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Regional Distribution of Executive Positions in Relation to Membership in the ICFTU, 1972-2003 

Regional Distribution of Executive Positions in Relation to Membership in the ICFTU, 1972-2003 

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This pathbreaking book provides both an invaluable resource on the history of global union federations, and new insights on current issues and contestations. It will be of great interest to all with an interest in the state of unions worldwide, commentators and critics of globalization, and those concerned with fairness at work in a wide range of c...

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... En este contexto, Traxler et al. (2001) señalaron que los actores sociales se verían condicionados por la globalización y la internacionalización de los mercados nacionales, especialmente los sindicatos. De hecho, los sindicatos han pasado décadas explorando lazos internacionales para sincronizar estrategias con las que denunciar abusos en salarios y condiciones laborales por parte de multinacionales (Croucher y Cotton, 2009;Ales y Dufresne, 2012). En cuanto a las asociaciones empresariales, la discusión se planteaba en tres niveles: primero, si las grandes empresas iban a abandonar las asociaciones nacionales ante la creciente relevancia de la Unión Europea en la regulación de los mercados; segundo, si las pymes iban a reforzar sus propias asociaciones nacionales para la defensa de sus intereses en la negociación colectiva; y tercero, cuál iba a ser el impacto de la internacionalización en la capacidad de gobierno de las asociaciones nacionales tradicionales (Streeck et al., 2006;Traxler y Huemer, 2007). ...
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... for NAALC see e.g.Dombois et al. 2003. 4 For IFA and GUF see e.g.Riisgaard 2005;Müller et al. 2008;Croucher and Cotton 2009;Dehnen and Pries 2014;Hadwiger 2015. International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology (2020) 4:5 ...
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... Among the vast literature on cross-border labor action, labor education has been acknowledged several times as an important factor to improving it (Croucher and Cotton 2009;Erne 2008;Knudsen 2004;Niforou and Hodder 2018;Novelli 2011). Like learning for democracy, workers and their representatives require the appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills to collaborate across borders. ...
... Since the TC framework relates to all four human elements and intelligences, one might agree with Koehn and Rosenau that their concept is, indeed, 'collectively exhaustive', at least for ordinary adult education and, probably, the commitment to international trade unionism that Croucher and Cotton (2009) suggest is needed. For more critical adult education, however, as well as more fundamental structural changes in the economy, society and political governance at all levels, the TC framework is not as collectively exhaustive as Koehn and Rosenau assert. ...
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... One take-home message of these analyses, which often infuse GVC theories from international po liti cal economy with labor geographers' concepts of place, space, and scale, is that traditional industrial action still works-at least sometimes, under selective conditions. Following this line of logic, several unions have even attempted to research and map out complex logistics networks in transportation, garments, and other industries in hopes of enhancing labor's leverage (Anderson, Hamilton, and Wills 2010;Croucher and Cotton 2009;Juravich 2007). Yet not all workers are in a position, literally, to disrupt a whole production network. ...
... Still, power imbalances do not entirely preclude the development of the type of long-term, strategic outlooks that promote reciprocity-based interunion coordination. Croucher and Cotton (2009), following Ruggie (1993), argue that global unions facilitate a type of reciprocity based not on direct give-and-take but on multilateralism, "an institutional form that coordinates relations among three or more states [or in this case unions] on the basis of generalized princi ples of conduct . . . without regard to the particularist interests of the parties or the strategic exigencies that may exist in any specific occurrence" (Ruggie 1993, 77). ...
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... TLAs also demonstrate that organized labour can, at least under certain conditions, change the behaviour of transnational corporations and other employers, resulting in more equitable outcomes. Yet despite growing scholarly interest in Networks of Labour Activism (NOLAs) and in TLAs specifically (Anner, 2011;Bair and Palpacuer, 2012;Bronfenbrenner, 2007;Croucher and Cotton, 2009;Evans, 2010Evans, , 2014Fairbrother et al., 2013;Kay, 2011;McCallum, 2013;Zajak, 2015), we still lack a theoretical framework for understanding the specific dynamics of transnational campaigns spearheaded by organized labour. This is because scholars still have only a limited understanding of labour as a transnational actor. ...
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... Knudsen (2004) is convinced that through education, EWCs can overcome the obstacles that limit their impact on managerial decisions. Other authors have also highlighted union education as a cornerstone for successful cross-border action (Bicknell, 2007;Croucher and Cotton, 2009;Novelli, 2011). ...
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In this article, we compare trade union training for European Works Council members in Ireland, in Germany and at EU level. The programmes have only limited success in fostering transnational union action. We conclude that the limited transformative impact of unions’ training programmes is not for the most part due to lack of resources. Rather, their narrow pedagogical focus on technical knowledge and skills crowds out the development of knowledge about social mobilization and the construction of attitudes of solidarity between unions.
... GUFs have partly taken this role to coordinate actions at the supranational level. However, the affiliation of a local 9 Hyman, 2002;Croucher and Cotton, 200910 Wright, 2000: 962 11 Wright, 2000 trade union to a GUF does not necessarily translate into local compliance with core labour rights. 12 Differences in perceptions regarding local strategies and international campaigns but also differences in political orientations can result in inter--union conflicts and therefore in the absence of a shared collective identity between (and within) the global and the local groups of labour. ...