From Exclusion to Resistance: Migrant Domestic Workers and the Evolution of Agency in Lebanon

In addition to hosting a large population of refugees and displaced persons, Lebanon is home to an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 migrant domestic workers. Under Lebanese law, domestic workers fall under the kafala, or sponsorship, system. Existing literature has focused on the legality of the kafala system and the ensuing human rights violations resulting from workers' exclusion from Lebanese labor law. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2016, this article argues that migrant domestic workers in Lebanon have defied their spatial, social, and legal exclusion by organizing collective resistance, triggered in part by the July 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.     

Global Pressures,National Policies,and Labor Rights in Latin America

This paper examines the impact of countervailing external pressures on labor rights in 17 Latin American countries. On the one hand, these countries have been urged to reform their labor laws and practices to comply with international labor standards, including protections for the collective rights of workers. On the other hand, they have been pressured to adopt more flexible labor markets, which often undermine collective labor organization. After dividing the countries by the type of political regime that prevailed when the pattern of relations between labor and the state was being established, the paper presents and explains the results of indices created to measure two outcomes: labor standards and labor market flexibility. It then analyzes the impact of four types of external actors (the ILO, national governments pursuing trade agreements, multinational corporations, and international financial institutions) on these outcomes, both de jure and de facto. The paper's main finding is that these actors have had an impact on labor outcomes in the region, but that their influence is heavily mediated by domestic factors, particularly historical legacies of state-labor relations.     

International Institutions and Workers’ Rights: Between Labor Standards and Market Flexibility

International financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank often have used the leverage afforded them through their loan mechanisms to demand domestic labor market flexibility. At the same time, the International Labour Organization’s call to respect Core Labor Standards (CLS) in the global economy has increasingly gained acceptance since 1998. CLS that sanction freedom of association and collective bargaining have been particularly emphasized by the ILO since these are collective rights that enable the exercise of other rights. While IFIs have generally held to free market principles, new research findings and international pressure has led the IMF and World Bank to be more open to the idea of core labor standards. Implementation has often lagged, but some advances have been made. This includes the World Bank’s commitment to ensure respect for CLS through its private sector lending arm. Yet to be seen is whether these policy shifts will lead to greater respect for labor standards or whether the continuation of market-oriented reforms will further undermine labor’s collective power, creating new challenges for future resistance.     

More Rights,Less Power: Labor Standards and Labor Markets in East European Post-communist States

This paper examines changes in labor markets and labor rights for 13 post-communist states of East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. It focuses on the simultaneous pressures to increase the flexibility of labor markets and improve labor standards in the years since the collapse of communism. Comparative measures and patterns of both de jure and de facto standards and flexibility are presented, and the roles of key institutional promoters of change are analyzed. I find that a combination of democratic regime type and European Union accession has pulled East European states toward the strengthening of collective labor rights. The effect is strongest on the states that joined the EU in 2004, weaker for those joining in 2007, while the three post-Soviet, non-accession states remain significantly more labor-repressive. Labor market flexibilization has been a more uniform trend in the post-communist region. In the context of this project’s inter-regional comparisons, contemporary Eastern Europe has the strongest labor rights. At the same time, the decline of trade unions and limits of collective bargaining in most post-communist states undermine the effectiveness of transposed EU legislation and bargaining institutions in empowering labor. As shown by the exceptional case of Slovenia, strong unions are necessary to fully enforce rights.     

Birth Registration and Protection for Children of Transnational Labor Migrants in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Policies on transnational labor migration do not consider workers' needs as parents or the rights and welfare of their children, including a child's right to an official identity through birth registration. A study of birth-registration decision making by migrant parents in Lombok, Indonesia underscored the need for targeted responses to uniquely challenging circumstances and priorities of migrant parents. Free birth registration through birthing and health centers and village-level leaders can overcome problems of decentralized implementation of national strategies and an exploitive registration brokerage industry, mitigating risks of de facto statelessness for children and a multigenerational pattern of undocumented and unsafe migration.     

Patterns and issues in health care collective bargaining

Unionization of health care facilities has grown significantly over the last twenty years. More than 20 percent of American hospitals have one or more union contracts and an equal percentage of the industry's labor force is represented for collective bargaining purposes. Union membership is concentrated in the Northeast, Upper Midwest and Pacific Coast and is to be found particularly among large metropolitan hospitals. Although many different unions are actively organizing in the health care industry four labor organizations predominate: American Federation of State, County, Municipal Workers; Service Employees International Union; National Union of Hospital and Health Care Workers - District 1199; and the American Nurses Association.

