Frank W. Pierce Memorial Lectureship and Conference Series

Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns

Kate Bronfenbrenner

• Publisher: ILR Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780801461545
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Labour & Industrial Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

To meet the challenges of globalization, unions must improve their understanding of the changing nature of corporate ownership structures and practices, and they must develop alliances and strategies appropriate to the new environment. Global Unions includes original research from scholars around the world on the range of innovative strategies that unions use to adapt to different circumstances, industries, countries, and corporations in taking on the challenge of mounting cross-border campaigns against global firms.This collection emerges from a landmark conference where unionists, academics, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from the Global South and the Global North met to devise strategies for labor to use when confronting the most powerful corporations such as Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil. The workplaces discussed here include agriculture (bananas), maritime labor (dock workers), manufacturing (apparel, automobiles, medical supplies), food processing, and services (school bus drivers).Kate Bronfenbrenner's introduction sets the stage, followed by contributions describing specific examples from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Bronfenbrenner's conclusion focuses on the key lessons for strengthening union power in relation to global capital.

Contributors: Terry Boswell, Emory University; Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University; Henry Frundt, Ramapo College; Samanthi Gunawardana, University of Melbourne; Tom Juravich, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Kevin Kolben, Rutgers Business School; Valeria Pulignano, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; Darryn Snell, Monash University; Dimitris Stevis, Colorado State University; Ashwini Sukthankar, International Commission for Labor Rights; Amanda Tattersall, University of Sydney; Peter Turnbull, Cardiff University; Peter Wad, Copenhagen Business School

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction / Kate Bronfenbrenner
• 1. Beating Global Capital: A Framework and Method for Union Strategic Corporate Research and Campaigns / Tom Juravich
• 2. “Due Diligence” at APM-Maersk: From Malaysian Industrial Dispute to Danish Cross-Border Campaign / Peter Wad
• 3. Indian Labor Legislation and Cross-Border Solidarity in Historical Context / Ashwini Sukthankar and Kevin Kolben
• 4. Struggle, Perseverance, and Organization in Sri Lanka’s Export Processing Zones / Samanthi Gunawardana
• 5. Organizing in the Banana Sector / Henry Frundt
• 6. Dockers versus the Directives: Battling Port Policy on the European Waterfront / Peter Turnbull
• 7. Going National or European? Local Trade Union Politics within Transnational Business Contexts in Europe / Valeria Pulignano
• 8. Labor-Community Coalitions, Global Union Alliances, and the Potential of SEIU’s Global Partnerships / Amanda Tattersall
• 9. International Framework Agreements: Opportunities and Challenges for Global Unionism / Dimitris Stevis and Terry Boswell
• 10. Beyond Workers’ Rights: Transnational Corporations, Human Rights Abuse, and Violent Confl ict in the Global South / Darryn Snell
• Conclusion / Kate Bronfenbrenner
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index