Union Solidarity Research Articles

Building Coalitions for Transnational Trade Union Solidarity: Comparative Analysis of Three Campaigns from Turkey

As in many other countries Turkish trade unions have become increasingly active in applying transnational mechanisms to target transnational corporations (TNCs) and suppliers that do not respect labor rights. This article focuses on the contributions of Global Union Federations (GUFs) in coordinating transnational solidarity campaigns and the European trade union movement’s use of its 'social dialogue' policy to support Turkish struggles. The method of organizing transnational solidarity campaigns through a coalition building process among unions and pro-labor NGOs is explained and three solidarity campaigns from Turkey, (UPS campaign in the transport sector, Novamed campaign in the chemical sector and the DESA campaign in the textile-leather sector) are compared. This coalition building process offers suitable conditions to unite the power coming from production with the power coming from consumption and is able to put effective pressure on TNCs to respect labor rights. The ability of transnational campaigns to follow up issues and coalitions' willingness to work together for a long period determine the fate of unions' activities.

European Macro-Financial Solidarity Mechanisms 1971-1993: Balance of Payments Assistance between the End of Bretton Woods and the Launch of EMU

Financial solidarity between member states of the European Union has a 60 years-old history going back right to the origins of the European project in the early 1950s. However, the first 20 years or so were dominated by the financing of projects in the context of rapidly rebuilding European economies. This early period has to be seen also in the broader context of the Bretton Woods system and in particular the creation of the IMF. The first severe tests to the Union's solidarity mechanisms with a macro-financial dimension came during the oil shocks which led to peaks in macroeconomic imbalances in the mid-seventies and mid-eighties. I explain the origins and motivations for the instruments for balance-of-payments assistance developed during this period. I document the evolution of European macro-financial solidarity mechanisms by examining various episodes of activation of the instrument, filling a gap in the literature on the history of European economic and financial integration. Finally, revisiting the history of European macro-financial stability tools during the period between the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and the creation of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) can further our understanding of recently developed and reinforced financial solidarity mechanisms at the European and the global level.

We have not abandoned our fight

enables them to organise without fear. This can only happen if there is serious and concerted international trade union solidarity, as has been shown in the project of TUC Aid and Unite. SITRABI leader report to British trade unionists Noé Ramirez Portela, General Secretary of the Izabal Banana Workers’ Union of Guatemala (SITRABI) visited the UK from 26 to 28 November 2015. During his visit, Noé met with UK trade unionists, government officials and other stakeholders and spoke at the Latin America 2015 Conference in London on Saturday 28 November. SITRABI is the oldest private sector union in Guatemala and represents over 4000 members in Del Monte and Del Monte supplier farms on the Caribbean coast, and has good relations with other local unions in other multinational and national plantations. Noé was elected General Secretary of SITRABI in 2000, shortly after the union’s Executive Committee was forced at gun-point to resign their posts and call off strike action over contract violations. Speaking to British trade unionists at an event organised by the Bananalink NGO and supported by ASLEF, GMB, TUC Aid, UCU, UNISON and Unite, Noé described the situation for trade union organising: “Guatemala is an extremely violent country. Trying to organise banana workers in this situation is like seeking death. I have been the recipient of death threats and I am currently under police protection. The police themselves are not very trustworthy, they are involved in criminal acts, but I have to accept this. We receive support from three international donors but we need also more help. The Government is unreservedly right wing. Since 2008 we have complained to the labour ministry that companies have been collecting workers subscriptions but have not been transferring them to the union. This complaint was ignored. We have also complained that there were companies that were collecting social security payments from the workers but were failing to transfer them into the social security system. This complaint was also ignored. This led to two complaints, to the Free Trade Agreement and to the ILO. Just a month ago two plantations were closed because the company didn’t want the involvement of the trade union that had been established there. They closed the plantations and took workers’ social security payments. Banana production has been moving from the unionised North to the violent, lawless and unorganised South of the country INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 18 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 JAQUI MACKAY is National Co-ordinator/Director of Bananlink G uatemala is one of the former ‘banana republics’ where the giant United Fruit Company once owned huge tracts of land and called the political tune. The industry has expanded rapidly over the last decade and now one in every three bananas eaten in the USA comes from Guatemala. Most production takes place in the Pacific South with the remainder being grown in the Caribbean coastal plain of Izabal. In Izabal nearly all 5000 - 6000 workers employed by Del Monte (Bandegua), Chiquita and a handful of nationally owned plantations are unionised. By contrast, the Pacific South represents the single biggest ‘black hole’ in the world as far as union and other labour rights are concerned . Some seven percent of the world’s trade bananas are produced by 20,000 - 25,000 workers, most of whom suffer very harsh conditions. The majority of banana plantation and packhouse workers in the Izabal province of North East Guatemala are members of SITRABI, COSISBA or smaller affiliated sister unions. These 5500 or so workers enjoy collective bargaining with their employers: Fresh Del Monte Produce (FDMP) subsidiary, Bandegua, Chiquita subsidiary , Cobigua, and Guatemalan-owned fruit companies under contract to FDMP. Those working for Del Monte in particular enjoy decent wages, terms and conditions after 40 years of gradual improvements achieved through the negotiation of 3 year-long CBAs. Although workers in the other companies earn well above the minimum wage, they have not been able to secure the same level of benefits as their union brothers and sisters employed by the other companies. Nearly 1000 workers in the Izabal banana industry are still unorganised. The unionised workers of the ‘North’ face, however, the very real risk of losing their jobs...