One of the obstacles to union growth for many years was the absence of Federal legal regulation of labor relations. In 1974 Congress amended the so-called Taft Hartley Act to cover private nonprofit hospitals, the largest component of the industry. Since 1974 the application of Federal labor law has resolved old problems that arose from the lack of a basis to handle recognition disputes but at the same time created new issues. Among these issues are such legal questions as the legitimacy of the ANA to act as a labor organization, the proper bargaining classification for registered nurses, and the proper role in labor relations for hired consultants.

The growth of unions in health care raised concern that collective bargaining would impose onerous new burdens on an industry already hard pressed financially. Research indicates, however, that the impact on hospital costs have not been great -- perhaps on the order of an increase of 10 percent over what would be the case in the absence of unions. The greatest effects seem to be in the area of fringe benefits, working conditions, and the provision for grievance machinery.

Special problems have arisen in conjunction with the unionization of registered nurses. This particular category of health care workers occupies a strategic position in the hospital's work force. After a slow start nurse bargaining activity has come rapidly particularly as nonnursing unions such as 1199, SEIU, and the American Federation of Teachers have forced the ANA to respond to their efforts to make inroads among nurses.

Union growth in the industry seems to have stabilized for the time being without the prospect for much change in the remaining years of the decade. Incidence of conflict has been relatively low compared to other industries and this also shows little likelihood of change. While some visible signs of conflict over representation rights still remain collective bargaining is moving rapidly into an era of mutual accommodation.     

THIRD FRONT RAILROADS AND INDUSTRIAL MODERNITY IN LATE MAOIST CHINA

Abstract

In the late 1960s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became concerned that the United States or the Soviet Union might invade. To protect national sovereignty, the Party carried out a massive campaign to industrialize China's West called the Third Front. This article focuses on Third Front railway building. It shows that, although Third Front railroads initially had problems, they eventually integrated large parts of western China into nationwide industrial networks, which accelerated and standardized regional transportation. To build railroads, the CCP compensated for the country's shortage of industrial capital with massive inputs of labor. This industrialization strategy placed a heavy burden on rural men. To boost morale, the CCP organized thought campaigns that praised hard work as a revolutionary contribution to China's industrialization and defense. This collective narrative of national security and industrial progress never entirely silenced discontent, but it did provide workers with a way to think about hardship.     

Between the hammer and the anvil: post-conflict reconstruction,Islam and women's rights

This paper argues that gender issues are becoming politicised in novel and counterproductive ways in contexts where armed interventions usher in new blueprints for governance and ‘democratisation’. Using illustrations from constitutional and electoral processes in Afghanistan and Iraq, it analyses how the nature of emerging political settlements in environments of high risk and insecurity may jeopardise stated international commitments to a women's rights agenda. The disjuncture between stated aims and observed outcomes becomes particularly acute in contexts where security and the rule of law are severely compromised, where Islam becomes a stake in power struggles among contending factions and where ethnic/sectarian constituencies are locked in struggles of representation in defence of their collective rights.     

Human Rights and Democracy Promotion: reflections on the contestation in,and the politico-economic dynamics of,rights promotion

This contribution seeks to engender more nuanced reflection on the role of human rights advocacy and specifically its role in democracy promotion. The two agendas have been seen as conjoined and harmonious by most aid donors; yet, interestingly and perceptively, some commentators have recently criticised the notion that they are agendas that are straightforwardly compatible or coherent. I examine here from a theoretical perspective the plausibility and the consequences of the claim that the two agendas share a more complex and controversial relationship than is often assumed. Specifically, I seek to highlight the importance of paying attention to the possibility that rights themselves are inherently ‘contradictory’ in nature and that therein lies their contribution to the democratisation agenda. Indeed, by drawing on Samuel Bowles's and Herbert Gintis's view of rights claims as ‘clashing’ and ‘politico-economically’ grounded, the aim of this article is to argue for a more politicised and openly contradiction-accepting approach to rights and democracy promotion. I contextualise this (theoretically motivated but practically consequential) argument in the context of the EU's human rights and democracy promotion policies.     

