Labour and the Challenges of Globalization What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity?

by Bieler, Andreas; Lindberg, Ingemar; Pillay, Devan

• ISBN13: 9780745327563
• ISBN10: 0745327567
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-20
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

This book examines the main challenges facing the world labor force and possible responses from trade unions. The working classes across the world are feeling the effects of globalization and the race to the bottom that it encourages. Core jobs for workers in the developed world are being outsourced to countries where pay and conditions are terrible and union membership is often forbidden. Much of the work of the world economy is now taking place in a burgeoning informal sector, making worldwide organization of labor very difficult. Case studies from 11 different countries, including China, Germany, Canada and South Africa, illustrate what is happening and show how workers and trade unions can successfully adapt to the neoliberal world.

Author Biography

Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.

Ingemar Lindberg, a former trade unionist, is a senior researcher at the Swedish think-tank Agora.

Devan Pillay, a former trade unionist, is Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Foreword: Samir Amin Rebuilding the unity of the 'labour front'
1. The Future of the Global Working Class: an introduction, by Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg and Devan Pillay
2. The Contested Politics of Gender and Irregular Employment: Revitalizing the South Korean Democratic Labour Movement, by Jennifer Jihye Chun
3. Globalisation and the informalisation of labour: the case of South Africa, by Devan Pillay
4.