Labour in the global South: Challenges and alternatives for workers

Abstract

PUBLICATIONS□ ILO Labour in the global South: Challenges and alternatives for workers Edited by Sarah Mosoetsa and Michelle Williams (Geneva, 2012, ILO) ISBN 978-92-2-126238-1 230pp, CHF 40;USD 45;GBP 30;EUR 35 While the recent crisis has rightfully captured the attention of both the global elite (the 1percent) and the 'have nots' (the 99percent), for the global South such events are nothing new; it has been experiencing crises due toneoliberal globalisation for the last 30years. Whereas the countries in global North have been called upon tointervene tosave the system from itself, in the global South economies have been allowed tocollapse (e.g. in Argentina, Mexico and South-East Asia), with devastating effects, especially for workers and the poor. Labour in the global South brings together a group of leading labour scholars and practitioners who explore the challenges faced and responses taken by labour. The volume includes casestudies from a number of countries, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, South Africa and Uruguay. Part Iexamines the challenges labour isfacing to counter growing dual threats of exploitation and marginalisation. The essays here demonstrate that while global economic forces are crucial in determining working conditions for labour, these forces are still mediated through local and national processes, offering labour important avenues for organising. Meanwhile, changes in the global economy , while posing potential threats, also present new opportunities for labour. One such area is green jobs. Using South Africa asher casestudy, Jacklyn Cock argues that there isanalternative that could benefit both labour and the environment, epitomised in the climate justice movement, and that this could also bring together workers and their organisations in transnational solidarity networks. Labour's efforts toaddress environmental issues suggest animportant step forward from the old green-red debate in which labour and ecology were pitted against each other in a zero-sum game. Another significant challenge isthe inadequacy of traditional forms of organising in reaching new sectors in the economy, in particular marginalised workers and women. Despite their considerable numbers, trade unions have yet toaddress the issue of gender sufficiently, and the increase in women trade union membership around the world hasnot translated into representation inleadership structures. Drawing onbargaining agendas for gender from a range of countries that includes Canada, the Philippines and Turkey, Akua Britwum, Karen Douglas, and SueLedwith suggest that marginalised workers such aswomen, migrants and other disadvantaged groups areincreasingly challenging unions tobecome agents of social change. In addition, new forms of structuring work are increasing labour's vulnerability. In South Africa, for example, local government hasoutsourced work formerly done by government employees to call centres. Employing over 80,000 workers, these call centres have grown 8percent per annum since 2006. Call-centre workers work under conditions that areboth precarious and perilous , yet South African unions have not organised this sector adequately. Across the Indian Ocean, a similar need for convergence exists between marginalised workers and trade unions in Bangladesh's garment sector. Over 3.6million Bangladeshi garment workers have been largely ignored by trade unions since the 1980s. However, asZiaRahman and Tom Langford argue in their essay, the massive protests in the sector in2006not only won partial victories, but also began toshift both the status and capacity of labour unions in the garment sector. The volume's second part explores the various linkages between political movements and labour inBrazil, Germany, South Africa and Uruguay. Following the Second World War, welfare state systems in the global North have provided labour with important avenues for shaping industrial relations and social benefits. In the global South, however , relations between trade unions and political movements have often been mediated through struggles for independence from colonial rule (e.g. India, Kenya, Mexico and South Africa) oragainst authoritarian governments (e.g. Brazil, the Republic of Korea and Uruguay). Unions in the global South have often helped tobuild the politicalmovements that later won places ingovernment . Sadly, once in government, political parties often sideline their union partners. Ruy Braga's study of telemarketers inBrazil, who grew by 20percent per year between 2003 and 2009 toanestimated 1.4million workers (mostly young, Afro-Brazilian women and gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transvestites, transsexuals, and transgendered (LGBTs)) by 201 1,reveals a highly exploited 'sub-proletarian...