Rethinking global labour [electronic resource] : after neoliberalism

Far from witnessing the beginning of the end of organized labour as a major political force, Rethinking Global Labour argues that, post-financial crisis, we are entering a new era for workers and their organizations in which they will begin to impact decisively on the new global order. In exploring the potential futures for the world's workers, the book provides an insightful account of how globalization has created a new global working class while increasing the insecurity and precarious nature of most employment. Moving beyond categories of North and South, Munck argues that the new global class of workers will be central both to the future of globalization and to its possible alternatives. In some ways the book poses a “return to the future” drawing parallels with the birth of the labour and democratic movements before the consolidation of nation states. At a time of growing unease with the negative effects of economic globalization, Rethinking Global Labour offers an important assessment of global labour and its potential for organization. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Dedication Table of contents Abbreviations Introduction: the issues Structure of the book Part I History of labour 1 Labour and capitalism Born in blood Reimagining the working class The great transformation Back to the future: a role for trade unions? 2 The golden era New model capitalism Fordism and welfare New international division of labour 3 The era of globalization A new great transformation Labour and globalization Flexibility and feminization of labour Global social movement? Part II Development of a global working class 4 Workers North Flexible financial capitalism Future of work Regional models of capitalism United States Europe Japan Capitalism in the former communist Eastern Europe After Fordism? A flexible workforce Trade union responses to the new model capitalism 5 Workers South A new international division of labour Informal work Women and the informal sector Trade unions and the informal sector Women’s labour organizations Women working worldwide Labour movement and gender The labour movement’s response China Emergence of social movement unionism Global labour rights 6 A global precariat Marginality Northern precarity Informality Social exclusion Reconstructing the precariat Part III New challenges for global labour 7 Migrant labour Migration and the working class Trade unions and labour migration Labour migration today People trafficking and modern slavery Migration and trade union revitalization Social transformation 8 Labour and its others Labour as a social movement The environmental challenge Trade unions and global justice The Battle of Seattle Trade unions and the labour movement 9 Labour internationalism The national era The transition The global era Conclusion Beyond the impasse A complexity frame Is another world possible? References Index Up to a decade ago, many labor movement analysts would probably have thought that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of organized labor as a major political force. But there is now a feeling across the political spectrum that capitalism, post-financial crisis, and the forces of globalization it nurtures are in decline and that the labor movement has regained some ground. The premise of this book is that we are at the beginning of a new era for workers and their organizations, in which they will begin to impact decisively on the new global order that they have helped to create through their labor. Ronaldo Munck offers a sober appraisal of how globalization has created a new global working class through the massive acceleration of capital accumulation and, concomitantly, increased the insecurity and precarious nature of most employment. The so-called "precariat" may be seen as a novel and threatening idea for the northern hemisphere, but for workers of the South this is what might be deemed the default condition. Munck suggests that we are now moving beyond categories of North and South as workers of the world share the impacts of global capitalism and the lessons to be learned. And it is this new global class of workers that lies at the heart of the future globalization project and its possible alternatives, such as the "decent work" agenda of official institutions and the "social movement unionism" articulated by the alter-globalization movements. In some ways the book poses a "return to the future," drawing parallels with the birth of the labor and democratic movements before the consolidation of nation states Ronaldo Munck examines how globalization has created a new global working class and suggests that we are at the beginning of a new era for workers and their organizations, in which they will begin to impact decisively on the new global order that they have helped to create.