The coexistence of the grotesque and politics – Tom Stoppard’s Squaring the Circle

The article discusses Tom Stoppard’s screenplay Squaring the Circle presenting Polish history between August 1980 and August 1982, that is the period of the strikes on the coast, the rise of the Free Independent Trade Union Solidarity and the introduction of the marshal law by general Wojciech Jaruzelski. Being aware of the fact that it is not possible to fully reconstruct the past, the artist uses a number of disclaimers – the Narrator who often claims that reality might have been slightly different, fi ve Witnesses, who often correct him, presentation of different versions of the same scene and numerous symbols (chess, card games, references to gangsters). While dealing with serious, political matters Stoppard employs the grotesque, a specifi c combination of th e tragic and the comic which is one of the characteristic features of postmodern literature and also of the theatre of the absurd. The article briefl y mentions the similarities in the use of grotesque in Stoppard’s screenplay and the political plays of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Sławomir Mrożek, the artists who are also often discussed as representatives of the theatre of the absurd.

Another Place Is Possible? Labor Geography, Spatial Dispossession, and Gendered Resistance in Central Appalachia

The demise of Fordism and inauguration of neoliberal policy regimes may be conceptualized as historical processes of spatial dispossession that diminish and sometimes destroy the collective spaces of working-class life. In central Appalachia, where miners’ militant, unionized brotherhood once influenced the geography of the bituminous coal industry and enabled the growth of active, working-class communities, spatial dispossession is especially stark. Here, neoliberalization of space involves not only the familiar dismantling of public institutions but also corporate enclosures of lands once treated as commons, withdrawal of residents from polluted local ecologies, intentional destruction of union solidarity, and erosion of miners’ heroic masculinity. Historical analysis reveals this dismantling of labor's gendered geography and degradation of working-class environments as mutually interrelated processes. Spatial dispossession is also evoking opposition, however, from reactionary, industry-orchestrated mobilizations to valorize coal in the name of masculinist nationalism, to fragmentary efforts, often led by women, seeking alternative economic and political possibilities. These conflict-ridden dynamics of spatial influence, dispossession, and (re)creation lay bare interrelated coproductions of gender and class, political economy and cultural practice, “nature” and society and thereby point toward a labor geography capable of engaging the contradictory forces that animate working-class life.

