Sub-theme 02: (SWG) The Role of Organized Labour in and around the MNC
Call for Papers
There is now a growing recognition on the part of more critical scholars that MNCs constitute inherently political institutional
entities. Socio-political studies are now drawing long overdue attention to the primacy of a concern with the interests, ideologies
and identities of actors entangled within the power relations of the MNC, as well as outside its formal boundaries (Geppert
& Dörrenbacher, 2014). However, narratives on MNC organization from both academic and practitioner viewpoints have been
prone to regard labour as a somewhat passive and homogenous ‘input’ (Taylor, 2008), rather than as being constructed and utilized
within particular social institutions and power relations at the level of the firm, society or international economy (Clarke;
1980; Burawoy, 1985; Lee, 1998). Bringing organized labour to the fore of the debate on MNC organization is bound to reveal,
in a stark fashion, fundamental asymmetries in modes of international production and service delivery, workforces frequently
being highly atomized and relatively replaceable in the corporate rush to capital accumulation (Fichter, 2013), while capital
itself may be shifted expeditiously across borders with little warning.
It may be argued that the need to
gain finely- tuned and empirically informed insight into the role of labour and labour organizations in and around the MNC
is becoming increasingly pressing as a logic of ‘industrial peace’ discernible across countries and organizations until the
mid-1980s has given way to a dominant logic of competition driven by economic globalization (Frege & Kelly, 2013, Frenkel
& Kuruvilla, 2002). Such developments are associated with the emergence of a transnational capitalist class (Caroll, 2010;
Murray & Scott, 2012), the rise of a pervasive agenda of financialization of capitalist societies, and a related hardening
in international management styles and strategies. In the wake of ‘globalization’, trade union movements in many countries
would appear to have been in retreat, suffering, in particular, significant reductions in trade union membership and withering
capability to bring countervailing pressure to bear on unmitigated employer power through collective bargaining.
A fruitful trajectory of investigation in seeking to cast light on the challenges confronting labour in the new global economy
is to explore, in a critical fashion, employer strategies which impact fundamentally on the employment relationship in the
new global economy. A particularly insidious practice from the perspective of organized labour is the ability of the MNC to
undertake ‘benchmarking’ or ‘coercive comparisons’ across its subsidiaries. This constitutes a form of internal competition
in which factors such as cost effectiveness and quality of output may be cross- compared between sites with an ultimate threat
of closure or capital -switch being wielded by HQ. More generally, evidence is mounting that resistance to union organization
is becoming more widespread in both developed and developing economies (Bronfenbrenner, 2008), this coinciding with the likelihood
that ‘low road’ employment strategies are gaining ground in emerging economies such as India and China, while ‘high road’
strategies are tending to subside in advanced regions (Kuruvilla & Lakhani, 2013).
It should also be
acknowledged that the form and structure of international capitalist organization is subject to transmutation. In particular,
Global Production Networks (GPNs) and related configurations of international supply chains through which MNCs project systems
of governance to control and coordinate networks of production across socially embedded and regionally dispersed organizational
units have proliferated in recent years. Such networks are frequently characterized by their ‘footloose’ spatial characteristics
and organizational fluidity, this presenting new and austere challenges for organized labour in seeking to deal with issues
arising from growing precariousness and feminization of internationally dispersed labour forces (Barrientos & Kritzinger,
2004).
Serious consideration is also required of the role of workers, and their representation through trade
unions, in seeking to offset or resist the most detrimental effects of ‘neo-liberal’ inspired agendas emanating from the MNC
centre on their security and employment. In the modern international enterprise, expression of conflict may not necessarily
be overt, but rather passively and subtly manifested, as has been documented in Indian software outsourcing industry (Upadyha,
2009). Attention needs to be directed, therefore, towards patterns of trade union resistance and renewal, as well as retreat.
We would note also that the resilience and oppositional power of trade unions is determined, to an extent, through the institutional
environments in which they are embedded. In the coordinated market economies (CMEs) of Western Europe, there is evidence that
mechanisms for employee involvement and participation, such as works councils, have retained robustness and credibility despite
environmental turbulence, in contrast to the withering away of employee rights in liberal market economies (LMEs) such as
the US and UK. Drawing upon such instances of comparative trade union strength, possibilities for collaborative trade union
action to establish an international floor of rights for workers, for example through Framework Agreements, need to be considered
in order to counter the most adverse strategies and practices of MNCs (Riisgaard & Hammer, 2011).
Of
course, the dynamics of the employment relationship within the international enterprise are profoundly influenced by the actions
and policies formulated by important extraneous actors. To be noted, in particular, is the role of government, which, across
countries, has become increasingly ‘employer friendly’ as a concomitant of globalization (Karavilla & Lakhani, 2013).
Undoubtedly a vital function for governments in the ‘global South’ has been to ensure the ‘flexibilization’ and cost effectiveness
of labour resources. In certain regions, including China, such statutory re-engineering and re-institutionalization of labour
forces has begun to be met with contestation and resistance. In such circumstances, where an ungainly ‘race to the bottom’
may appear to be inevitable in a highly financialized world, regulative possibilities to offset the transcendent power of
capital at the expense of labour through, for example, the provisions of the Global Compact, require fresh scholarly consideration.
Based on the above considerations we highly welcome empirical and conceptual contributions that encompass but
are not restricted to the following theme areas and themes:
General themes:
- The changing employment relationship
- Transnational labour institutions (ILO, European works councils, global compact, etc.)
- HRM and Industrial relations in different institutional context (countries, sectors)
- The cross-border transfer and hybridization of HRM and production models
- Multinationals and core labour standards
Employer strategies:
- Labour relations in specific types of MNCS (born globals, private equity MNCs, emerging market MNCs, family-owned MNCs, state-owned MNCs etc., Virtual MNCs)
- Labour implications of production relocation, intra-firm competition and outsourcing
- Flexible employment strategies (incl. the use of posted and leased workers)
- Benchmarking and coercive comparisons
- Anti-union policies
Responses
from organized labour:
- Cross border labour solidarity
- Trade union strategies and union renewal
- European works councils
- Labour relations at the subsidiary level
- HRM/IR and headquarters-subsidiary relationships
References
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