Development through global value chains and the achievement of decent work : challenges to work and representational processes

The co-ordination of global production and trade within value chains has amplified debates concerning the impact of globalisation on labour, especially for developing countries. Whilst many development agencies argue for value chain insertion and upgrading as optimistic development pathways, many studies suggest a nuanced, conditional evaluation of the potential impacts on labour. One fundamental aspect of labour rights and conditions concerns representation and representational processes: that is, as encapsulated by the social dialogue component of Decent Work, whether representation is both effective and autonomous. This paper uses a model of organisational identity to deepen our understanding of the impacts of value chain insertion and upgrading on labour. It uses three studies of labour conditions in value chains in one country (Brazil) to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges to representation at the local level. These studies come from the food production (tomatoes), fruit collection/processing (passion fruit) and metals (refrigeration/washer) sectors and encompass industrial unions, rural unions and cooperatives. Whilst further work is required on the local, national and international contexts surrounding these studies, the analysis does suggest amplified and new complications for organisational identity as a result of value chain engagement. This adds another component to recent (but general) conceptual-empirical considerations of labour in value chains (Knorringa & Pegler, 2006). Responding to this, and the re-juvenation of representation, requires not only well linked strategies at local and international levels (thus substantial resources) but that representative organisations confront many developments which, potentially, also hold out promising opportunities for labour (e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management strategies)

Employer 'Dependence' and Worker 'Allegiance' within the Factory of the Future: Evidence From Brazil

Abstract: Some commentators have suggested that employers who modernise their factory operations will become dependent on the skills and attitudes of their employees. Others go beyond this and suggest that workers in modernised firms will be persuaded to go 'beyond contract' due to the emergence of a strong and direct form of attachment to their employer. Moreover, with 'us and them' attitudes removed, it is uncertain what effect this may have on workers' attitudes to the union. This paper puts these debates about factory modernisation and workers' attitudes to the employer and the union to the test using detailed data from the Brazilian white goods industry during the 1990s. The research suggests the following in respect to this 'axis of allegiance'. First, workers can be persuaded to think in terms of an effort bargain which includes issues beyond just remuneration. Many employees are also taking a more inward-looking, 'employer positive' approach. However, their degree of attachment to the modernised firm is both limited and contingent on future, expected benefits. Secondly, in terms of the worker-union relation, the cynicism of Brazilian workers to unions may have been heightened by the policies of the modernising firm. While part of this result may be due to the modernising firms' selection policies, the union's 'electorate' may also have shifted its priorities. Despite this, many workers would still like unions to have an active and independent role. Yet this is dependent on union policies being directed towards the promotion of worker's key (and often new) workplace concerns. Finally, while these results are influenced by the Brazilian context they do raise questions about the attitudinal and behavioural underpinnings of modernisation in any environment. As long as employers act to minimise the risk to which they may become more dependent on workers, employee behaviour will, at best, only appear to indicate that they have more allegiance to the employer. Moreover, workers' concerns about workplace modernisation policies suggest that unions may not necessarily become more ineffectual and irrelevant

Sustainable Value Chains and Labour - Linking Chain and "Inner Drivers"

