Trade unions,NGOs, and corporate codes of conduct

The proliferation of corporate codes of conduct generates both alliance and tension between trade unions and NGOs that deal with workers' rights in the global economy. Alliance, because trade unions and NGOs share a common desire to halt abusive behaviour by multinational companies and a broader goal of checking corporate power in the global economy. Tension, because unions and NGOs have differing institutional interests, different analyses of problems and potential solutions, and different ways of thinking and talking about social justice in the global economy. There are fears that codes of conduct may be used to undermine effective labour law enforcement by governmental authorities and undermine workers' power in trade unions. The substance behind the rhetoric on this new generation of corporate codes of conduct is certainly open to question. However, this paper argues that, given unions' weak presence in the global assembly line and the rapid‐response capabilities of many NGOs, such codes are a valuable asset. Trade unions and NGOs still have more in common with each other than either has with corporations, governments, or international organisations that see free trade and free‐flowing capital as the solution to low labour standards. But both need to be clear‐eyed about their differences and their proper roles as they navigate the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.     

The Global Workplace—challenging the race to the bottom

Founded in 1951, War on Want is a UK‐based NGO committed to the alleviation of poverty with strong roots in the labour movement. War on Want's programme on the Global Workplace provides trade unionists with a range of practical skills and knowledge about international development issues. Part of the programme involves a ‘Global Workers' Forum’, which takes grassroots trade union activists from the UK to a similar sector or even a plant owned by the same employer in the South. The aim is to enhance participants' understanding of the impact of globalisation on the industries in which they work, establish relationships that can act as starting points for global action, and encourage participants to spread the message within their own unions. There is also a website which raises awareness of the global economy and encourages activists to make links and undertake joint action. It is essential that now, as never before, trade unionists should work together as an international force to challenge globalisation and fight for the recognition of workers' rights. The Global Workplace suggests that showing global solidarity to workers around the world can help trade unionists rise to this challenge.     

Chinese investment and European labor: should and do workers fear Chinese FDI?

The rapid increase in Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) into Europe raises important questions about the implications of such for workers and organized labor in Europe: (1) does Chinese FDI flow more or less to regulated labor markets than do other investment sources?; (2) what are the strategies of works councilors and union representatives in dealing with real or expected investment from China?; and (3) how do individual workers view the propriety of Chinese FDI given China’s low-wage, labor-unfriendly profile in the global economy? Quantitative and qualitative data on Chinese FDI, individual opinions about China and globalization, and on strategies of labor representatives provide some leverage to preliminarily answer these questions. First, Chinese FDI does not seem to be more (or less) focused on investing in the least regulated labor markets than other sources of FDI. Second, interviews with works councilors and union representatives in Germany, France and the Netherlands affirm a cautiously optimistic view of Chinese investors as no more or less threatening to organized labor than other investors. Third, analysis of attitudes about Chinese and European interests in managing globalization suggest that less-skilled, more vulnerable, pro-labor-union workers in Europe tend to be more rather than less enthusiastic about Chinese management than their fellow citizens. These patterns suggest a surprising, if tentative, embrace by workers and their representatives in Europe of that investment.     

China and Global Energy Markets

China's emergence as a global economic powerhouse has caused the world economy to become more oil intensive and energy policy to become a key component of China's foreign policy. Responsibility for the country's energy policy is split among various commissions and is further complicated by overlaps with social, industrial, local-central governmental relations, and geopolitical considerations. To the extent China's leadership succeeds in meeting these challenges, it will have major repercussions for the rest of the world, and in particular on China's relations with the United States. But conflict between the United States and China is far from inevitable, as long as the global price mechanism operates reasonably efficiently and Washington and Beijing can operate in partnership rather than rivalry.     

