers within such initiatives. Deploying a feminist political economy perspective, the study draws on feminist notions of power and the power resources approach. It looks beyond long-established sources of power (structural, associational, and institutional) to explore coalitional and discursive power. The theoretical framework emphasises the importance of discursive power, including social norms that impact power. The study highlights the potential for Australian civil society groups to perpetuate the dominant discourse of women worker’s ‘docility’ or to challenge it, including through amplifying worker voice. The findings indicate that obtaining coalitional power (power workers gain by joining with allies other than workers) requires workers to have some associational (collective) power among themselves, highlighting the interrelations of power resources and the limitations of substituting associational with coalitional power. These findings have implications for global North groups seeking to prevent garment worker exploitation.
Anner, Mark (2012): Corporate Social Responsibility and Freedom of Association Rights: The precarious quest for legitimacy and control in global supply chains. In: Politics and Society 40(4), 609-644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329212460983
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Brooks, Ethel C. (2007): Unraveling the garment industry: Transnational organizing and women’s work. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Connor, Tim (2004): Time to scale up cooperation? Trade unions, NGOs, and the international anti-sweatshop movement. In: Development in Practice 14(1-2). 61-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/0961452032000170631
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den Hond, Frank/Stolwijk, Sjoerd/ Merk, Jeroen (2014): A strategic-interaction analysis of an urgent appeal system and its outcomes for garment workers. In: Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1, 83-111. https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.19.1.n743kw1twlm37268
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Northern impacts on international labour standards. In: Third World Quarterly 30(3), 567-579. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590902742339
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feminist political economy, power resources, garment workers, global supply chains
The article provides a decolonial and feminist analysis of a particular kind of platform economies, namely those working on location-based applications called on-demand delivery apps. The focus is on the impact of this platform work on women on-demand delivery workers in Ecuador. Through this analysis, the author aims to enrich the study of transnational organisational processes of platform labour by arguing for the importance of intersectional approaches, where gender and migration are essential categories. By drawing on decolonial theoretical and methodological approaches, this paper makes reveals that women face more vulnerability working with on-demand delivery apps, such as sexual harassment and care work overload, but also, that they must make their way into leadership positions in a highly masculinised sector. The article shows that women on-demand delivery workers have the capacity to organise and resist bad working conditions and that they utilise transnational networks to do so.
Abilio, Ludmila/Almeida, Paula/Amorim, Henrique/Cardoso, Ana Claudia/Fonseca, Vanessa/Kalil, Renan/Machado, Sidnei (2020): Condições de trabalho de entregadores via plataforma digital durante a Covid-19. In: Trabalho e Desenvolvimento Humano 3, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.33239/rjtdh.v.74
Abilio, Ludmila/Machado, Ricardo (2017): Uberização traz ao debate a relação entre precarização do trabalho e tecnologia. In: IHU UNISINOS 1, 20-28.
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Arora, Payal (2014): The leisure commons: A spatial history of Web 2.0. Oxford: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315772608
Associação Brasileira do Sector de Bicicletas (2019): Pesquisa de perfil dos entregadores ciclistas de aplicativo. São Paulo.
Bilbao, Jone (2020): Quién dispone del tiempo de quién…esa es la cuestión. In: Ecuardor Today, 28.4.2020. https://ecuadortoday.media/2020/04/28/quiendispone-del-tiempo-de-quien-esa-es-la-cuestion/, 28.4.2022.
Casilli, Antonio (2017): Digital Labor Studies go Global: Toward a Digital Decolonial Turn. In: International Journal of Communication 11, 3934-3954.
Chander, Anupam (2017): The Racist Algorithm? In: Michigan Law Review 115 (6), 1023-1045. https://doi.org/10.36644/mlr.115.6.racist
Cook, Cody/Diamond, Rebecca/Hall, Jonathan V./List, John A./Oyer, Paul (2018): The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers. NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES. Working Paper 24732, www.nber.org/papers/w24732, 8.4.2022. https://doi.org/10.3386/w24732
Couldry, Nick/Ulises A, Mejias (2019): The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609754
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Duggan, James/Sherman, Ultan/Carbery, Ronan/McDonnell, Anthony (2019): Algorithmic Management and App-Work in the Gig Economy: A Research Agenda for Employment Relations and HRM. In: Human Resource Management Journal 30 (1), 114-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12258
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Grosfoguel, Ramon (2011): Decolonizing Post-Colonial Studies and Paradigms of Political Economy: Transmodernity, Decolonial Thinking, and Global Coloniality. In: TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.5070/T411000004
Gurumurthy, Anita/Chami, Nandini/Alemany, Cecilia (2018): Gender Equality in the Digital Economy. Emerging Issues. Digital Justice Project, IT for Change and DAWN. Issue Paper 1, August 2018.
Hevia, Carolina/Vera, Cristina (2021): Guía de construcción de políticas públicas para el trabajo en plataformas digitales de reparto y conducción en Ecuador. Observatorio de Plataformas and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Ecuador.
Hidalgo, Kruskaya (2020): Habitando las economías de plataforma. El ser mujer repartidora en Uber Eats y Glovo en Quito. In: Revista Akademía 3 (1), 329–377.
Hidalgo, Kruskaya (2021): Maternidades dentro de las economías de plataforma. Tejiendo resistencias con mujeres migrantes repartidoras de Rappi y Glovo en Ecuador. In: Economía para cambiarlo todo. Feminismos, trabajo y vida digna. Quito: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Ecuador.
Hidalgo, Kruskaya/Salazar, Carolina (2021): A migrant woman sustaining la lucha: A Feminist Takeover of the organization process of on-demand delivery workers in Ecuador. In: Journal of Labor and Society 24 (4), 579–597. https://.doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10013
Hidalgo, Kruskaya/Scasserra, Sofia (2021): Trabajadores y trabajadoras de plataformas:condiciones de trabajo y desafíos para las organizaciones sindicales. In: Observatorio del Trabajo - CSA.
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Jaramillo-Molina, Maximiliano (2020): Precariedad y riesgo: Diagnóstico sobre las condiciones laborales de los repartidores de apps en México. In: Hidalgo, Kruskaya/ Salazar, Carolina (eds.): Precarización laboral en plataformas digitales: una lectura desde América Latina. Quito: FES-ILDIS Ecuador.
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platform economies, women on-demand delivery workers, decolonial studies
The term “labour geography”, first coined by Andrew Herod (1997), sought to shift the capital-centric focus of economic geography to a more labour-centric focus. Feminist scholars have long argued for paying attention to the ways that labour’s social relations and lived experiences shape the politics of labour beyond wages or formal employment. However, labour geographers problematically continue to separate the larger questions of existence, analytically and ontologically, from the questions of work and everyday labour struggles. This article draws attention to the significance of quotidian processes of theorising by working class women in India as they labour and mobilise across disparate social, economic and cultural locations. The spaces of work discussed in this article are transnational, because, as spaces of knowledge production they are shaped by, and in turn shape, transnational narratives and strategies around global labour struggle. The article offers two key insights regarding a) the everyday kno ledge production of working-class women, forged through work and struggle; and b) the significance of paying attention to the political thoughts and acts of working-class women, which holds possibilities for new solidarities and political alliances. These points are made through three illustrations – women farmers at the farmers’ protest in the outskirts of Delhi, women singing ovi in rural Maharashtra, and women factory workers creating radio podcasts in Tamil Nadu.
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labour geography, transnational feminism, working-class women, knowledge production