Global value chains are driven by considerations of cost and efficiency but just as much by power relations. This appears evident from studies of industrial relations and labour outcomes within value chains, especially those where drivenness is most explicit. Within a context of disaggregated but more coordinated production across borders, the standards “industry” continues to grow as a regulatory structure of chain outcomes. Yet the processes by which many workers and communities continue to be made flexible, vulnerable and voiceless, within value chains, are not so clear. The research discussed in this paper is aimed at exploring the feasibility of labour rights promotion within the context of sustainable global value chains. By this it is meant that the conditions of work and livelihoods (e.g. at the beginning of chains) are “decent/good” and that these are compatible with the reproductability of their environment. A central concern is how to improve the conceptual lenses we use to analyse labour outcomes, and their governance, within value chains. This ISS (Brazil-Holland) project is based on a desire to more effectively link 1) the actors which drive chains, with 2) considerations of work, livelihoods and security for the workers and communities (i.e. their “inner” drivers) supplying those chains. The question of this research derives from a comparison of the “logic” (e.g. efficiency) of these chain drivers vis a vis the “logic” of those at the beginning of chains. The fundamental starting question concerning sustainability is thus whether such competing “logics” can be resolved within global value chains? The concept of governmentality expands the theoretical frame for the consideration of how messages /rules/norms are established, transmitted and contested across these chains. Labour process analysis (expanded with considerations of gender, livelihoods and human security) is suggested for use with those at the beginning of chains. Chains are not static - they are “webs of interaction, where negotiation takes place between actors (and with institutions) at each node” (Loconto, 2010, p. 217). The substantive evaluation of Decent Work, livelihoods and Human Security possibilities in a sustainable context therefore requires research into the existence and viability of multiple “logics” between nodes within such chains. Such studies have much to contribute – to academic and conceptual debates on labour rights and sustainable development, to Government policies in respect to fair trade, sustainability, procurement and human rights and, to the policies and strategies of social movements and other civic actors

Manaus: Metropolis van het regenwoud

Een miljoenenstad midden in de jungle: hoe kan zoiets bestaan? De enclavepositie als vooruitgeschoven post in de Amazone en taxfreezone heeft Manaus economisch op de kaart gezet, zonder dat de omringende natuur daar zwaar onder leed. Als Manaus straks wordt aangesloten op het nationale wegennet, zal dat drastisch veranderen

Cooperatives, labour processes and the mobilisation of the precarious

Cooperatives are often seen as an effective and participative way of mobilizing workers, especially in times of crisis. In recent years many organisations have advocated cooperatives as mechanisms of voice, security and social justice, not just within a specific production setting but also, within Global Value Chains (GVCs) (FBB 2004; Utting 2015). What is not clear is whether such labour process contexts generate the conditions (re: Kelly 1998; Atzeni 2009) of injustice necessary to cement and retain effective mobilization and representation? The specific questions we turn to in this paper are - to what degree does mobilization (into cooperatives) have to be driven by a sense of injustice? That is, what form(s) might this sense of injustice need to take? Secondly, what role do external actors (e.g. agencies of assistance; buyers; suppliers) or structural “imperatives” (e.g. organizational form) play in the ongoing (cooperative) development process without compromising initial principles of representation? This paper uses two different examples of cooperatives to reflect on what might drive and what might m

Transporte, fluxo de mercadoria e desenvolvimento econômico urbano na Amazônia: o caso de Belém e Manaus

This paper addresses the fraught relationships among commodity trade, urban economic development and the environment in the world’s largest rainforest reserve, in a historical narrative fashion. The conceptual framework in which we position this narrative is provided by Hesse (2010), in the “site” and “situation” dimensions of the interaction between places or locales on the one hand, and material flows or global value chains on the other. It is argued that the assemblage of both site and situation is what shapes the wealth of cities. The case study of Manaus and Belém shows how the rapid urbanization of the Amazon rainforest is accompanied by the growth of shipping as “new” commodities are being extracted from the jungle interior

Factory modernisation and union identity: new challenges for unions : reflections from Brazilian case studies

Using detailed primary data from Brazil, this paper investigates what problems modernisation has created for unions within the white goods industry. Drawing from a detailed analysis of the modernisation strategies of five firms and their effects on work and on workers’ attitudes, the research applies a model of union identity to the experiences of the unions at these sites. As it appears clear that workers are keen for unions to have a new role in relation to recent changes to the workplace, the existence of ‘moderate’, ‘strategic’ and ‘radical/political’ unions at the comprehensively modernised sites permits the analysis to compare the effectiveness of both ‘optimistic’ and ‘pessimistic’ union response hypotheses