The Global Challenge of Human Rights and Solidarity to Nordic Global Companies and Trade Unions

The idea that corporations, besides making profit, have a social responsibility to society is not new in history. Nor is it new that unions besides representing material interests stand for a universal ambition as defenders of the oppressed in the world. The article argues that corporations’ social responsibility and trade union solidarity, to the extent both are based on universal principles of human rights, ought to open for cooperation concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), where trade unions should be recognized as important stakeholders in corporations. This idea is new, even if examples exist, and it challenges traditional concepts of the role of management and unions in the company. However, trade unions have taken a critical attitude to CSR, the implementation of which they have mainly been excluded from. Instead, they have tried to get global agreements, Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), with the MNCs.1 In the article the development of the attitudes of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and of the Nordic national centers is investigated. A long-term historical perspective, in addition to a general theory of collective action will be used to draft the hypothesis that, when unions as interest organizations, through the process of national integration, have achieved a strong position in the domestic labor market, they lack reasons to take transnational action and seek international trade union solidarity. This hypothesis is valid today for the well-established unions in the Nordic countries. But in questions concerning social responsibility and human rights, the article presents the possibility that GFAs might become a platform from which to extend the Nordic model of national partnership to the global level, while at the same time global competition will increasingly make it difficult for the unions to show international solidarity in interest questions of capital investments and outsourcing.

Unions and Trade: What Kind of Solidarity?

Union solidarity is based on mutual self-interest and the logic of collective action. It requires a sense of shared identity and is created and developed in action. Workers in the North and in the South could see a mutual self-interest in opposing deep global economic integration, which reduces national policy space, weakens unions, and reduces the force of democratic institutions. They would jointly benefit from strengthened democracy and expanded national policy space. Their mutual support should focus on a basic framework, allowing nations and regions to differ. In advocating national policy space, they would also be able to join hands with many other social forces.

International Trade Union Solidarity in the Automobile Sector: The Case of Fiat-Chrysler

This article aims to analyse the effects of globalization on international trade union solidarity taking as an example the automobile sector with a particular focus on the Fiat/Chrysler merger. The first part will provide a general overview of trade union global strategies at the international level demonstrated so far, while the second part will be more strictly focused on the automotive sector. In order to evaluate the present scenario and obstacles to the consolidation of transnational trade union solidarity, the article will consider the role of transnational actors such as Multinational Corporations, European Works Councils, World Works Councils, and Global Union Federations as well as practical instruments such as European Framework Agreements and International Framework Agreements in relation to the automotive sector and highlighting the recent case of the Fiat/Chrysler merger. This multinational enterprise was chosen due to its strategic importance for the national economy in both Italy and the United States, and the standardization of production that facilitates comparison, and because of the well-established system of industrial relations and trade union representation. In connection with this merger the potential of the above-mentioned international instruments will be evaluated as well as the evolution of the trade union solidarity till now.

Tadeusz Kowalik: Radical Political Economist, Solidarity Advisor and Critic of Globalised Capitalism

The work is an obituary of Tadeusz Kowalik, the doyen of Polish political economists, who died in Warsaw on July 30th, 2012. In the English-speaking world Kowalik is best known as the last surviving collaborator of Michal Kalecki, an advisor to the Polish trade union Solidarity during the 1980s, and subsequently as a fierce critic of the brand of capitalism that established itself in his country. In his works he challenged both the commonly accepted view of the ‘Keynesian Revolution’ and the inability of Polish communists to come to terms with their revolutionary past and find a place for themselves in the modern world. JEL Codes: B32, B24, E12

Between Recognition and Resentment: An Afrikaner Trade Union's Brand of Post-Nationalism

What comes after Afrikaner nationalism? This article presents a detailed analysis of the discourse of the mainly white Afrikaner trade union Solidarity to explore Afrikaner identity politics after apartheid. Solidarity has claimed a remarkably prominent position in the post-apartheid debates about Afrikaner identity, race and class. The trade union's success, I argue, should be explained within the context of the neoliberal elite transition and the uneven impact of the African National Congress (ANC)'s policies of racial redress. Both developments affect particularly the lower middle class of Afrikaners. My analysis exposes subtle shifts in Solidarity's rhetoric after 1994: away from the language of Afrikaner nationalism and white supremacy, and towards a new discourse organised around the tropes of ‘rights’ and ‘belonging’. This discourse has given new legitimacy to Solidarity in the post-apartheid political landscape; while simultaneously repositioning Afrikaners as a victimised, threatened and no-longer-privileged minority. However, a tension in Solidarity's discourse between this new politics of recognition and their politics of resentment remains. I explain this tension through the distorting effects of shame dynamics.

