Labor and Social Movements’ Strategic Usage of the Global Commodity Chain Structure

Sowers, Elizabeth; Ciccantell, Paul S.; Smith, David A.

doi:10.2307/j.ctt21kk1v2.4

Cited by 24 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…a 'varying amount of "disruptive potential" endowed on them by virtue of their different positions in systems of economic interdependencies' (Perrone, 1983: 231). In other words, workers' actions in a segment of the GVC can be disruptive for employers elsewhere, enabling actions by workers in GVCs to enhance their rights (Alimahomed-Wilson and Ness, 2018;Sowers et al, 2018).…”

Section: The 'Positive' Effect Of Gvcs On Workers' Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Collectivism, individualism and solidarity in global value chain restructuring in the Global North: Workers’ resistance in the Swiss machinery industry

Martinelli

2021

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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Global value chains (GVCs) have become the dominant form of industrial organization in the global economy. Although the economic outcomes of GVC restructuring have been measured and the determinants theorized, there is a lack of empirical research on the real processes of GVC restructuring and its impact on labour in the Global North. This article helps to address this gap by investigating the effect of the participation in GVCs on the lead firms’ value-capturing strategies and on workers’ ability to defend and improve their working conditions in the Swiss machinery industry. Based on a critical GVC approach and a qualitative study of two work conflicts, the study demonstrates how GVCs shape a variety of new strategies for capital and labour; enhancing forms of management strategies and weakening the possibilities for workers’ counterstrategies by eroding collectivism and solidarity and promoting individualism among workers.

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Section: The 'Positive' Effect Of Gvcs On Workers' Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Collectivism, individualism and solidarity in global value chain restructuring in the Global North: Workers’ resistance in the Swiss machinery industry

Martinelli

2021

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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“…The favoured route towards revitalization of trade unionism has been the "organizing model", originating in the US and based on recruitment campaigns in primarily low paid service sectors (Connolly, Marino & Martinez Lucio, 2017;Ibsen & Tapia, 2017), or more broadly the organizing turn (Heery, 2015). The attempt to boost the associational-organisational power resource of trade unions has more recently been accompanied by a new interest and focus on global commodity chains and logistics due to their high potential to improve trade unionism's access to the economic-structural power resource (Sowers, Ciccantell & Smith, 2018).…”

Section: Trade Unionism and Its Revitalisation: Power Resources And Smentioning

confidence: 99%

The communicative power of trade unionism: labour law, political opportunity structure and social movement strategy

Ioannou¹

2020

IndBez

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This article argues that more emphasis should be paid to the communicative power of trade unionism because it may constitute a starting point or a privileged standpoint which a trade union may use to counter its weakness regarding its other sources of power. Reviewing the trade union revitalisation literature, it is argued that social movement theory in general and especially ‘political opportunity structure’, can complement and enrich the power resources approach which is a useful tool in the analysis of trade union action. The case study of a weak trade union winning a strike largely as a result of its successful utilisation of its communicative power is presented where the public communication of the two sides to the conflict is subjected to content and discourse analysis. The article argues that trade unions can enhance their position through the adaptation of social movement strategy and campaign tactics into trade union activity because social movements are more accustomed to orienting their action in the public sphere. In this effort trade unions may draw upon the more explicitly normative and substantive dimension of labour law as a resource to legitimise and garner support for the unions’ objectives framing in a more expansive manner the issues at stake so that a significant section of society can identify with the trade union struggle at hand.

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“…This could lead to successful outcomes for workers—particularly since the interests of capital in global commodity chains require that each stage of the process seamlessly flow into the next one, providing a substantial amount of financial leverage for disruptive actions (or the threat of such) by workers. (Sowers, Ciccantell, & Smith, , Chapter 1)…”

Section: What Is a Choke Point?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Choke Points. Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain. Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Immanuel Ness, eds. Pluto Press, London, UK, 2018. 75£ (Hardcover)

Massimo

2018

Journal of Labor and Society

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Labor and Social Movements’ Strategic Usage of the Global Commodity Chain Structure

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Collectivism, individualism and solidarity in global value chain restructuring in the Global North: Workers’ resistance in the Swiss machinery industry

Collectivism, individualism and solidarity in global value chain restructuring in the Global North: Workers’ resistance in the Swiss machinery industry

The communicative power of trade unionism: labour law, political opportunity structure and social movement strategy

Choke Points. Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain. Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Immanuel Ness, eds. Pluto Press, London, UK, 2018. 75£ (Hardcover)

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