Does globalization weaken labor unions in developing countries?

For a developing economy with a given urban wage rate, globalization in capital markets strengthens labor unions. This result hinges on the fixed urban wage rate, which leads to a constant capital–labor ratio in the urban sector. Globalization via capital inflows not only enhances the employment effect of unionization but also reduces the rent-shifting related loss in production inefficiency to domestic capital, lending a support to labor unions for developing economies. This result is contrary to the common belief that labor unions tend to be weakened during the globalization process observed after 1980s in many developed economies.     

Globalization and labour rights: the case of Korea

In this contribution the background of Korean industrial relations (IR) is reviewed, followed by analysis of more recent changes with a special focus on globalization issues. We argue that globalization has both positive and negative effects on IR issues in Korea. There was a positive side of globalization in terms of worker rights, hence basic labour rights have been improved to meet global labour standards. However, there was a negative side to it as well in terms of working conditions and employment practices, which brought substantial setbacks for unions and rapidly eroded their power base. This negative side has more clearly appeared after the recent economic crisis.     

西方国家劳动力市场灵活化改革的理论分析

灵活化目前已成为西方国家劳动力市场改革的主要发展趋势。西方国家希望通过放弃凯恩斯主义的劳动就业宏观需求管理政策、减少政府和工会对劳动力市场的管制与干预,以及实行激活性劳动就业政策等措施来降低劳动力市场的刚性,提高就业率。从理论上来讲,劳动力市场灵活化改革的根源在于:凯恩斯主义就业政策的失灵、刚性劳动力市场的低效率和全球化时代生产方式与就业模式的根本性变革。同时,劳动力市场的灵活化也被认为是降低失业率的一条有效途径,也是政府、资本和工会之间新的力量平衡下的一种选择。     

The challenges and opportunities for the trade union movement in the transition era: two socialist market economies – China and Vietnam

Both China and Vietnam are undergoing a social experiment as they diverge from the path of their Soviet compatriots and attempt the transition to a ‘socialist market economy’. This article tackles the role of trade unions in China and Vietnam in the context of globalization and market-orientated economic reform by identifying both challenges and opportunities for the trade unions in the areas of policy formation at national level and participation in collective bargaining and dispute mediation at enterprise level. Trade unions in both countries will have a significant role on a wide range of social issues under their special political, social and economic systems in the transition era into the twenty-first century.     

中国港口民营化改革:进展、问题与对策

在目前全球化背景下,港口成为一国经济发展和区域经济竞争的承载体,也是全球供应链整合过程中的重要环节,如何通过深化港口改革来吸引投资,从而提升区域经济的发展速度和相关企业的竞争能力,成为我国港口面临的一个紧切问题。本文将在分析国外港口民营化情况的基础上,分析我国港口民营化改革进展和当前存在的问题,并对我国未来港口民营化改革提出了相应的建议。     

Price‐level co‐movements within currency unions: An alternative integration metric

This paper analyses currency union integration by testing whether price levels in member countries possess a common stochastic trend. The trace statistic test for cointegration proposed by (Johansen, 1995) demonstrates the presence of such a trend for most unions. A disaggregated analysis identifies a common stochastic trend for several though fewer than half of country pairs within a union. Some unions such as the Eurozone have small shares of cointegrated country pairs. Yet, the share of cointegrated country pairs is large relative to countries outside currency unions. Comparison to a control group (country pairs where one country belongs to a given union and the other country does not) indicates that the cointegration found within a currency union is a union‐specific trait and not a feature of the individual countries within the union. These results provide an alternative metric to intraunion trade for gauging the extent of currency union integration.     

Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numerical flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.     

