Workers, Globalization, and Crisis - Contributions from India to a Global Agenda for Labor

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-231-14800-9
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 234 mm x 160 mm, Gewicht: 724 g

While it's easy to blame globalization for shrinking job opportunities, dangerous declines in labor standards, and a host of related discontents, the "flattening" of the world has also created unprecedented opportunities for worker organization. By expanding employment in developing countries, especially for women, globalization has formed a basis for stronger workers' rights, even in remote sites of production.

Using India's labor movement as a model, Rohini Hensman charts the successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses, of the struggle for workers' rights and organization in a rich and varied nation. As Indian products gain wider acceptance in global markets, the disparities in employment conditions and union rights between such regions as the European Union and India's vast informal sector are exposed, raising the issue of globalization's implications for labor.

Hensman's study examines the unique pattern of "employees' unionism," which emerged in Bombay in the 1950s, before considering union responses to recent developments, especially the drive to form a national federation of independent unions. A key issue is how far unions can resist protectionist impulses and press for stronger global standards, along with the mechanisms to enforce them. After thoroughly unpacking this example, Hensman zooms out to trace the parameters of a global labor agenda, calling for a revival of trade unionism, the elimination of informal labor, and reductions in military spending to favor funding for comprehensive welfare and social security systems.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hensman, Rohini

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceIntroduction1. Emancipatory Action Research Into Workers' Struggles2. Defining Globalization3. Four Sources of the Global Crisis of 20084. Capital, the State, and Trade Union Rights5. Employees' Unions: An Experiment in Union Democracy6. Informal Labor: The Struggle for Legal Recognition7. Working Women and Reproductive Labor8. Employment Creation and Welfare9. International Strategies10. Conclusion: Toward Global SolidarityNotesReferencesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Rohini Hensman is a writer and independent scholar based in Bombay. She has published extensively on issues of worker's rights, women's rights, and the rights of minorities and is the coauthor of Beyond Multinationalism: Management Policy and Bargaining Relationships in International Companies.