Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks

By A. Cumbers, Corinne Nativel, P. Routledge. 2008

310 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The development of a global production networks (GPN) perspective in economic geography has brought valuable insights into the social and political relations between regional, state and corporate actors in understanding processes of value capture in the production of commodities. However, to date, little has been said about labour as an active constituent of the global economy, rather than the passive victim of restructuring processes. In this article, we seek to rectify this situation by, first, theorizing the agency of labour in GPNs and the continuing role of class struggle in shaping the global economy, and second, exploring the positionality of unions within this framework. Through a case study of ICEM (the International Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers Federation), we show how union strategies evolve through contested socio–spatial relations both within unions themselves and with other social actors. Promoting transnational labour rights and improved employment conditions at the global scale is an aspiration of most union actors, but this is inevitably compromised by different subject positions in relation to broader processes of capital accumulation.

Subfields: Political Science and International Relations, Public Administration, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/92eff966a8c804f20e766c1db9d1f711fb274383

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Citations in the corpus

Labouring for global markets: Conceptualising labour agency in global production networks (2013, background): “…of most who responded to his initial call, has engaged with a rather narrow concept of labour agency; one which was primarily conceived of in terms of collective, organised labour activism and formally institutionalised trade unions and workers’ collectives (Cumbers et al, 2008; Riisgaard, 2009).”
The state, institutional frameworks and the dynamics of capital in global production networks (2015, background): “…given to the role that labour and workers play in the configuration of GPNs (Barrientos et al., 2010; Coe and Hess, 2012; Coe and JordhusLier, 2011; Cumbers et al., 2008; Selwyn, 2012; Smith et al., 2014; see also Gereffi et al., 1994), but the same cannot be said for analyses of the state.”
From Employment Relations to Consumption Relations: Balancing Labor Governance in Global Supply Chains (2014, background): “Internal tensions and conflicts, and dominance of international agendas by (usually European) trade union ‘elites’ (Cumbers et al., 2008), make it difficult to accommodate different local, national, and global interests.”
The costs of compliance? Views of Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers in times of global economic crisis (2011, background): “We like to think that we are a preferred supplier given the high standards at our factory, but the reality is we are one amongst many and they will not hesitate to make us recognize this.”
Social Upgrading and Labour in Global Production Networks: A Critique and an Alternative Conception (2013, background): “As has been argued here, following Cumbers et al. (2008), Taylor (2010), Rainnie et al. (2011) and Selwyn (2012a), a closer focus on the labour process and its multi-scalar dimensions (how it is constituted at local, national, regional and global ‘levels’), places greater analytical weight on…”
Constrained agency? Re-evaluating the geographies of labour (2011, background): “…do, union positionalities in the world economy will to a great extent condition the agency potential of different groups of workers: their national political base; their position in transnational capital networks; and their ability to establish spaces of resistance (Cumbers et al., 2008).”
‘I’m my own boss…’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy (2020, background): “Within capitalist socio-economic relations, including the gig-economy, the relationship between labour agency and production systems is dialectical, with labour regimes reflecting capital’s responses to prior expressions of labour agency (Cumbers et al., 2008).”
Review and Positions: Global Production Networks and Labour (2011, background): “Echoing Cumbers et al. (2008), though, we argue that, in analysing the role of labour in GCCs/GVCs/GPNs, it is important to distinguish between, on the one hand, abstract labour as the origin of surplus value and, on the other, trade unions, other forms of worker organization and individual workers…”