Transnational Business Governance Interaction and Competition between Standard‐Setting Initiatives: Labor Standards in Garment, Toys and Agriculture

This paper analyzes interactions within standard‐setting networks in the area of social and labor rights. We examine the shape of transnational business governance interactions (TBGI), pathways, and interaction mechanisms in three sectors: garments, toys and agriculture. Our comparative analysis of each of these sectors reveals meaningful differences in both the organization of regulation networks and the resulting level of competition among participants. Overall, we find that the creation of a more inclusive and more coherent standard in a whole business sector comes with the cost of weaker rules and less monitoring. These industry-specific observations provide a springboard for future studies of TBGI

Die Europäische Nachbarschaftspolitik (ENP): eine adäquate Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik für die EU?

Inhalt: 1. Bestandsaufnahme der Europäischen Nachbarschaftspolitik; 1.1. Entstehung; 1.2. Ziele der EU; 1.3. Aufbau und Prinzipien der ENP; 2. Sicherheit und Stabilität als Hauptziele der ENP?; 3. Probleme der ENP: „No carrots, no sticks?“ – und weitere Aspekte; 3.1. Asymmetrie der Beziehungen; 3.2. Ökonomische, politische und soziale Probleme der Regionen Osteuropa und Südkaukasus; 3.3. Konkurrenz der EU mit anderen internationalen Akteuren in Osteuropa und im Südkaukasus; 3.4. Die fehlende Beitrittsperspektive; 4. Fazit: Zukünftige Perspektiven der EN

Exercising associational and networked power through the use of digital technology by workers in global value chains

While there are heated debates about how digitalization affects production, management and consumption in the context of global value chains, less attention is paid to how workers use digital technologies to organize and formulate demands and hence exercise power. This paper explores how workers in supplier factories in global value chains use different digital tools to exercise and enhance their power resources to improve working conditions. Combining the global value chain framework and concepts from labour sociology on worker power, the paper uses examples from the garment industry in Honduras and the footwear industry in China to show how workers used old and new digital tools to create and enhance associational and networked powers. Digital tools were used by workers and their allies in the global value chain to lower costs of communication, increase information exchange and participate in transnational campaigns during labour struggles vis-à-vis firms and governments in structurally and politically repressive environments. The paper contributes to our understanding of how workers use of digital technologies to exercise and combine different resources of power in online and offline actions in global value chains, as well as how they are confronted by new dimensions of constrains which include digital surveillance and control by the state

Hybrid production regimes and labor agency in transnational private governance

Little consensus exists about the efectiveness of transnational private governance in domains such as labor, the environment, or human rights. The paper builds on recent scholarship on labor standards to emphasize the role of labor agency in transnational private governance. It argues that the relationship between transnational private regulatory initiatives and labor agency depends on three competences: irst, the ability of workers’ organizations to gain access to processes of employment regulation, implementation, and monitoring; second, their ability to insist on the inclusion of employers and state agencies within such processes; and third, the ability of workers to efectively exercise leverage in pursuit of particular goals. The paper develops a framework, called hybrid production regime, for examining how workers’ capacity to act at the local level depends on how these three collective competences are addressed in the institutionalization of capital–labor relations between the transnational and national levels

Workers' voice in the 100 largest European companies

Workers' Voice is widely present among the largest 100 firms in Europe. 90 % of the largest firms participate in collective bargaining (CBA), 73 % have a European Works Council (EWC) and 44 % have Board-Level Employee Representation (BLER). 27 % have a European Company Agreement (ECA), and 23 % an International Framework Agreement (IFA). The data set allows three broad conclusions: - First, Workers' Voice is mostly cumulative. Companieswith BLER always participate in collective bargaining and generally have a higher percentage of other forms of Workers' Voice in place than companies without BLER. Companies with BLER and CBA in place also almost always have at least one European Works Council in place and, in 40.9 % of the firms, also at least one European Company Agreement.- Second, Board-Level Employee Representation and collective bargaining seem to strengthen good corporate governance. Companies with BLER offered considerably lower remuneration packages within the company than companies without BLER. Companies without BLER as well as companies without CBA spent, on average, significantly more money on the highest remuneration packages than companies with BLER andCBA present and companies with only CBA present. Companies with BLER are associated with a lower influence of a single biggest owner.- Third, companies with strong Workers' Voice show better performance compared to those without. Companies with both BLER and CBA have higher market value as well as higher net sales

Introduction: Sustainability Politics and limited Statehood

Esguerra A, Risse T, Helmerich N. Introduction: Sustainability Politics and limited Statehood. In: Esguerra A, Helmerich N, Risse T, eds. Sustainability politics and limited statehood. Contesting new modes of governance. Governance and Limited Statehood. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan; 2017

Workers' Voice in the 100 largest European companies

-Workers Voice is widely present among the largest 100 firms in Europe. 90 % of the largest firms participate in collective bargaining (CBA), 73 % have a European Works Council (EWC) and 44 % have Board-Level Employee Representation (BLER). 27 % have a European Company Agreement (ECA), and 23 % an International Framework Agreement (IFA). The data set allows three broad conclusions: - First, Workers Voice is mostly cumulative. Companieswith BLER always participate in collective bargaining and generally have a higher percentage of other forms of Workers Voice in place than companies without BLER. Companies with BLER and CBA in place also almost always have at least one European Works Council in place and, in 40.9 % of the firms, also at least one European Company Agreement.- Second, Board-Level Employee Representation and collective bargaining seem to strengthen good corporate governance. Companies with BLER offered considerably lower remuneration packages within the company than companies without BLER. Companies without BLER as well as companies without CBA spent, on average, significantly more money on the highest remuneration packages than companies with BLER andCBA present and companies with only CBA present. Companies with BLER are associated with a lower influence of a single biggest owner.- Third, companies with strong Workers Voice show better performance compared to those without. Companies with both BLER and CBA have higher market value as well as higher net sales

Transnational Business Governance Interaction and Competition between Standard‐Setting Initiatives: Labor Standards in Garment, Toys and Agriculture

This paper analyzes interactions within standard‐setting networks in the area of social and labor rights. We examine the shape of transnational business governance interactions (TBGI), pathways, and interaction mechanisms in three sectors: garments, toys and agriculture. Our comparative analysis of each of these sectors reveals meaningful differences in both the organization of regulation networks and the resulting level of competition among participants. Overall, we find that the creation of a more inclusive and more coherent standard in a whole business sector comes with the cost of weaker rules and less monitoring. These industry-specific observations provide a springboard for future studies of TBGI

Workers' voice and good corporate governance

The scientific final report describes the topics that have been worked on by the Böckler expert group on Workers Voice: Good scientific arguments for anchoring it more strongly and legally binding to the benefit of "good corporate governance". In the supervisory and executive bodies of cross-border operating companies in Europe

Sustainability politics and limited statehood. Contesting new modes of governance

Esguerra A, Helmerich N, Risse T, eds. Sustainability politics and limited statehood. Contesting new modes of governance. Governance and Limited Statehood. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan; 2017