Representing labour in India

Trade unions in India work mainly with workers in formal employment, particularly in the public sector. However, most people in India work in the informal economy, and their needs are attended mainly by voluntary agencies or NGOs. Economic globalisation and the policies associated with it are resulting in the increasing informalisation of work; as representatives of working people, unions and agencies alike are being further marginalised. Paradoxically, this situation is encouraging these organisations to overcome the mutual mistrust that has characterised relations between them in the past, and to join forces in order to pool their strengths. This article describes the background and current situation in general terms before presenting a case study of the National Centre for Labour (NCL), an apex body of labour organisations of all kinds working in the informal sector in India. Its members include unions and agencies active among workers in the construction industry, as well as in forestry, fishing, and domestic work. Such collaboration has not only enhanced the effectiveness of both the unions and the agencies, but has also increased the unions' representative character.     

The public spheres of unprotected workers

This article examines emergent forms of political subjectivity amongst subordinate social forces, focusing on how ‘unprotected’ workers in household relations of production can become political subjects antagonistic to world order. For unprotected workers the very lack of institutional protection makes articulating political demands risky. At the same time, the need to conceptualise the manner in which the workers in the households and in proximate forms of social relations of production become political subjects is increasingly urgent. The article begins by articulating a conception of the public sphere relevant to the forms of political subjectivity examined. The argument then proceeds to situate the family in the global political economy. Next, the article examines the circulation of women between the household and proximate forms of social relations of production. It is in this circulation that unprotected workers produce potential and emergent counter-public spheres needed for the forms of political subjectivity that challenge the dominant forces in world order.     

New models of negotiation,dispute resolution,and joint problem solving

The revolutionary changes sweeping the workplace, union-management relationships, and the world economy have contributed to a sharply redefined role for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), the primary provider of mediation services to labor and management in the United States. In this article's three main sections, the authors trace the history and provide background information about FMCS; consider the changing role of mediation, driven by societal forces of change from the late 1970s to the present; and speculate on the agency's future and the expected expansion in the use of mediation. John Calhoun Wells has served as Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service since November, 1993, when he was appointed to that position by President Bill Clinton.Wilma B. Liebman is Deputy Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.     

Globalisation and homelessness in the USA: Building a social movement to end poverty

The authors explore the deleterious effects of economic globalisation on people in the USA, and explain the rise of poor people's organisations as a response to these conditions. They look at the impact of economic changes in terms of public policy and argue that the global economy is preventing a growing number of people from being able to meet their basic needs, by limiting or eliminating living-wage jobs as well as welfare programmes. However, poor people in the USA are organising to end poverty, and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union is given as a case study. Finally, the authors discuss the challenges faced by social workers and how they can be most effective in the face of a dying welfare state alongside growing exploitation and exclusion of the poor.     

Reflections on Global Climate Politics Post Paris: Power,Interests and Polycentricity

The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015 has the potential to shape future climate politics and governance significantly, with broader implications for world politics at large. First of all, it solidifies the importance of ‘low-emission capacity’ as a source of power in international climate politics. Second, it supports the ongoing societal mobilisation and reinforces interest in the new climate economy. Third, it points, as a result, toward a more multipolar future climate world order. Finally, the Agreement recalibrates the role of the multilateral UN process as providing overall direction towards global decarbonisation, while leaving implementation to states, other international organisations and various non-state actors and initiatives. Therefore, phasing out global greenhouse gas emissions within the next few decades requires subnational and national policy frameworks that facilitate and promote overachievement and hence drive an upward dynamic – making the Paris Agreement a real-world experiment with an uncertain outcome.     

The New Kids on the EU Block: Austria,Finland and Sweden

While China will probably become more proactive in its multilateral diplomacy and increase its influence in global multilateral settings, various concerns and constraints make it unlikely that it will completely overhaul or even dramatically reshape the multilateral architecture at the global level. Stuck in defining its identity, China is caught up between posturing as a leader of the developing world on some policy issues and siding with the developed countries on others. China’s involvement in global multilateralism is likely to be guided by pragmatism rather than grand visions.     

Reproduction Versus Transformation: The Case of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

ABSTRACT

This article offers a constructive critique of Fehl and Freistein's argument that international organisations (IOs) significantly affect international stratification, either producing, reproducing or transforming inequality. It suggests that without reference to the specific purposes which individual IOs pursue and the forces driving global change, it is impossible to predict either when the goals of IOs and states might diverge, or when a particular IO might promote the reproduction of inequality on the one hand, or its transformation on the other. In particular, divergence between states on the one hand and IOs charged with the management of the global economy on the other is explained by the fact that the IOs concerned are committed to the reproduction of capital on a global scale, and therefore to the continuous transformation of global hierarchies. The argument is supported by a case study of IO support for China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).     