The ‘Volkswagen Law’ – guarantor of extended co-determination rights and international trade union solidarity

The ‘Volkswagen Law’ – guarantor of extended co-determination rights and international trade union solidarity

THE CHICAGO COURIERS UNION, 2003–2010: A CASE STUDY IN SOLIDARITY UNIONISM

In recent years, historian and social activist Staughton Lynd has an advanced his theory of solidarity unionism as a way to rebuild the labor movement from below. To date, there have been relatively few unions organized using Lynd's theory and even fewer articles reflecting upon its utility for organizing. This essay critiques solidarity unionism by drawing upon the author's experience using Lynd's theory to build the Chicago Couriers Union (CCU). The history of the CCU is documented with primary sources including union newsletters, meeting minutes, and interviews with union organizers. Its successes suggest solidarity unionism's strengths while its failures point to ways in which the theory might be adjusted to gain greater utility.

Union Immobility? Trade Unions and the Freedoms of Movement in the Enlarged EU

AbstractEast–West union co‐operation in Europe is discussed as the most serious test to cross‐border union solidarity, in the light of new frameworks capable to make sense of transnational trade union activity and alternative to theoretical nationalism. The empirical assessment of trade union chances reviews the activities of trade unions in the UK, Germany, Austria and Poland on foreign investment, migration and movement of services. Secondary evidence and case studies show that the strength of transnational union action does not depend on the country, but rather on its form. ‘Structural’ Europeanization remains weak (e.g. in most European Works Councils), while network‐based action is displaying strong developments, especially on migration, but least on the movement of services.

Understanding Recent Political Changes in Myanmar

On 30 March 2011, Myanmar's ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), handed power to a new government led by President Thein Sein that had come into being in the wake of elections held in November 2010. Because all administrative and legislative bodies--both at the central and local levels--were controlled by members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), political activists and Myanmar watchers did not expect more than superficial changes under the new government. Although President Thein Sein mentioned his plan to introduce administrative and economic reforms and to launch an anti-corruption campaign in his inaugural speech doubts remained that the president would actually be able to deliver on his promises. However, on 19 August 2011, to the surprise of many people, President Thein Sein met Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), at his official residence. Two days earlier, the President had invited exiled activists to return to the country. Aung San Suu Kyi publicly stated that she was very encouraged by her meeting with Thein Sein and that she had trust in his determination to bring about positive political change to the country. (1) The United States and some members of the European Union (EU) welcomed the meeting. On the other hand, several exiled activists had reservations about the sincerity of the President, with some going so far as to say that what Thein Sein had done was little more than a publicity stunt and that there was little difference between the new government and its predecessor. This article, drawing on interviews with serving and retired government officials, and political activists including leading NLD members, argues that since the new government has taken office a new era of political openness has begun in Myanmar. It goes on to illustrate that in order to understand recent political changes, one should pay attention to shifts in the internal power structure of the government. However, it is not a given that Myanmar will become a full-fledged democracy any time soon. Indeed this article suggests that the country is at a critical juncture, and that the expansion of political openness in the country will depend on whether liberals within the government and those from the pro-democracy movement can work together to further political changes without prompting the country's armed forces, the tatmadaw, to stage a coup. The Power Structure and Political Change in the SLORC/SPDC Government The military government that ruled Myanmar between late 1988 and early 2011 was formed in response to the nation-wide pro-democracy movement against the military-dominated socialist government led by General Ne Win. Although the junta, which was initially known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and later renamed the SPDC, held multi-party elections in 1990, it refused to transfer power to the NLD even after the latter had won a landslide victory. Instead, the junta convened a decade long National Convention (NC) to adopt guidelines for a new constitution. Although opposition groups and the international community called for the transfer of power to the NLD, the SLORC ignored these calls. In fact, after the 1990 elections Myanmar's military leaders decided to defer political change for as long as possible. Political activists, on the other hand, continued to campaign for swift political change. As Huntington and many others have pointed out, democratization under an authoritarian regime might take place under the following conditions: when the regime is toppled by a social movement or seriously weakened by a crisis; when reformers from within the regime and liberals from the movement find a way to work together; or when the regime feels that it cannot survive without initiating political reform. (2) Some activists had hoped for a split in the government and tried to identify liberal officials they could work with. …

