 Subjects -> LABOR UNIONS (Total: 27 journals)
|
|
|
- From Pension Reform to Regime Crisis: The Social Movement of 2023 in
France
Authors: Pierre Rouxel; Karel Yon
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Commercial Surrogacy: Invisible Reproductive Workers in Ghana
Authors: Owusu Boampong; Sabina Appiah-Boateng, Nana Yaw Osei, Richard Ametefe
Abstract: The issues facing surrogates are labour issues. However, there is scanty literature on the working conditions of surrogates in sub-Saharan Africa. This article explores the labour conditions of these unprotected and invisible reproductive workers in Ghana. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants between 2018 and 2019. The study revealed the following: 1) Baby agents were increasingly playing a dominant role in the surrogacy industry, and through the surrogacy homes are able to create docile and disciplined surrogates. 2) Surrogacy agreements were oppressive and designed to reinforce the control over the bodies of surrogates. 3) Pregnancy-related scars leave emotional scars on the minds of surrogates. We recommend state regulation of the industry to ensure strict supervision of baby agents to minimise exploitation of surrogates. KEYWORDS: surrogacy home; baby agents; surrogates; commercial surrogacy; Ghana
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Industrial Action in South Africa (2000-2020): Reading Strike Statistics
Qualitatively
Authors: Edward Cottle
Abstract: This article analyses strike statistics over the last twenty years (2000–2020) in South Africa to have a concrete understanding of the state of labour (organised and unorganised). The article makes a new contribution by showing how one can use Lenin’s quantitative method as a framework which I develop to assist in reading the qualitative aspects of worker mobilisation, an aspect which is markedly absent from contemporary analyses of labour. By utilising the quantitative method, the article shows whether the labour movement as an agent of social change is withering away, and who the leading sections (per industrial sector) of the labour movement are; it also indicates the qualitative shifts over time. The trends over the last twenty years indicate that there have been demonstrable qualitative shifts in strike dynamics in South Africa. KEYWORDS: South Africa; strike statistics; industrial action; Lenin
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Do Labour Standards Improve Employment Relationships in Global Production
Networks' A Cross-sector Study of Brazil
Authors: Jean-Christophe Graz; Patrícia Rocha Lemos, Andréia Galvão
Abstract: Research on private regulation of labour standards in global production networks often highlights their continuing failure despite the fact that lead firms no longer consider them as mere window dressing. Fewer analyses delve into their on-the-ground effectiveness to benefit workers. This article joins a context-specific approach with quantitative analysis to examine whether labour standards used in private regulation improve employment relationships in suppliers of global production networks. Based on a single-country case study of Brazil, we look at the extent of their adoption by suppliers across sectors, their complementarity with national labour institutions, and whether the adoption of labour standards at supplier site level is likely to support labour agency. Our findings show little effectiveness of labour standards against those dimensions. The presence of labour standards at supplier level alone has no significant impact and varies greatly across sectors. It is only if workers are aware of the presence of such standards that it might support their agency when union membership is taken as proxy. Yet, the correlation could also be the other way round: awareness of labour standards depend on being a member of a union in the first place. KEYWORDS: private regulation; certification; labour standards; corporate social responsibility (CSR); global production networks
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- A Regime Analysis: Evidence from Sri Lankan Migrant Domestic
Workers’ Journeys to Saudi Arabia
Authors: Wasana S. Handapangoda
Abstract: In this article, I use qualitative methods to examine the concept of a regime for migrant care based on Sri Lankan women’s transnational mobility as migrant domestic workers to Saudi Arabia. My work thus contributes to the growing body of literature on migrant care regimes from a Global South perspective, which to date has still received insufficient scholarly attention. The Sri Lanka–Saudi migrant care regime, shaped by a transnational consciousness of the possibilities for accumulation and production through reproductive labour, is located at a convergence of “translocal” gender, care, employment and migration systems. The regime is (re)produced through the relations and tensions between the family, the state and the market in an interchange of the dynamics of capitalist market forces and structural relations on various levels. The colour “brown” has emerged as a new racial classification in the global domestic sector, where power and subjectivity are constantly evolving. I argue that domestic work, which continues to be constructed as “women’s work”, represents an embodiment both of the subordination of women and of their personal autonomy. This, in turn, has broader implications for the meaning of feminine/masculine, motherhood/fatherhood, home and work. KEYWORDS: paid domestic labour; migrant domestic workers; care regime; Saudi Arabia; Sri Lanka
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Precarious Work and the Gendered Individualisation of Risk in the South
African Manufacturing Sector, 2002–2017
Authors: Siviwe Mhlana
Abstract: Against the backdrop of workplace restructuring globally, post-apartheid South Africa is experiencing consistently high levels of unemployment, the deterioration of employment security and limited improvements in earnings. This article investigates the changing nature of labour-intensive production in the South African labour market and the gendered individualisation of risk associated with precarious or non-standard forms of employment. The article expands on the critical theoretical narrative about the challenges of labour under neo-liberalism by applying a gendered political economy analysis to the experiences of precariousness among workers in the South African manufacturing sector. By focusing on the interconnections between gender and political economy, this article delinks questions about the crisis of labour from a narrow focus on skills and refocuses our understanding in terms of the structural determinants of vulnerabilities in the labour market. The article argues that the gender composition of informal and precarious work in the post-apartheid labour market has significant implications for addressing the persistent racialised and gendered inequalities in the South African economy. KEYWORDS: labour market restructuring; informal employment; precarious work; gender JEL CLASSIFICATION: J21; J30; J71; J80
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Review of: Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai (2020) Dying for an
iPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China’s Workers
Authors: Jaesok Kim
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Review of: Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck (2023) Democracy at Work:
Contract, Status and Post-Industrial Justice
Authors: Marco Marrone
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Review of: Praveen Jha, Avinash Kumar and Yamini Mishra (eds) (2020)
Labouring Women: Issues and Challenges in Contemporary India
Authors: Madhuri Kamtam
Abstract:
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Review of: Jan Lust (2019) Capitalism, Class and Revolution in Peru,
1980-2016
Authors: Sergio Saravia
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
- Review of: Trevor Ngwane and Malehoko Tshoaedi (eds) (2021) The Fourth
industrial Revolution: A Sociological Critique
Authors: Fuzile Jwara
PubDate: Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +000
|
Open Access journal