Reluctant terrorists? Transcaucasian social-cemocracy, 1901 – 1909

This article discusses the development of Transcaucasian social-democratic terrorism from 1901 to 1909. For two reasons the ‘psychohistorical’ model emphasising the subjective and irrational aspects of terrorism has only limited value for the Transcaucasian case. First, the significance of the contextual factor is powerfully underscored by the phenomenon of workers' ‘economic terrorism’. It was not uncommon even, for workers to blackmail reluctant party organisations into supporting the killing of their enemies. Secondly, the social democrats were not driven by irrational urges but followed a rationally motivated and selective terrorist strategy. They attempted to limit or prevent workers' terrorism from below, the ‘anarchist’ potential of which they considered a threat to the organised mass struggle. They set their hopes on a division of labour, with a militant but mostly peaceful workers' movement and terrorism as the prerogative of the party.     

Enforcing labour rights of irregular migrants in Indonesia

The multi-directional nature of labour migration flows has resulted in an increasing number of countries having become both senders and receivers of regular and irregular migrants. However, some countries continue to see themselves primarily as senders and so ignore their role as a receiving country, which can have negative implications for the rights of migrants in their territory. Using the example of Indonesia, which is State Party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, this article demonstrates that irregular migrant workers in this country have the legal right to protection against labour exploitation even when they work despite the government’s prohibition on employment. The article discusses the ‘right to work’ and how international human rights law has translated it into the ‘right to protection from labour exploitation’ for irregular migrants in Indonesia. By way of two case studies about the Indonesian government’s handling of irregular migrants, it shows how it prioritises enforcement of the employment immigration law over labour and employment laws much like countries that have not ratified the ICRMW. It also draws attention to legal protection gaps that emerge for asylum seekers when they are recognised to be genuine refugees.     

When the lifeboat is overloaded: social support and state enterprise reform in China

Based on a survey of `off-duty workers' in Guangzhou, this paper explores the changing structure of social support in China. It focuses on the material aid and guidance in job search received by these workers. It concludes that while the state and its enterprises still play an important role in workers' economic life, informal social networks have become more pertinent. These social support networks reduce workers' dependence on the state and provide a social buffer for the transformation of state socialism into market socialism. They also imply a revival of autonomous space in a society that will have more resources to negotiate with the state in the future.     

Socialism,Economic Development and Planning in Mali, 1960–1968

This article looks at practices of pilferage and bribery among African migrant dock workers in Durban in the 1950s. Many of Durban's dockers regularly engaged in small-scale theft, usually food for personal consumption, but sometimes they also got their hands on bigger and more expensive items or sold the pilfered goods. Many also relied on their social networks to find jobs and did not shy away from bribing izinduna to make sure that they were hired on ships that contained the right goods. Such crimes, which were often not recognised as such by the workers, have often been seen as forms of primitive and individual resistance to proletarianisation. This article, however, argues that these were not just reactive and opportunistic acts, but part of a conscious strategy to combine dock labour with a small business, which allowed several workers to withdraw from the wage labour market altogether.     

Gender,Sexuality and the Latin American Left: testing the transformation

This article examines the extent of change under Latin American left governments by assessing their actions on women's and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. To provide a historical context, it first offers an overview of the relationship between feminist movements and the left. It then employs a four-country comparison of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela on women's socioeconomic status; feminist state–society relations; women's representation in national decision-making positions; legislation on violence against women; reproductive rights; and sexual rights. It concludes that standard political and economic divisions among the cases do not explain their response to the demands of feminists and LGBT activists. While governments have improved women's status and inclusion, the transformation of gender and sexual power relations remains unfinished.     

Framing the Ghanaian LGBT rights debate: competing decolonisation and human rights frames

This paper investigates how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movements in Ghana, both anti and pro, framed the debate that captured media attention in 2006 and 2011. Decolonisation and human rights frames were appropriated, challenged, and dominated by opponents of LGBT rights, making it difficult for LGBT activists to use them. The opponents' corruption frame overpowered the LGBT activists' preservation frame. When LGBT activists used a human rights frame (comparing sexual minorities to racial minorities and to persons with disabilities), the countermovement appropriated it in a way that excluded same-sex relations by comparing sexual minorities to “deviants”, persons with mental illnesses, and animals. The interaction between the decolonisation and human rights frames was also problematic: the corruption frame not only rendered the LGBT activists' preservation frame nearly useless, but it also made their use of the human rights frame appear to be cultural imperialism and problematised the help they received from international LGBT organisations.     