Networking in practice: The Arid Lands Information Network

As the development agenda becomes more and more led by the preoccupations of Southern non-government organisations (NGOs), it becomes increasingly crucial that good communication flows are encouraged and maintained between development practitioners. Project staff have frequently been the underclass of the development world, often isolated, left to execute decisions made by others, poorly serviced in terms of training and information, and none more so than the women among them. Yet they are the very people on whom the implementation of good development practice rests. The Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) was established in 1988 specifically to address some of the needs of this group. Using a number of methods, it has sought to encourage and facilitate the sharing of information and ideas among development workers at village/project level and to build confidence and provide a platform for their concerns and views. The ultimate aim is not to increase membership of the ALIN 'club', but rather to foster the desire to communicate and share experience, and to take control of the process of networking.     

Working at the intersection—a story from Australia

Conceived by nurses in the hospital of a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, and inspired by Norwegian People's Aid, the international aid agency of the Australian trade unions was designed to give a genuine material base to solidarity with national liberation struggles. Bridging the difficult division in Australian labour politics between the Catholic right and the social democratic and pro‐Moscow lefts, Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (now Union Aid Abroad APHEDA) was able to channel funds from unions and the Australian government to agriculture, health, and vocational training projects in many countries in the South. Unlike most counterpart organisations in Europe and the USA, its earlier partners were rarely trade unions. Only recently has APHEDA directly supported trade union training in Cambodia, East Timor, and Indonesia, under pressure from Australian unions, who see workers' rights in neighbouring countries as crucial to their own fate. Yet unions in advanced capitalist countries don't spontaneously understand the humanitarian and development needs of countries, such as Papua New Guinea, where waged workers are a small minority of the population. Unionisation is only one part of the solution. The April 2000 Durban congress of the ICFTU called for trade unions to ‘organise the unorganised’, such as informal‐sector workers, and to build alliances with NGOs and civil society around shared values. As a trade union NGO, APHEDA is located in the middle of a challenging intersection. Mandated to educate Australian workers on globalisation issues, APHEDA finds itself often more partisan than other international development NGOs in Australia, sometimes more circumspect. With attacks on union rights and the increasing share of the Australian aid budget delivered through private companies, APHEDA faces decisions about its independence, alliances, direction, and sustainability.     

What difference can they make? Assessing the social impact of corporate codes of practice

As retailers in the North increasingly adopt codes of practice containing social and/or environmental provisions in global supply chains, there is a need for rigorous assessment of their social impact. Moving beyond the rhetoric, it is important to establish the actual impact of such codes on poorer workers, their families, and other local stakeholders. This paper sets out the key methodological and conceptual issues arising in such an assessment as identified by a three-year study on the South African wine industry. It reviews the different motivations and approaches employed by code bodies, donors, academics, and practitioners, and highlights the lack of workers' voices in the debate on corporate responsibility as well as some of the early research findings. Finally, it explains how the inherent power inequalities in global supply chains make it more difficult to adopt a truly empowering approach to assessing the impact of codes of practice.     

Globalisation and women in India

Globalization arrived in India through an external and internal alignment of political and economic forces that led to the opening of the country to the outside world. The five processes under globalization are: 1) commercialism wherein more services become monetized and incomes are received in money rather than in kind; 2) more capitalization; 3) foreign trade becomes important for the production and distribution process; 4) greater financialization develops; and 5) international capital moves freely. These changes affect women more than men in different ways. Capitalization results in more self-employed marginal farmers becoming wage workers, making it less possible for women to manage domestic duties alongside their productive work. In general, macro-economic policies affect women through the household, market, and gender relations. In countries like India where women suffer from serious discrimination, whatever affects the household will worsen women's position. Thus, the process of liberalization, privatization, and globalization will put the clock back for women and for the poor in general.     

