Labour relations policies in multinational companies: A three-country study of power dynamics

Abstract

It is generally assumed that multinational companies will, to some extent at least, adapt their practices to host country environments. However, recent work suggests that this process of adaptation is yet more complex and uneven. It is our contention that subsidiary policy on labour relations is not simply the product of adaptation from and to home and host institutional environments but is in fact shaped by the multiple power relations that characterize multinational company subsidiaries. This three country comparison between Argentina, Canada, and Mexico shows that a policy of strong engagement with trade unions requires the presence of actors that can mobilize power resources. It is when both management and workers have power resources that subsidiaries are more likely to develop a policy of strong engagement with trade unions.

Contestações Discursivas Dos Trabalhadores À Produção Flexível Em Montadoras No Sul Fluminense De 2016 a 2018

“…Sindicatos constituem importante aspecto na análise das contestações dos trabalhadores em função sobretudo do desequilibro histórico na relação entre capital e trabalho (LÉVESQUE et al, 2015). São diversos os estudos em subsidiárias automotivas que abordam o tema sindicalismo regional em termos de comparação entre regiões de alta e baixa representação coletiva com afetações em sentimento de incertezas, impotência durante os acordos coletivos e acelerada precariedade laboral (TANIGUTI, 2010;MAITAN FILHO e GUEDES, 2018a).…”

Power resources and supranational mechanisms: The global unions and the OECD Guidelines

“…4 As Brookes (2013) has noted, power resources are multi-scalar both in the sense that conflict can play out on multiple scales simultaneously and in the sense that actors can act strategically to shift their engagement with other actors to different scales. Moreover, workers’ capacity to disrupt a global value chain through exercise of their associational power is mediated at different scales , for example, by the pressure placed on the subsidiary by head office, the capacity and resources of the subsidiary itself and various institutional arrangements in place at each of these scales (Lévesque et al, 2015). As the discussion that follows attests, potential also exists to combine different kinds of power resources simultaneously at different scales , in this case through (a) supranational institutional engagement, (b) an international campaign, (c) local institutional engagement and (d) local worker mobilization.…”

Perfil de Competencia Tecnológica: Una propuesta para el sector productivo

“…Estudios sociales en la industria mexicana se desarrollan en las zonas fronterizas del país (Matus, Carrillo & Gomis, 2018;Hernández & Carrillo, 2018;Carrillo & Micheli, 2017;Brito & Carrillo, 2017;Gomis & Carrillo, 2016;Contreras, Plascencia & Carrillo, 2016;Lévesque et al, 2015;Carrillo, Hualde & Flacso-México, 2013;Hualde, 2001;Carrión & Hualde, 2013), en donde la concentración de la industria maquiladora es conveniente y se destaca por la inversión en tecnología de punta, manejo y control de calidad con altos estándares, incorporación de modelos de certificación y acentuada organización empresarial. En Carrillo y Hualde (2000) se describe una investigación sobre la industria maquiladora en la frontera, que reconoce a Ciudad Juárez y Tijuana como las ciudades fronterizas de mayor desarrollo industrial.…”