Policy guidelines for collective bargaining and family planning

The benfits of establishing family planning through collective bargaining to both labor and management are discussed. Until workers can be convinced that their children will receive health care, education and employment, and that they will be economically secure in old age, it is difficult to convince them of the many benefits of child spacing and small family size. In 1953, it was calculated by management in a Japanese steel factory that about 70% of all acidents could be attributable to difficulties in the private lives of employees. In order to ease problems in the home, collective agreements were initiated by management in the Nippon Express Company to provide family planning services. Labor agreed as long as the workers were to share in the economic awards which came from participation. Costs of implementing the family planning programs were fully offset by the decrease in expenditure on family allowances, confinement, nursing, and so on. In India some ten estates began a program in which a certain amount of money is paid into an account for every month that a woman does not become pregnant. If the woman becomes pregnant, she forfeits a substantial amount of the fund. This money comes directly from the funds which would normally have to be set aside to provide for maternity and child support programs. Certain guidelines are presented in the paper to outline the areas of responsibility of labor and management in the provision of family planning services. Among the many possibilities mentioned is the idea that both labor and management could look into the conceivability of plowing back a portion of whatever savings are accrued by management into a pension scheme to compensate workers for the loss of labor caused by having fewer children than were previously anticipated.     

Public needs vs. private loss: land use regulation and property rights

Property rights and government regulation have been the subject of considerable discussion and controversy in recent years. The issue of “takings” has been raised in most of the state legislatures in the 1990s. Congress has considered legislation as well. Supreme Court decisions, in particular the Lucas and the Dolan cases, have focused judicial attention on the issue in recent years. Local elected officials, planners and local government administrators confront the issue increasingly as they attempt to respond to growth pressures and regulate land use. Unfortunately, a great deal the public's perception of property rights is myth or fable. This article addresses the issue of takings by putting it first into historical perspective. Thus, we see that regulation of private property by government is not new. The concern over “regulatory takings” is explored and traced briefly noting the entry of the federal government into the arena of land use regulation. Legislative responses are reviewed and finally the status of judicial consideration of the issue is brought up to date. The article closes with recommendations for those who confront the takings issue. While caution is indeed called for, regulation of private property is still a fact of life in American public administration and will be for some time to come.     

Can Business Rights Alleviate Group-Based Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa? Understanding the Limits to Reform

Abstract

Africa’s indigenous minorities face unique constraints, particularly in terms of engaging in even the most basic business activities. They typically lack business rights, but, even where such rights have been extended, they have had scant impact on group poverty. This paper argues that the failure of business rights to meaningfully transform the livelihoods of marginalised minority groups stems from elite capture of resources, dependency on external validation, and a contradiction between a collective problem (group poverty) and an individualist solution (business rights). African states could alter conditions through active pursuit of affirmative action policies, but lack socio-economic and political incentives.     

The Olympic Games,human rights and democratisation: Lessons from Seoul and implications for Beijing

The experience of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 has led major games boosters to boldly assert their liberalising potential, especially in the context of the Beijing Games of 2008. This paper examines whether in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 eras, there is a sound basis for such arguments. It begins by re-examining the lessons of the Seoul Olympics to clarify the Games' contribution to the democratisation of Korea, as catalyst though not cause. It then assesses the applicability of the lessons of Seoul to Beijing given the different contexts of their 'Olympic journeys'. Finally, based on this comparison it considers the ways in which the 2008 Games may affect prospects for human rights improvements and political liberalisation in the People's Republic of China. While the outcomes of this process are likely to be quite different from the western-style liberal democratisation that occurred in South Korea, the process of engagement between 21st Century China and 21st Century Olympism holds the possibility of stimulating a fruitful, dialogic, and progressive exchange on rights issues.     

Encounters With Irregular Migrants in Social Work—“Collateral Damage” and Reframing of Recognizability in Swedish Public Social Services

The aim is to explore experiences and considerations of social workers regarding irregular migrants, understood as being prone to be “collateral damage.” It is revealed that some social workers approve assistance exceeding that which can find support in the national legislation. They are hereby addressing the normative conditions for recognition and installing new frames for apprehending irregular migrants. This process is referred to as a reframing of recognizability. By exceeding the limits of “belonging,” social workers question their profession's national link as well as the inability of a nationally anchored understanding of social work to deal with irregular migrants.