Negotiating a New Social Contract for Work: An Online,Distributed Approach

A massive open online course (MOOC) entitled “Shaping the Future of Work” (offered through MITx, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's online learning division) has been the context for a multiparty simulation designed to produce classroom negotiation results that will have social impacts. After running the course in the MOOC context three times and in face‐to‐face settings eight times, we noticed that key themes emerged. Participants have brought their own workforce perspectives to their simulation roles as employers, worker representatives, elected officials, and educators. They have called for reciprocal agreements centered on fair treatment and representation in the workplace, improved organizational performance, investments in skills and capabilities, aligned rewards and benefits for workers, and work–life balance in communities. We continue to use the simulation in the classroom and are exploring ways to expand its use. In the meantime, in this article, we discuss how the insights gleaned from this simulation could be used to crystallize and advance a new social contract at a time when the public policies, institutions, and organizational practices governing employment relations have not kept up with the dramatic changes taking place in the workforce, nature of work, and overall economy.     

Never the twain shall meet? Women's organisations and trade unions in the maquila industry in Central America

The garment and textile factories and assembly plants in the Central American free trade zones, or maquila industry, have given rise to new actors on the labour scene, as women's organisations and local monitoring groups now work alongside the traditional trade union sector. Furthermore, some of these new organisations are linked to networks based elsewhere, mainly in the USA and Europe, and are actively involved in transnational campaigns to improve working conditions in the maquila. To date, attempts between trade unions and these new labour actors to collaborate have been disappointing and often characterised by conflict. Challenging the idea that trade unions and NGOs are in competition for the same limited ‘space’, by looking at the relations between trade unions and women's organisations, this paper asks whether such conflicts are inevitable, and suggests ways in which the two kinds of organisation could work together to improve the conditions of workers in Central America.     

Microfinance and social capital: Does social capital help create good practice?

The role of organising and disseminating knowledge as a global public good has become a major preoccupation of international development organisations. One area in which they are particularly active is support for microfinance programmes in developing countries. More recently, the microfinance 'best practices' deposited in, and disseminated by, these international organisations have been associated with social capital. This paper examines the ways in which the notion of social capital is employed to explain the success of microfinance programmes. It argues that various types of social interactions that are generated around successful microfinance operations are randomly called 'social capital'. This means that the presence of social capital does not tell us much about what sort of microfinance programmes, in terms of design and implementation, should be regarded as good practice.     

Towards a policy framework for the empowerment of social movements

As they move from responding to needs and demands to a more rights-based approach, some French NGOs are rethinking both their areas of work and their ways of working. ‘Empowerment’ has become a key concept in this changing context, although it is sometimes difficult to know how best to apply it and understand what it really means in an NGO setting. This article shares some thinking on empowerment, analysing its ‘object’ (individuals, organisations, networks, or movements) and the ‘process’ through which it is realised. Drawing on the author's own experience and on a brief literature review, it is illustrated by the examples of the international disability and US gay rights movements.     

Measuring knowledge management in a virtual chat room: A case study

Abstract

Many organisations deem the virtual workplace to be a solution to challenges such as global competition, accelerated product development, improved quality and customer service, to mention but a few. In spite of the success of virtual communities on the Internet and although a significant amount of research has been conducted on virtual organisations, very few studies have focused on the evaluation of the combined effects of the theoretical variables of knowledge management in virtual communities. Advanced web analytics have been used in some instances to test the content of virtual communities, like discussion forums, hat rooms and the like. Because a plethora of chat rooms are devoted to special interest topics that may implicitly contain information and insights on consumers, knowledge creation and sharing, it creates the ideal opportunity to measure the management of knowledge therein. The aim of this article is, therefore, to measure knowledge management in a virtual community (an online chat room of an academic institution). Firstly, the article propounds a brief overview of the theoretical underpinning of the study by proposing a conceptual framework for the measurement of knowledge management in virtual communities. Secondly, the methodology to measure the knowledge management in a chat room of an educational institution is outlined. Finally, the research results are presented and recommendations are made for future research.