The past two decades have seen a dramatic upsurge in sustained, cross-border labour activism, or labour transnationalism. Scattered across multiple disciplines and subfields, a new field of inquirythe new global labour studies (NGLS) -has emerged as scholars seek to comprehend the causes and consequences of twenty-first-century labour transnationalism. This multi-disciplinary approach has provided a platform from which to analyse an emerging phenomenon. We assess relevant strands of this emerging field that focus on: a) new theories of labour power and corporate vulnerability, and b) worker agency and organising strategy. While these areas have produced robust findings, we argue that developing a more complete understanding of labour transnationalism and its outcomes will require scholars to produce a more explicit critique of mainstream political economy, sociology, political science and labour studies. KEY WORDSLabour; labour movements; globalisation; transnationalism; labour transnationalism; unions The New Global Labour Studies: A Critical ReviewThe past two decades have seen a dramatic upsurge in sustained, cross-border labour activism, or labour transnationalism. Spanning North-South divides, industrial and service economies, and racial and gender lines, workers and their organisations have attempted, sometimes successfully, to meet capital at its own scale. To date over 115 global framework agreements (GFAs) have been signed by transnational corporations (TNCs) and the recently re-branded Global Unions. The latter expanded significantly in the early 2000s following their transformation from the old International Trade Secretariats into Global Union Federations. Workers and unions from different countries are also increasingly involved in less formal modes of transnational collaboration, ranging from basic alliancebuilding efforts to more elaborate, employer-targeted campaigns.Through these actions transnational activists have collectively built the inchoate foundation of a new kind of labour movement. Scholars argue that, in contrast to the past, the new spirit of labour transnationalism strives for greater democracy, diversity and inclusivity, and tries to emphasise direct, concrete solidarity actions informed by strategic research and decentralised information networks.

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This article highlights how and why the dynamics of transnational labour activism are not fully captured in theories of transnational advocacy networks (TANs). The article develops a new theoretical framework for analysing labour transnationalism that takes into account the unique capacity of workers to physically disrupt production by withdrawing their labour (structural power) and the unique capacity of organized labour to invoke employment relations institutions at the national and international levels (institutional power). It demonstrates the utility of this theoretical framework through an analysis of transnational labour campaigns spearheaded by factory workers in the Philippines and Pakistan. The case studies reveal that while transnational labour alliances (TLAs) do share some characteristics in common with TANs, the mechanisms through which TLAs sustain and escalate transnational campaigns can only be understood with reference to the unique structural and institutional capacities of labour.

Workers exercise three distinct types of power when they cooperate in transnational campaigns: structural, institutional, and coalitional power. These power types entail the capacity to physically disrupt an employer's operations, hold an employer accountable through legal or regulatory institutions, and mobilize nonlabor stakeholders to whom the employer must respond. In developing a framework for understanding workers' power in the global economy, this article integrates significant works in labor geography, comparative institutional analysis, and union revitalization studies while demonstrating how workers' embeddedness in global production networks, national institutional frameworks, and social networks enables them to challenge employers on the international scale.