Globalization and freedom of association and collective bargaining rights

Abstract

The chapter provides a critical survey of theoretical and empirical literature on the two-way relationship between freedom of association and collective bargaining (FACB) rights and globalization, specifically international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). The debates on globalization and labour standards are contentious and venerable yet remain as timely as ever with the growth of labour provisions in international trade agreements. Nonetheless, there are strikingly few empirical studies addressing the relationship between FACB rights and globalization in either direction of causality, which the chapter attributes to the scarcity of credible indicators of FACB rights. Moreover, these empirical studies come to wildly contrary findings, even when using the same indicators of FACB rights. The chapter attempts to shed light on these debates by assessing the different limitations of these empirical studies while advocating further studies more full addressing sectoral breakdowns in FDI and trade and using improved indicators of FACB rights.