Mark S. Anner

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This paper analyses authoritarian innovations in the industrial relations arena in Mexico since 2018. Historically, corporatist ties with union elites allowed the government to control labour at the workplace level and resist substantive labour reforms at the national level through ‘ghost unions’ and ‘protection contracts’. Since the election of An...

Global supply chains (GSCs) present the International Labour Organization (ILO) with a challenge that goes to the heart of its founding mandate and structure, one built on the prominence of nation states and national representatives of employers and workers. In February 2020, discussions in the ILO on the rise of GSCs reached deadlock. To fully und...

Resumen A principios de 2020, marcas de ropa y minoristas cancelaron pedidos por valor de 40 000 millones de dólares de los Estados Unidos, con consecuencias drásticas para proveedores y trabajadores. Con datos de encuestas originales, cuestionarios a proveedores, entrevistas y análisis cronológico y de datos comerciales se exploran las asimetrías...

Résumé Début 2020, les marques et enseignes de l'habillement ont annulé pour 40 milliards de dollars É.‐U. de commandes, aux dépens des fournisseurs et des travailleurs. Pour comprendre ce comportement, qui signale un rapport de force déséquilibré et une répartition inéquitable du coût des crises au sein des chaînes d'approvisionnement mondiales, l...

There has been a recent resurgence in interest in the theorization of labour regimes in various disciplines. This has taken the form of a concern to understand the role that labour regimes play in the structuring, organization and dynamics of global systems of production and reproduction. The concept has a long heritage that can be traced back to t...

Freedom of association and living wages are two fundamental components of social upgrading in global value chains. However, in the apparel sector, the power afforded to lead firms due to industry consolidation has resulted in a squeeze on suppliers and on workers that is reflected in terms of low wages and increased worker rights violations. This s...

Résumé Gereffi et Lee (2016) distinguent six mécanismes de gouvernance susceptibles de remédier aux déficits de travail décent dans les chaînes de valeur mondiales. En s'appuyant sur des travaux relatifs au Viet Nam, au Honduras et au Bangladesh, l'auteur affirme que, pour être véritablement efficace, la gouvernance en question doit permettre de ré...

The literature on global value chains (GVCs) has identified six governance mechanisms for addressing decent work deficits (Gereffi and Lee 2016). Drawing on research in Bangladesh, Honduras and Viet Nam, this article argues that the most effective governance mechanisms are those that mitigate GVC power asymmetries. Three such mechanisms are: (1) pu...

Resumen Los estudios sobre cadenas mundiales de valor identifican seis tipos de gobernanza para abordar los déficits de trabajo decente (Gereffi y Lee 2016). Sobre la base de sus investigaciones en el sector de la confección de Bangladesh, Honduras y Viet Nam, el autor sostiene que los más eficaces son los que mitigan las asimetrías de poder en la...

In early 2020, apparel brands and retailers cancelled USD 40 billion in garment orders with highly adverse consequences for suppliers and workers. Their actions illustrate the power asymmetries in global supply chains and the unequal distribution of costs during crises. The cancellations provoked a tentative collaboration between suppliers and work...

Machtungleichgewichte in den globalen Wertschöpfungsketten (GWK) werden mit Niedriglöhnen, langen Arbeitszeiten und Verletzungen der Koalitionsfreiheit in Verbindung gebracht. Weniger gut ist untersucht, wie sich die Machtungleichgewichte in den GWK auf die Arbeitsintensität sowie auf Gewalt und Belästigungen am Arbeitsplatz auswirken. Dieser Beitr...

A large majority of suppliers surveyed reported that brands have demanded price discounts substantially larger than the year-over-year reductions they typically seek. As a result, over half reported that they are being forced to accept prices for orders that are below the cost of production. Suppliers also reported that many customers have imposed...

For decades, direct employment relationships have been increasingly displaced by indirect employment relationships through networks of firms and layers of managerial control. The firm strategies driving these changes are organizational, geographic, and technological in nature and are facilitated by state policies. The resulting weakening of traditi...

a report focusing on the response of global brands and retailers to the sudden collapse of apparel demand resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. 1 This paper, analyses by other researchers, and news reports-all relying primarily on accounts from garment suppliers and their trade associations-painted a deeply disturbing picture of corporate irrespons...

How do public and private labor governance regimes intersect in global supply chains and with what effects? Based on fieldwork in Bangladesh, including interviews with garment industry stakeholders, this article examines the main public and private regulatory reforms instituted in post-Rana Plaza Bangladesh: the Sustainability Compact and the Bangl...

