Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions / Edition 1

by Michael E. Gordon, Lowell Turner

Overview

Organized labor faces enormous challenges in the increasingly global economy. The effect of multinational corporations, the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers in international commerce have all sparked widespread prophecies of trade union demise. This book, however, presents compelling evidence that unions can survive and grow if labor is willing to cooperate across national borders. Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions is a seminal study of such cooperation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.After assessing the challenges confronting organized labor, the authors turn their attention to specifics. They describe and evaluate the most important transnational labor associations, campaigns, and transnational cooperatives in a variety of industries. Contributors include academics who have assessed the status of union-management relations and international labor organizations as well as participants in union campaigns organized across national boundaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801487064
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/14/2000
Series:	Cornell International Industrial and Labor Relations Reports
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael E. Gordon is Professor of Organization Management at Rutgers University and the author of numerous articles on organizational behavior. Lowell Turner is Professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. His many books include Fighting for Partnership: Labor and Politics in Unified Germany and Democracy at Work: Changing World Markets and the Future of Labor Unions, both from Cornell.

What People are Saying About This

Jeremy Brecher

This book describes pioneering efforts to answer capital's globalization with international labor cooperation. It's difficult but essential work—and this book shows that it can be done.

Editorial Reviews

This edited volume about international cooperation between unions could not have been published at a better time. It becomes clearer each day that the revival of the labor movement will depend largely on unions' ability to operate across borders and somehow reduce the negative impact of globalization on organizing and bargaining. This is a carefully organized and generally well-written book.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review - Gary Chaison

Transnational Cooperation Among Labor Unions is a key contribution to the growing literature on labor's agency in global struggles with capital. It is uniformly well conceived and well edited.

--Dale W. Wimberly, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University "Work and Occupations"

Since the 1990s transnational citizen activism has been the subject of a growing literature.... Strangely neglected, however, has been the topic of transnational labour activism.... The edited volume by Gordon and Turner is thus a welcome effort to remedy this gap in the study of transnational mobilisation. Written mostly by US practitioners and scholars of labour relations, it is accessible to both activists and academics.

--Beate Sissenich, Cornell University "Transfer"

Thirteen papers contribute to the understanding of the industrial relations phenomena of transnational collaboration.

-- "Journal of Economic Literature"

This edited volume about international cooperation between unions could not have been published at a better time. It becomes clearer each day that the revival of the labor movement will depend largely on unions' ability to operate across borders and somehow reduce the negative impact of globalization on organizing and bargaining. This is a carefully organized and generally well-written book.

--Gary Chaison, Clark University "Industrial and Labor Relations Review"

This is an avowedly normative collection, whose comprehensive nature makes it an important and timely contribution to an area that is under-researched and under-theorised.... For labour activists and researchers interested in the future of the labour movement, this is a book of great importance.

--Caroline Smith, University of Strathclyd "The Journal of Industrial Relations"

From the Publisher

Since the 1990s transnational citizen activism has been the subject of a growing literature.... Strangely neglected, however, has been the topic of transnational labour activism.... The edited volume by Gordon and Turner is thus a welcome effort to remedy this gap in the study of transnational mobilisation. Written mostly by US practitioners and scholars of labour relations, it is accessible to both activists and academics.

Transfer - Beate Sissenich

Transnational Cooperation Among Labor Unions is a key contribution to the growing literature on labor's agency in global struggles with capital. It is uniformly well conceived and well edited.

Work and Occupations - Dale W. Wimberly

Thirteen papers contribute to the understanding of the industrial relations phenomena of transnational collaboration.

Journal of Economic Literature

This is an avowedly normative collection, whose comprehensive nature makes it an important and timely contribution to an area that is under-researched and under-theorised.... For labour activists and researchers interested in the future of the labour movement, this is a book of great importance.

The Journal of Industrial Relations - Caroline Smith

"This book describes pioneering efforts to answer capital's globalization with international labor cooperation. It's difficult but essential work—and this book shows that it can be done."

Jeremy Brecher