Assessing privatization investment opportunities in Thailand

Executive Summary Multinational corporations (MNCs) can find lucrative opportunities to invest in emerging‐market countries by participating in the privatization of state‐owned enterprises. The ability of MNCs to form joint ventures or acquire state enterprises in most countries, however, depends on the characteristics of the government's privatiza‐tion policies and plans, the pace of their implementation, and the mechanisms allowed for foreign investment. In order to assess the feasibility of privatization policies in emerging‐market countries, and especially those undergoing dynamic reforms of their economies, MNCs need a framework for analyzing privatization efforts. The appli‐cation of such a framework is illustrated using the experience with privatization and economic reform in Thailand. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Japanese trade unions at the crossroads: dilemmas and opportunities created by globalization

Japanese trade unions have contributed much to the economic stability and success of Japanese enterprises. Globalization has, however, placed substantial pressure on the Japanese industrial relations system and, in turn, upon the enterprise union system. Not all changes can be directly attributed to globalization. We contend, however, that the success of Japanese firms, both in exports and in overseas production, has made the Japanese economy reliant on a strong world economy. Economic downturns that have been witnessed in a number of countries in 1990s have weakened the demand for Japanese export products. This, in combination with the Japanese banking and financial crises, has created pressure for an overhaul of employment and human resource management systems. This article examines these pressures and the response by trade unions.     

Conclusion: Globalization,Work and Employment – Asia Pacific Experiences in Retrospect

In the concluding essay, the authors of this special issue provide a synthesis of the contributions presented in the volume. It is argued that globalization has become a powerful force in the business environment and has a major influence on the labour process, labour markets, the practice of management, and the management of employees in organizations. It is also asserted that both local and global companies are in various ways adjusting to the changes brought about by globalization. The essay comprehensively evaluates the significant number of management issues and variety of outcomes arising from economic globalization in the Asia-Pacific region. The implications of these issues for academic debate by managers, other practitioners, trade unions, employees and governments are critically explored.     

Labour Responses to Globalization: The Australian Experience by Bernard McKenna

This contribution deconstructs globalization using a critical discourse method. Taking Australia as its case study, the essay argues that globalization must be seen within the context of hypercapitalism and the unchallenged hegemony of neo-classical economics and neo-liberal politics. The Australian experience, it is argued, shows that trade unions should refuse to be incorporated into this hegemony presented as technocratic alchemy. In fact, deconstruction reveals that globalist claims rest upon highly contestable tautological claims. This essay briefly describes Australian political economy 1983-96 when the Labor government, in an ‘accord’ with the trade union movement, embraced free-market globalism; critically deconstructs the ideological features that underlie the technocratic claims made about the benefits of globalization; and argues for a resurgent unionism and traditional labourism that dialectically challenges the inequitable and destructive features of contemporary hypercapitalism.     

Globalization,non-standard employment and Australian trade unions

This article explores the impact of the growing non-standard workforce on trade union membership and union policy in Australia in the context of neoliberal policy responses to globalization. It is no coincidence that trade union density has rapidly declined in Australia as the non-standard employment share has rapidly increased. The characteristics of the jobs and the workers filling non-standard jobs are largely outside of the traditional domain of trade unions. While trade unions are faced with an increasingly hostile political environment in Australia, one of the real challenges they confront is to make themselves more relevant for non-standard employees and to increase their recruitment among non-standard employees.     

Gewerkschaften auf dem Rückzug? Mythen,Fakten und Herausforderungen

A comparison across 20 advanced countries shows that trade union density has fallen in most countries over the last 50 years, with substantial differences between countries. However, unions are not about to vanish everywhere, and some prominent explanations for union decline such as globalization do not hold on closer scrutiny. Current trends that pose serious problems for union membership are demographic change, the declining employment share of the public sector, the rise in atypical employment, and the decline in average firm size. Upholding union presence at the workplace is crucial for keeping and winning members, and union recruiting should focus more on young and atypically employed workers.     

美国监狱私有化原因研究

私有化是将政府整体或部分职责转移到私人部门的过程,监狱私有化意味着私人部门参与提供传统上由政府提供的管教服务.探究美国监狱私有化的原因,有助于估计私人监狱运动的发展前景.美国监狱私有化现象的主要动因在于快速增长的囚犯、监狱过度拥挤和成本问题.尽管监狱私有化不一定向声称的那样能够大幅度降低成本和提高效率,但是真正重要的是认识到私有化节约成本和提高效率本身是竞争过程的结果.最为重要的事情是决定如何最好地提供有关服务,而不是简单地选择要么由公共部门,要么由私人部门负责监狱体系的运转.通过引入竞争力量与机制,监狱私有化也许仍然有发展的空间.     

