Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century by Verity Burgmann (review)

Verity Burgmann's powerful and deeply informed book is based on the assumptions that globalization is a neoliberal political project - rather than an act of nature or naturalized economics - that poses significant challenges for workers and unions, as well as all vulnerable people.

Because globalization is the result of agency, agency is also central to the responses of workers and labour unions. Theoretically she adopts an agential historical materialist approach, informed by the works of J.-P. Sartre, E.P. Thompson, and Antonio Negri, and hopes that this book will "contribute to the body of knowledge that points to vital signs of labour movement life, whether traditional or novel in method; and to offer an understanding of how and why new ways of confronting capital have emerged." (29) To accomplish that goal "each of the … eight chapters takes as is focus one of these characteristics of corporate globalization that have proven problematic for the workers of the world." (29)

The displacement of the Fordist organization of work, particularly in manufacturing, has weakened the associated hegemonic forms of unions. Yet, the new forms of work organization are themselves vulnerable to worker action if workers and unions act strategically. Lean production is vulnerable to strategic ruptures of the value chain while dispersed work units, such as in fast food, can be brought together through innovative strategies that transcend any one workplace.

Globalization has been shaped and has shaped by new forms of communication. Some unions and activist networks recognized the value of electronic communications early on. Yet, it is not clear that new forms of communication transcend the historical focus of unions on individual countries. In fact, some analysts and activists have recognized that electronic communications can make organizing harder, particularly when such initiatives depend on platforms controlled by capital and do not involve personal on-the-ground engagement and collaboration.

The global reorganization of production, according to Beverly Silver, weakens labour in the countries and places of origin but can well strengthen it in sites of expansion. (81) Supporting evidence can be found in China and India, the major sites of expansion. But even with respect to sweatshop production, which cannot be easily disrupted by shutting down key nodes, workers and unions have found creative ways to challenge capital with the collaboration of the broader civil society.

The power of globalized capital is evident in its mobility and this requires transnational forms of organization and attitude. The increasing influence of unions from the Global South has provided a corrective to the historically northern unionism of international union organizations. Are these changes in transnational regional and global unionism profound enough to challenge neoliberal globalization? According to the author there are hopeful signs at the European level, particularly the European Works Councils, while global union organizations have become more active. Yet, it is not clear whether the "transnational class-in-itself" is becoming a class-for-itself and whether that can take place via organizational arrangements and without political contestation.

Over their history, unions have dealt with new constituencies of workers - migrants, women, people of colour, and so on. In the contemporary world capital benefits from open borders while workers face significant obstacles, allowing capital to pit practically enslaved immigrants against local workers who, often, contribute to this strategy by their own narrow vision. The emergence of identity politics - particularly the emphasis on recognition as a substitute rather than integral part of redistribution - has made collaboration across social movements more challenging. Yet, there is evidence of unions responding creatively and pro-actively to include hitherto marginalized workers - often immigrant women.

Such political innovations are all the more necessary given the rise of precarity as an integral part of the organization of labour. Precarious labour is not simply waiting in the shadows to break strikes and replace organized workers. Rather, various categories of workers work side by side. In the absence of collaboration between them, permanent workers oppress temporary workers and temporary workers replace permanent...