Labor control regimes and worker resistance in global supply chains

Abstract

This article seeks to examine two inter-related dynamics, the relationship between the international dispersion of apparel production and labor control regimes, and the relationship between labor control regimes and patterns of worker resistance. The article argues that where apparel production has concentrated in the last decade has as much to do with labor control regimes as with wages and other economic factors. It suggests that there are three main labor control regimes in the sector: state control, market despotism, and employer repression. The article then argues that these systems of labor control are conducive to three patterns of worker resistance: wildcat strikes, international accords, and cross-border campaigns. The article explores these arguments by examining examples of apparel global supply chains in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Honduras.

When Industrial Democracy Meets Corporate Social Responsibility — A Comparison of the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance as Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster

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Labor Regimes, Global Production Networks, and European Union Trade Policy: Labor Standards and Export Production in the Moldovan Clothing Industry

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“…00 2018 become highly reliant on remittances, accounting for 22 percent of gross domestic product in 2014 (Vasilescu 2016). However, Moldovan clothing workers have been unable to leverage the structural power that tight labor markets provide (Silver 2003;Anner 2015a). 27 Workers have potential labor market power in the context of very tight labor markets, but they have been unable to organize and protest in a meaningful way at firm level or nationally in part due to the limited role of trade unions in the industry.…”

Labour politics and the EU’s new economic governance regime (European Unions)

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