Multinational corporations and trade union development in Malaysia

This contribution considers the impact of American, Japanese and Australian capital upon organized labour in Malaysia and concludes that the legacy of the multinational corporations' (MNCs') home context is carried forward to the host country. Despite the predictions of globalization theorists, country of origin characteristics interact with local contexts to inform management strategies towards trade unions, rather than being driven by the lowest common denominator of anti-unionism. While there are substantial differences between the MNCs in their approach to trade unions in Malaysia, there is also a degree of conformity in as much as they all embrace the restrictive intent of the Malaysian state's trade union regulatory environment, thereby severely curtailing the power of the union movement.     

管制政策理论研究综述:不同背景国家的分析

管制政策理论在经历全球化发展进程时,出现了政策研究侧重点的转移。关注这种研究重点的转移,并以这一趋势作为综述的重要脉络。从全球化进程,发达国家、发展中国家三个视角,分析各国学者对管制政策理论研究的新趋势。     

Ethics in Global Business and in a Plural Society

The contemporary confluence of globalization and ethical pluralism is at the origin of many ethical challenges that confront business nowadays, both in practice and in theory. One of the challenges arising from the development of globalization has to do with respect for cultural diversity. It is often said that the success of economic globalization tends towards social and cultural homogeneity. To the extent that cultural diversity is usually seen as a valuable reality, that global trend seems to contradict our efforts to respect ethical pluralism, both personal and cultural, within society. In this paper I argue that (a) ethical minimalism, despite its emphasis on tolerance and justice, does not take pluralism seriously into account in present-day society, and (b) ethical minimalism is not suited to balancing the homogenizing trend of globalization. Certainly ethical norms are necessary, but by no means are they sufficient in themselves to encourage either justice or tolerance; nor are they sufficient to inspire and encourage good practices and sound regulations. Instead, virtue-based ethics has the capacity of inspiring and encouraging good practices. Particularly, virtue-based ethics is able to inspire a serious dialogue about ethical and legal issues both in the public arena and within organizations.     

Can deunionization lead to international outsourcing?

We analyze unionized firms' incentives to outsource intermediate goods production to foreign (low-cost) subcontractors. Such outsourcing leads to increased wages for the remaining in-house production. We find that stronger unions, which imply higher domestic wages, reduce incentives for international outsourcing. Though somewhat surprising, this result provides a theoretical reconciliation of the empirically observed trends of deunionization and increased international outsourcing in many countries. We further show that globalization - interpreted as either market integration or increased product market competition - will increase incentives for international outsourcing.     

Privatization of health care services in Canada: Reform or regress?

The emergence of the privatization of health care services as one of the dominant health policy issues in many western industrialized countries is no doubt related to a number of factors, including rising health care costs, fiscal crisis in the form of budgetary deficits, charges of public waste and mismanagement and underfunding, the onset of a new era of political and fiscal conservatism, and professional and corporate antipathy to certain aspects of publicly financed health insurance schemes. The paper discusses the meaning of privatization and stresses the importance of recognizing the different forms of privatization and the need to assess these forms against well specified health policy objectives. Current and proposed forms of privatization in Canada are described and evaluated. It is concluded that there are sound arguments against privatization through user fees for insured physician and hospital services. As for the other forms of privatization there are confusing and inconsistent findings that preclude a definitive conclusion as to the wisdom of a general push for privatization. It is stressed that there are not many empirically established facts about the likely effects of privatization and the many claims about the virtues of privatization are far from substantiated by careful research. In the absence of such evidence the push for reprivatization seems, as some critics have pointed out, ideologically motivated.     

民营化、国有化与中国国有银行改革

国有银行自上世纪70年代中期以来出现了民营化的国际趋势,一些国家因此发生了银行危机.而此前全球曾有过国有化浪潮.虽然国有银行效率比民营银行低,但经验研究却表明,国有银行与银行危机之间没有或很少有因果关系;而且由于有政府信誉担保不易发生挤兑.中国国有银行改革过程实际上是政府逐步放弃控制权的过程,但切不可因效率而忽视金融稳定;简单地依靠所有权变更无法解决国有银行脆弱性问题;而且,与境外战略投资者合作时要谨防金融主权失控风险.