The European Union's Solidarity Clause in the Event of a Terrorist Attack: Towards Solidarity or Maintaining Sovereignty?

Journal of Contingencies and Crisis ManagementVolume 19, Issue 4 p. 184-197 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The European Union's Solidarity Clause in the Event of a Terrorist Attack: Towards Solidarity or Maintaining Sovereignty? Marie Fuchs-Drapier, Marie Fuchs-Drapier marie.f-d@noos.fr 21 Rue d'Oslo, 67000 Strasbourg, FranceSearch for more papers by this author Marie Fuchs-Drapier, Marie Fuchs-Drapier marie.f-d@noos.fr 21 Rue d'Oslo, 67000 Strasbourg, FranceSearch for more papers by this author First published: 24 October 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2011.00651.xCitations: 4Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume19, Issue4December 2011Pages 184-197 RelatedInformation

Framing the issues around affirmative action and equity in South Africa: policy, progress, prospects and platitudes

Framing the issues around affirmative action and equity in South Africa: policy, progress, prospects and platitudes Vasu Reddy (bio), Relebohile Moletsane (bio), and Temba Masilela (bio) Introduction and Rationale Globally, Affirmative Action (AA) has been used widely both as a policy tool as well as for social redress and transformation. Far from being simply common cause, in a number of geographical contexts, arguments for its moral and instrumental rationales have not waned (Guillebeau 1999, Hall 2004, Htun 2004, Human 1996, Moses 2010, Sacks 1996). For example, in South Africa, as is the case elsewhere, AA has generated renewed public debate, discussion and dissent (most recently in the case taken up by the trade union Solidarity against the Tshwane Municipality)1. Scholars and activists on both sides of the issue have vociferously voiced their support or dissent in various media. Taking up the debate, Bentley and Habib (2008: 24) conclude: The implementation of redress since 1994 has both positive and negative intended and unintended consequences. It has contributed to ensuring a more demographic representative nation, although this has not been undertaken as effectively or even in the form [that] was envisaged by the legislation. The redress initiative may also have reified racial identity and as a result inhibited the emergence of conditions for the realisation of a cosmopolitan citizenship. Like most concepts, AA defies (and possibly resists) full encapsulation. Although much has been written about and spoken on AA, one of the most contentious, controversial, and critical questions regarding the concept still remains: What is the matter with AA? Phrasing the question this way implies that AA has much to do with ideological, philosophical and indeed practical [End Page 1] implications. In extending this question to South Africa, the question becomes: What are the specific current meanings of AA in the context of social transformation and redress in the post-1994 era? This question inspires consistent interest in the public conscience in South Africa, and it is in this regard that this journal and others in the field have intermittently focused on the various dimensions of and perspectives on AA in the country. Many contributions have discussed the unintended consequence of AA, including the ‘racial bargain’ and the perpetuation of racial prejudice, as well as the effect of the globalizing market on the implementation of reconciliation polices (see for example, Alexander 2007, Durrheim et al 2007, Guy 2004, Montalti and Bellengère 2008, Southall, 2007). Similarly, some have maintained that nation-building efforts and responses to the social question are interlinked, and that there is no concrete divide between the national and social question, with the consequence that different redistributive struggles might require separate agendas (Mkandawire 2009). It was with the above context in mind that our ‘autobiography of the question’ (Miller 1995), our interest in AA in the South African context, was born. The special issue emerges out of a 2010 international conference, A South African Dream: Negotiating Affirmative Action for Social Cohesion in the Transformative State: Policy, platitudes, progress and prospects. Examining cutting-edge issues in the ongoing delineation of the parameters of AA (as concept, policy, and as practice), the conference was motivated by, among other factors, the fact that the issue has not received much political and policy attention, and that at best it tends to be minimized in the national dialogue. The only exceptions to this consistent minimization tend to be the episodic attention occasioned by the annual reports of the Employment Equity Commission (See, for example, Samantha Enslin-Payne ‘Days of crying wolf about equity are numbered’, Sunday Independent (Business Report Section), 1 August, 2010:9; Chris Barron, ‘Playing the numbers game’, Sunday Times (Business Times), 15 August 2010: 6 and Mpho Sibanyoni, ‘Firms are failing black youth’, City Press (Business Section), 1 August 2010:3). Several questions emerged from the framing of the title of the conference. The first related to the parameters or the borders of the dream vis-à-vis the geographical/political borders of South Africa. For example, in the South African context or in the South African national policy space, would this refer to the progressive realisation of an African Dream or a South African Dream? What are the constitutional and...

