The collaborative study that led to this book began in 2010 and included a September 2010 international workshop in Montreal. Scholars of industrial relations, labor studies, political science, sociology, and other fields explore the ways that transnational unionism is shaped by the exercise of structural and associational power. In particular, they investigate whether the spread of both production and consumption across national borders is beginning to affect the relation between the exercise of structural power (the boss) and associational power (the workers). They cover workplace trade unions: bridging the local to the global, national trade unions: shaping new forms of solidarity; and international trade unionism: crafting institutions for the 21st century. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Transnational trade union action has expanded significantly over the last few decades and has taken a variety of shapes and trajectories. This book is concerned with understanding the spatial extension of trade union action, and in particular the development of new forms of collective mobilization, network-building, and forms of regulation that bridge local and transnational issues. Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. Through original research conducted at different levels, this book disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Introduction
1. Understanding Transnational Trade Unionism Peter
Fairbrother, Marc-Antonin Hennebert, and Christian Lévesque Part 1: Workplace
Trade Unions: Bridging the Local and the Global
2. Workers Power: Fighting
Sweatshop Practices at Russell Athletic in Honduras Mark Anner
3. Building
North-South Transnational Trade Union Alliances: Prospects and Challenges
Mélanie Dufour-Poirier and Christian Lévesque
4. Trade Union Strategies in
Cross-Border Actions: Articulating Institutional Specificity with Local Power
Dynamics Christian Lévesque, Gregor Murray, Chrsitian Dufour and Adelheid
Hege
5. The Fragilities of East-West Union Cooperation: A Strike at
Renault-Dacia Michčle Descolonges Part 2: National Trade Unions: Shaping New
Forms of Solidarity
6. Building Transnational Unionism: Australian Transport
Maritime Unions in the World Peter Fairbrother
7. Creating Spaces for Labor
Internationalism: National Industrial Unions in the Southern Hemisphere and
their Strategies Armel Brice Adanhounme and Christian Lévesque
8. Local
Actors and Transnational Structures: Explaining Trends in Multinational
Company-Level Negotiations in Europe Valeria Pulignano, Volker Telljohaan,
Isabel Da Costa and Udo Rehfeldt
9. European Trade Unions and the Long March
through the Institutions: From Integration to Contention? Richard Hyman Part
3: International Trade Unionism: Crafting Institutions for the 21st Century
10. The International Labor Movement: Structures and Dynamics Rebecca
Gumbrell-McCormick
11. Transnational Solidarity around Global Production
Networks? Reflections on the Strategy of International Framework Agreements
Michael Fichter, Markus Helfen and Katharina Schiederig
12. Opening the Black
Box of Cross-Border Union Alliances: A Case Study Marc-Antonin Hennebert and
Reynald Bourque
13. Labor Standards in Segmented Markets: The Construction
Industry in Delhi and Moscow Nikolaus Hammer Conclusion
14. Futures of
Transnational Unionism Peter Fairbrother, Marc-Antonin Hennebert and
Christian Lévesque
Peter Fairbrother is a Professor of International Employment Relations and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Organisations and Work at RMIT University, Australia. He is also a core researcher at the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT). He has researched and published widely on trade union renewal, industrial restructuring and regeneration and the privatisation and reorganisation of public services and utilities. His recent work focuses on the mobilisation of labour in relation to the social and political transition towards low carbon economies. He has published nine books and numerous articles and book chapters.
Christian Lévesque is a Professor of Employment Relations at HEC Montréal, Canada, and Co-director of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT). His research focus concerns the impact of globalization on trade unions, employment practices in multinational corporations, and union-management relations. He has done extensive fieldwork in various parts of the world, including México, various countries in Europe, Ghana and China. He has published on trade union renewal, comparative employment practices in multinational corporations and transnational union action. He has co-edited a book and four special journal issues and published several articles and book chapters.
Marc-Antonin Hennebert is Assistant Professor in HR and Labour Relations at HEC Montréal, Canada and a core researcher at the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT). He holds a PhD from Université de Montréal and recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Management at King's College London. His recent research looks at the emergence of new forms of international labour regulation such as corporate codes of conduct, global framework agreements and international collective bargaining and its impact on actors and their strategies. He has recently published various articles and a book on international union alliances.
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