Global Labor Strategies

Resource Update

US Congress "takes on" Globalization:  William Greider argues in his recent Nation Magazine article "A Globalization Offensive" (here's the free version) that: "Thanks to the aggressive spirit of many newly elected Democrats, this Congress offers an encouraging opening for opponents of corporate-led globalization to go on offense. For decades, the critics of the global system have been pinned down by multinational business and finance and reduced to playing defense. Labor, environment and other reform advocates have mostly tried to block new trade agreements negotiated by Republican and Democratic Presidents. Their efforts usually have fallen short...This year could be different. In both the House and Senate, the growing nucleus of legislators who are skeptical of or downright hostile to globalization is strong enough to force debates on some reform ideas." 

End of an Error?: Walden Bello's recent article "Globalization in Retreat?" looks at corporate-led globalization's dismal failures and why it is a "spent force".  He writes" "When it first became part of the English vocabulary in the early 1990s, globalization was supposed to be the wave of the future...Fifteen years later, despite runaway shops and outsourcing, what passes for an international economy remains a collection of national economies. These economies are interdependent no doubt, but domestic factors still largely determine their dynamics. Globalization, in fact, has reached its high water mark and is receding." 

Labor Rights and Trade:  Susan Ariel Aaronson suggests in her article "Labor Rights Are Not Optional" that labor rights advocates should take a page from the "environmental chapters of several recent free trade agreements. In 2004, Democratic Senator Max Baucus pressed U.S. trade policymakers to strengthen public participation provisions and embed them in every future trade agreement...The Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) is the first trade agreement built on Baucus’ suggestions. It includes both a mechanism and secretariat that allows citizens from any one of the seven signatory nations to challenge enforcement of environmental laws. Moreover, the trade agreement requires policymakers to respond to these complaints...Each environment ministry developed a website on environmental activities and outreach. USTR has agreed to replicate this model in other free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru...But these citizen submission strategies should not be limited to the environmental chapters of free trade agreements. The U.S. government should adopt a similar approach in the labor chapters as well."

Global Labor Confernce: On Februrary 16th, 2007 the Cornell Global Labor Institute is hosting a program entitled "Transnational Labor Collaboration: New Initiatives, International Framework Agreements and Other Tools To Advance Organizing and Bargaining In the Americas."  For more information contact [email protected].  It's being hosted in New York City at the Cornell ILR Conference Center and costs $150-175 per person depending on when you register. 

Resource Update

The World is Not Flat: New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman continues to be the leading defender of corporate-lead globalization.  His book, "The World is Flat", remains at the top of the New York Times bestseller list and his claims are habitually cited by policy makers and journalists.  Because of the increasing dominance of his views, we thought it would be worthwhile posting a link to Jeff Faux's 2005 review of Friedman's book that appeared in Fall 2005 issue of Dissent Magazine.  Faux, founder the D.C-based Economic Policy Institute recently published his own book, "The Global Class War", which is in many ways a detailed response to Friedman's claims.  A link to the review is here.

Tools to Stay Informed: It is increasingly difficult to stay on top of news relevant to the global labor movement.  One excellent resource is the "Globalization Bulletin" published monthly by the Globalization Task Force at Rutgers University.  It provides categorized links to articles on a wide range of issue, including, trade, labor rights, immigration, global governance, global campaigns, etc.  To sign up for monthly updates and read about the service, follow this link.

Global Labor Law: For those needing to keep track of developments in global labor law, the UCLA law school runs the Globalization and Labor Standards (GALS) electronic library and newsletter.  The searchable GALS library contains abstracts of recent law journal articles, taken from English language law journals from around the world, exploring international labor standards and rights in the global economy.  A monthly newsletter is also available, providing summaries of recent articles added to the database.  To search GALS or sign up for the newsletter follow this link.

Resource Update: Worker Rights in Jordan and South Korea

Labor Rights in Jordon: With the passage of the 2001 U.S.-Jordan free trade deal, increasing numbers of mutinational have moved operations to Jordanian export processing zones to take advantage of quota-free access to US markets.  The results according to recent undercover investigation by the New York based National Labor Committee are "slave-like conditions" whereby workers are "stripped of their passports, trapped in involuntary servitude, sewing clothing for Wal-Mart, Gloria Vanderbilt, Target, Kohl's, Thalia Sodi for Kmart, Victoria's Secret, L.L.Bean and others."  The majority of the EPZ employees are foreign guest workers, mostly from Bangladesh, China, India and Sri Lanka.   Read the NLC report here.  In response, Jordanian labor leaders recently called on the government to allow these estimated 44,000 workers to join unions.  Read the full Jordan Times article here.

Building Bridges with South Korea: On July 7th, an AFL-CIO-ILWU (International Longshore Union) delegation sets off for South Korea to meet with fellow unionists to discuss joint strategies for combatting the impending Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS), as well seek support for the Blue Diamond workers’ union drive. According to the AFL-CIO blog "The delegation, which includes senior staff from the AFL-CIO and the ILWU, follows a round of joint lobbying and protests when talks on KORUS opened in Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO, CTW, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions issued a joint declaration June 6 on KORUS. Their statement called on both governments to ensure the trade agreements do not undercut workers’ rights, environmental protection, food security or public services." Marcy Rein, communications specialist in the Organizing Department of the ILWU will be blogging the progress of the delegation on the AFL-CIO blog, available here.