Private Standards and Employment Insecurity: GlobalGAP in the Senegalese Horticulture Export Sector

Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade, Labor and Human Capital,

Playing an Insecure Hand

For a growing number of families and workers in Western New York, low-wage work is the only—or the last—employment option. In 2009, one out of four jobs in the region were in occupations where the median annual wage fell below the poverty line for a family of four. This rising reliance on low-wage work is a discouraging change from the post-war economic boom when incomes and standards of living soared—a period that continues to shape our employment and lifestyle expectations. Actions by an array of individuals and groups—unbound by ideology—are essential for alleviating regional economic insecurity

The Vicious Cycle of Insecurity

Increasing AAS use has detrimental effects on mental and physical health, creating a public health crisis. The need to rebuild beauty standards for a sustainable future has become more urgent than ever before. This poster aims to show that the use of anabolic steroids creates a feedback loop of insecurity and mental health problems, causing exponential usage of appearance and performance enhancing drugs. Beginning with the prevalence of AAS in the public eye, then leading to increases in body dissatisfaction, insecurity, and mental health disorders, which then leads to an increase of AAS usage, creates the cycle. This poster poses some ways to create healthier beauty standards for adolescent males

We are not barbarians: Gender Politics and Turkey's Quest for the West

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Turkey’s policy-makers have historically aimed to position Turkey within the West by convincing the latter that Turkey meets the ‘standards’ of the West, that they ‘are not barbarians’. This article aims to offer a gender analysis of Turkey’s relations with the West by showing how ‘devalorization’ as feminization and hypermasculinization of the non-West becomes a source of insecurity for non-Western policy-makers. This gendered ontological insecurity is intensified when they face a military threat from a third party. The argument is that Turkey’s policy-makers try to benefit from military crises in order to represent Turkey as a state meeting Western ‘standards’ of masculinity, and therefore to address its gendered ‘devalorization’. The analysis aims to contribute to the literatures of postcolonial feminism and non-Western insecurities

The Compliance Model of Employment Standards Enforcement: An Evidence-based Assessment of its Efficacy in Instances of Wage Theft

This article critically assesses the compliance model of employment standards (ES) enforcement through a study of monetary employment standards violations in Ontario, Canada. The findings suggest that, in contexts where changes to the organization of work deepen insecurity for employees, models of enforcement that emphasize compliance over deterrence are unlikely to effectively prevent or remedy ES violations

Globalization, Worker Insecurity, and Policy Approaches

[Excerpt] Today’s global economy, or what many call globalization, has a growing impact on the economic futures of American companies, workers, and families. Increasing integration with the world economy makes the U.S. and other economies more productive. For most Americans, this has translated into absolute increases in living standards and real disposable incomes. However, while the U.S. economy as a whole benefits from globalization, it is not always a win-win situation for all Americans. Rising trade with low-wage developing countries not only increases concerns of job loss, but it also leads U.S. workers to fear that employers will lower their wages and benefits in order to compete. Globalization facilitated by the information technology revolution expands international trade in a wider range of services, but also subjects an increasing number of U.S. white collar jobs to outsourcing and international competition. Also, globalization may benefit some groups more than others, leading some to wonder whether the global economy is structured to help the few or the many. The current wave of globalization is supported by three broad trends. The first is technology, which has sharply reduced the cost of communication and transportation that previously divided markets. The second is a dramatic increase in the world supply of labor engaged in international trade. The third is government policies that have reduced barriers to trade and investment. Whether these trends are creating new vulnerabilities for workers is the subject of increasing research and debate

Food Insecurity of Restaurant Workers

This report is the first of its kind, presenting findings on the role that employment conditions have in affecting workers' food security in the restaurant industry -- the segment of the food system that employs the greatest number of workers. This report also provides recommendations for policymakers, employers, and consumers to improve the food security of restaurant workers. It is based on surveys of 286 restaurants workers in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area during 2011-2014

The Workers\u27 Constitution

This Article argues that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, Social Security Act of 1935, and Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 should be understood as a “workers’ constitution.” The Article tells the history of how a connected wave of social movements responded to the insecurity that wage earners faced after the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression by working with government officials to bring about federal collective bargaining rights, wage and hour legislation, and social security legislation. It argues that the statutes are tied together as a set of “small c” constitutional commitments in both their histories and theory. Each statute sought to redefine economic freedom for workers around security and sought to position worker security as essential to the constitutional accommodation of corporate capitalism. The Article also explores the interpretive implications of conceiving of a “workers’ constitution” in the current context

Globalization, Worker Insecurity, and Policy Approaches

[Excerpt] Today\u27s global economy, or what many call globalization, has a growing impact on the economic futures of American companies, workers, and families. Increasing integration with the world economy makes the U.S. and other economies more productive. For most Americans, this has translated into absolute increases in living standards and real disposable incomes. However, while the U.S. economy as a whole benefits from globalization, it is not always a win-win situation for all Americans. Rising trade with low-wage developing countries not only increases concerns of job loss, but it also leads U.S. workers to fear that employers will lower their wages and benefits in order to compete. Globalization facilitated by the information technology revolution expands international trade in a wider range of services, but also subjects an increasing number of U.S. white collar jobs to international competition. Also, globalization may benefit some groups more than others, leading some to wonder whether the global economy is structured to help the few or the many. The current wave of globalization is supported by three broad trends. The first is technology, which has sharply reduced the cost of communication and transportation that previously divided markets. The second is a dramatic increase in the world supply of labor engaged in international trade. The third is government policies that have reduced barriers to trade and investment. Some recent research examines whether these trends are creating new vulnerabilities for workers. Some of the vulnerabilities for workers are underlined by changing employment patterns caused by increased foreign competition, a declining wage share of national income, and rising earnings inequality. These trends, in turn, have become a source of economic insecurity for many Americans and may be weakening public support for U.S. engagement with the world economy. To bolster public support for an open world economy, the conventional wisdom is that the legitimate concerns of those who are losing in the contemporary economic environment need to be addressed. To what extent the losers should be compensated and how is a matter of considerable congressional and public debate. Because the relationship between globalization and worker insecurity is complicated and uncertain, a number of different approaches may be considered if the goal is to bolster public support for U.S. trade policies, globalization, and an open world economy. Policies involving adjustment assistance, education, tax, and trade are most commonly proposed. There appears to be a range of views on the merits of each of these policy approaches and the extent to which they can be designed and implemented in a way that would reduce worker insecurity without undermining the benefits of globalization. In the view of many economists, policies that inhibit the dynamism of labor and capital markets or erect barriers to international trade and investment would not be helpful because technology and trade are critical sources of overall economic growth and increases in the U.S. living standard. This report will be updated should events warrant