Resumen Desde hace tiempo se viene documentando en múltiples estudios la vulneración de los derechos de los trabajadores en las cadenas mundiales de suministro de la industria de la confección; sin embargo, se ha prestado menos atención al reciente empeoramiento de algunos déficits de trabajo decente y sus causas, que el presente artículo asocia a...

Résumé Les atteintes aux droits des travailleurs au sein des chaînes d'approvisionnement mondiales de la confection sont bien documentées aujourd'hui. En revanche, on ignore souvent que le problème tend à s'aggraver sous l'effet des politiques d'achat agressives de clients toujours plus puissants. L'exemple de filières indiennes montre que ces pres...

Worker rights abuses in garment global supply chains have long been acknowledged in the literature (Barrientos et al., 2003; Bonacich and Appelbaum, 2000). What has been less explored is the recent growth in certain decent work deficits and its causes. This article links this growth to predatory purchasing practices tied to growing power asymmetrie...

Apparel and agriculture are two sectors historically marked by extreme levels of exclusion and abuse of worker rights. Global trade regimes have protected developed market economies at the expense of developing countries, and lead firm consolidation in agriculture and apparel supply chains has created downward pressure on wages and working conditio...

Workers’ rights violations have been pervasive in many global supply chains. In the apparel sector, production workers often face precarious working conditions, including persistently low pay, excessive and often forced overtime, unsafe buildings, and repression of their right to form unions and bargain collectively. This article explores how purch...

Technological change has brought about rapid changes in the world of work over the past decade. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work is a welcome contribution as it discusses the transformations that are taking place and tries to advise governments on how best to adapt to them. The report also brings out the c...

Lead firms in apparel global supply chains are increasingly using social compliance programmes that require worker-management participation committees in their supplier factories. These committees are designed to ensure respect for internationally recognized labour standards, to empower workers, and to reduce labour unrest. However, these committee...

Since the early 1990s, a range of corporate monitoring and multi-stakeholder initiatives have sought to address the violation of workers’ rights by monitoring suppliers in global supply chain and attempting to remediate violations. However, their effectiveness in the area of freedom of association rights has been limited, particularly in labor-repr...

Matthew E. Carnes , Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014. Tables, figures, bibliography, index, 256 pp.; hardcover $65. - Volume 58 Issue 3 - Mark Anner

The authors examine enterprise-level antecedents of wildcat strikes in Vietnam using a national representative sample of foreign-invested enterprises over the period 2010 to 2012, coding of factory audits, and field research. They predict that these unauthorized, semi-spontaneous work stoppages are more common among unionized workplaces, because th...

This article seeks to examine two inter-related dynamics, the relationship between the international dispersion of apparel production and labor control regimes, and the relationship between labor control regimes and patterns of worker resistance. The article argues that where apparel production has concentrated in the last decade has as much to do...

This paper examines how social activist tactics affect the diffusion of social-responsibility practices. Studying collegiate adoptions of a controversial supplier-sanction practice championed by anti-sweatshop activists, we compare how non-targeted organizations are influenced by different types of practice adoptions in their environment. Drawing o...

The Global Labour University (GLU), now 10 years old, is a network of interdisciplinary faculties that offer master level courses and other training programs for trade unionists from around the world. The main purpose of these programs is to enable trade unionists to develop policy expertise for the challenges of globalization. In this article we o...

The authors examine enterprise-level antecedents of wildcat strikes in Vietnam based on a national representative sample of foreign-invested enterprises over the period 2010-2012. They predict that these illegal, semi-spontaneous work stoppages are more common among unionized workplaces, because workers in these enterprises use wildcat strikes as a...

Este artigo compara formas de transnacionalismo do trabalho em três setores: indústria automotiva; transporte marítimo; vestuário e indústria têxtil. Em cada caso, os sindicatos se envolvem em atividades transnacionais muito diferentes para reassumir o controle sobre o mercado de trabalho e a concorrência. Conforme as instituições de cooperação tra...

This paper explores the debate on MNCs and inequality. It argues that, due to inherent power imbalances in global supply chains, the benefits of MNC-driven growth accumulate to those firms at the top of supply chains at the expense of workers at the bottom, which disproportionately include women and migrant workers. The paper also provides data on...

