Abstract
Academic debates on union politics in the Global South have tended to focus on effective union and solidarity campaigns. Labour struggles, however, do not always yield beneficial outcomes for workers. Three decades of neo-liberal policies in Sri Lanka suggests complexities that labour rights advocates would potentially prefer to shy away from. Efforts to re-politicize union rights of labour in an era of economic liberalization require us to sharpen our gaze on these ruptures too. Using workplace ethnography in Sri Lanka, this article details the interactions of management and labour during a struggle over union formation. It suggests that paying detailed attention to the political economy of labour highlights a complex situation in which fostering unionization, despite its importance for the collective will of labour, may require hard work.
Highlights
The freedom to associate via ethical codes?‘Garments without Guilt’ is a flagship programme marking the Sri Lankan apparel industry’s place in the global economy, where its lexicon is that it is evangelical about producing garments with a conscience
This article details the intricacies of managementlabour interactions within the shop floor of a clothing factory in Sri Lanka, during and after efforts to frustrate unionization
My purpose is to signal how global governance regimes do not operate in a socio-cultural vacuum and to suggest that uncovering factory floor politics offers an important lens through which labour struggles and code deployment in the realm of freedom of association should be understood
Summary
The freedom to associate via ethical codes?‘Garments without Guilt’ is a flagship programme marking the Sri Lankan apparel industry’s place in the global economy, where its lexicon is that it is evangelical about producing garments with a conscience. Freedom of association, ethical codes, apparel sector, labour struggles
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