Union Solidarity, Collective Struggle and the Caterpillar Labor Dispute, 1991–1998

Union Solidarity, Collective Struggle and the Caterpillar Labor Dispute, 1991–1998

Contesting Labor Internationalism: The “Old” Trapped in the “New” in Volkswagen’s South African Plant

During the 1970s and 1980s, close linkages were established between unionists in Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant in South Africa and Wolfsburg in Germany. The ensuing relationship resulted in trade union internationalism and solidarity with South African workers in their struggle against apartheid. After the insertion of the South African plant into the global production networks of the company, a range of new pressures and challenges confronted the union in South Africa. This resulted in the mass dismissal in 2000. In an attempt to garner international support and solidarity, the dismissed workers tapped into existing structures with no success, illustrating the reconfiguration of trade union internationalism away from worker interests to those of the unions and company.

The European Union Solidarity Fund

This paper examines the legitimacy, viability and efficiency of the European Union Solidarity Fund by asking whether the Fund meets its stated purpose of providing solidarity within the EU, whether it is sufficiently capitalized and if it promotes disaster risk reduction in Europe. In examining these questions, we make use of ADAM models of disaster risks throughout Europe. We conclude that the Solidarity Fund falls short on all three counts, and we suggest possible alternatives. Most far-reaching, we explore whether the EUSF could support insurance systems in Europe by, among other possible activities, capitalizing national public-private insurance programs and providing support for government risk transfer. This would leverage the Fund’s capital and would overcome barriers to the provision of private and public sector insurance in uncertain catastrophe markets. It would also make insurance more affordable to Europe’s most vulnerable communities. Finally, it would reduce the disincentives for risk reduction inherent in post-disaster assistance.

Religion in the EU: Using Modified Public Reason to Define European Human Rights

At the current stage of its evolution, the European Union (“Union” or “EU”) has reached a juncture where many leaders and scholars believe that greater integration is both desirable and necessary. Presumably, a primary method by which greater solidarity and integration can be achieved within the EU is through the public inclusion of common value-laden concepts – as defined through a dialectical process – present within comprehensive doctrines such as religion. To date, however, an effective and inclusive means for utilizing religion in this manner has yet to be formulated. In response, this article takes two prominent paradigms – Jurgen Habermas' intersubjective discourse theory and John Rawls' liberalism – to approach the problem and draws from them a new solution that, while tied to their theoretical underpinnings, is nonetheless a novel approach to achieving greater integration within the Union. Under this new framework, the process of legislatively defining human rights allows the morality common to European comprehensive doctrines – including official and unofficial religions – to bolster the Union's solidarity, legitimacy, and democracy both procedurally and substantively.