Corporations have increasingly turned to voluntary, multi-stakeholder governance programs to monitor workers’ rights and standards in global supply chains. This article argues that the emphasis of these programs varies significantly depending on stakeholder involvement and issue areas under examination. Corporate-influenced programs are more likely...

Anner, Mark. (2012) Globalization and Labor Rights: Assessing the Impact. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468‐2486.2012.01117.x

Abstract will be provided by author.

It is often assumed that manufacturing workers in developing countries, as recipients of outsourced jobs, would achieve economic benefits and organizational power. The author argues that job growth in developing countries through outsourcing to competing firms has often actually resulted in declining unionization and lower wage rates relative to tr...

International financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank often have used the leverage afforded them through their loan mechanisms to demand domestic labor market flexibility. At the same time, the International Labour Organization’s call to respect Core Labor Standards (CLS) in the global economy has incre...

What factors account for labor strategies in global industries? While some scholars point to economic factors and others look to political opportunity structures, an examination of union actions in the Central American apparel export industry over a 14-year period suggests that activists’ historical experiences and ideological orientations also str...

Despite a strengthening of collective labor rights in Latin America over the last 15 years, most labor movements in the region have lost power because neither the content nor the enforcement mechanisms associated with the labor reforms fully took into consideration the challenges presented by economic restructuring. Reforms facilitating union forma...

International industrial restructuring has fomented a decline in unionization in Latin America and has forced labor organizations to pursue new forms of activism. Due to the segmentation of the production process and the dispersion of the locations of production sites, the coordination of collective action has become more difficult. At the same tim...

This article compares forms of labour transnationalism in three industrial sectors: motor manufacturing, maritime shipping and clothing and textile manufacturing. In each case, unions engage in very different transnational activities to reassert control over labour markets and competition. As institutions of transnational cooperation deepen, unions...

This article compares forms of labour transnationalism in three industrial sectors: motor manufacturing, maritime shipping and clothing and textile manufacturing. In each case, unions engage in very different transnational activities to reassert control over labour markets and competition. As institutions of transnational cooperation deepen, unions...

This paper explores the international campaign for a labor rights clause in the WTO. The author argues that, while the campaign has successfully highlighted the importance of core labor standards, it could greatly benefit by broadening the campaign to include development-related demands; increasing Southern union and base-level involvement; and com...

Incl. abstract and bibl. references Trying to build alliances that span the divide between trade unions and NGOs as well as the divide between the North and the South might seem a utopian task. But this is exactly what an imaginative new generation of organisers from the Western hemisphere's labour movements and NGOs are trying to do. This paper an...

This article explores labor transnationalism in the Brazilian auto sector. It argues that industrial structure, state institutions and practices, and labor ideologies affect the form and frequency of labor transnationalism. In Brazil in the 1980s, labor transnationalism was mostly limited to information exchange and occasional economic support, and...

This article explores labor transnationalism in the Brazilian auto sector. It argues that industrial structure, state institutions and practices, and labor ideologies affect the form and frequency of labor transnationalism. In Brazil in the 1980s, labor transnationalism was mostly limited to information exchange and occasional economic support, and...

This research note seeks to offer some resolution to the theoretical disagreements over how democratization affects civil society, specifically in a transition toward democracy that occurs through pacted settlements of an armed internal conflict. Using a comparative study over time of the labor movement in El Salvador, the authors demonstrate that...

La hipótesis es que los modelos económicos y sindicales impuestos, la polarización social y política, y la guerra civil han desfigurado y desnaturalizado el sindicalismo salvadoreño. Después de un breve diagnóstico de las tendencias del sindicalismo salvadoreño, se analizan cinco elementos que explican su crisis actual: los factores estructurales,...

To be a trade union organizer in El Salvador is to face the constant threat of arrest, torture, and death.

Abstract will be provided by author.

Over the last two decades, large multinational firms have increasingly segmented and dispersed the production process within and across countries. In the apparel industry, this process is epitomized by Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in devel- oping countries, where imported material is sewn together by contractors for mul- tinational clothing retai...

While there is much debate over the adverse effects of economic globalization on manufacturing workers in developed countries, there is often an assumption that manufacturing workers in developing countries, as recipients of outsourced jobs, are achieving economic benefits and organizational power. In fact, job growth in developing countries throug...

Corporations have increasingly turned to voluntary, multi-stakeholder governance programs to monitor workers' rights and standards in the global apparel industry. While much has been written on whether, in general terms, these Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are or are not effective, the literature has not fully explored under what c...