Workers and Labour in a Globalised Capitalism MANAGEMENT, WORK & ORGANISATIONS SERIES Series editors: Gibson Burrell, School of Management, University of Leicester, UK Mick Marchington, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester and Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, UK Paul Thompson, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, UK This series of textbooks covers the areas of human resource management, employee relations, organisational behaviour and related business and management fields. Each text has been specially commissioned to be written by leading experts in a clear and accessible way. The books contain serious and challenging material, take an analytical rather than prescriptive approach and are particularly suitable for use by students with no prior specialist knowledge. The series is relevant for many business and management courses, including MBA and post-experience courses, specialist masters and postgraduate diplomas, professional courses and final-year undergraduate courses. These texts have become essential reading at business and management schools worldwide. Published titles include: Maurizio Atzeni WORKERS AND LABOUR IN A GLOBALISED CAPITALISM Stephen Bach and Ian Kessler THE MODERNISATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES AND EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Emma Bell READING MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION IN FILM Paul Blyton and Peter Turnbull THE DYNAMICS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS (3RD EDN) Paul Blyton, Edmund Heery and Peter Turnbull (eds) REASSESSING THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP Sharon C. Bolton EMOTION MANAGEMENT IN THE WORKPLACE Sharon C. Bolton and Maeve Houlihan (eds) SEARCHING FOR THE HUMAN IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Peter Boxall and John Purcell STRATEGY AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (3RD EDN) J. Martin Corbett CRITICAL CASES IN ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Susan Corby, Steve Palmer and Esmond Lindop RETHINKING REWARD Ian Greener PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (2ND EDN) Keith Grint LEADERSHIP Irena Grugulis SKILLS, TRAINING AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Geraldine Healy, Gill Kirton and Mike Noon (eds) EQUALITY, INEQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY Damian Hodgson and Svetlana Cicmil (eds) MAKING PROJECTS CRITICAL Marek Korczynski HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE WORK Karen Legge HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: ANNIVERSARY EDITION Patricia Lewis and Ruth Simpson (eds) GENDERING EMOTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS Patricia Lewis and Ruth Simpson (eds) VOICE, VISIBILITY AND THE GENDERING OF ORGANIZATIONS Alison Pullen, Nic Beech and David Sims (eds) EXPLORING IDENTITY Jill Rubery and Damian Grimshaw THE ORGANISATION OF EMPLOYMENT Hugh Scullion and Margaret Linehan (eds) INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT John Walton and Claire Valentin (eds) HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT For more information on titles in the Series please go to www.palgrave.com/business/mwo Series Standing Order If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, UK WORKERS AND LABOUR IN A GLOBALISED CAPITALISM Contemporary Themes and Theoretical Issues Edited by Maurizio Atzeni Lecturer in Labour and Industrial Relations and Marie Curie Research Fellow, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, UK Selection, editorial matter and Introduction © Maurizio Atzeni 2014 Individual chapters © contributors 2014 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. 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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–30317–1 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY CONTENTS List of Abbreviations vii Notes on Contributors ix Introduction: Neo-Liberal Globalisation and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Labour and Collective Action 1 Maurizio Atzeni Part 1 Theoretical Issues: Explaining the Centrality of Labour within Capitalism 1 Marx and Marxist Views on Work and the Capitalist Labour Process 25 David A. Spencer 2 Theorising the Working Class in Twenty-First-Century Global Capitalism 46 Beverly Silver 3 Who is the Working Class? Wage Earners and Other Labourers 70 Marcel van der Linden 4 The Reproduction of Labour Power in the Global Economy and the Unfinished Feminist Revolution 85 Silvia Federici Part 2 Classical Issues: Explaining Workers’ Resistance and Organisation 5 The Role of Trade Unions in Building Resistance: Theoretical, Historical and Comparative Perspectives 111 Ralph Darlington v 6 Workers Organising Workers: Grass-Roots Struggle as the Past and Future of Trade Union Renewal 139 Sheila Cohen 7 The Workers’ Control Alternative 161 Maurizio Atzeni Part 3 Contemporary Issues: Workers Organising in the Global World 8 Informal Labour, Factory Labour or the End of Labour? Anthropological Reflections on Labour Value 181 Massimiliano Mollona 9 New Forms of Labour Conflict: A Transnational Overview 210 Gregor Gall 10 Labour Migration and Emergent Class Conflict: Corporate Neo-liberalism, Worker Mobility and Labour Resistance in the US 230 Immanuel Ness Index 251 vi Contents ABBREVIATIONS AFL American Federation of Labor AFL-CIO American Feberation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations BRIC Brazil, Russia, India and China CA Companha do Aco CGT Confédération Générale du Travail CIO Congress of Industrial Organizations CNU Cameroon National Union ECB European Central Bank EWC Excluded Workers Congress FLOC Farm Labour Organizing Committee GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades HRM Human Resource Management ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement ILO International Labour Organization IMF International Monetary Fund IRCA Immigration Reform and Control Act ITUC International Trade Union Confederation IWW Industrial Workers of the World JIT just in time LIUNA Laborers’ International Union of North America NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NEC New European Countries NGO non-governmental organisation NICs newly industrialising countries NIT New Information Technology NLRA National Labor Relations Act NOWCRJ New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice vii OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PCP Petty Commodity Producers ROI Return on Investment SEIU American Service Employees’ Industrial Union SMU Social movement unionism SMVR Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Volta Rodonda TNCs Transnational Corporations ULRs Union Learning Reps USAID United States Agency for International Development WTO World Trade Organization viii List of Abbreviations CONTRIBUTORS Maurizio Atzeni is Marie Curie Research Fellow at Loughborough University, UK and at CEIL/CONICET in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His research focuses on forms and processes of workers’ resistance and organisation. He is the author of a book on workplace conflict and collective action (Workplace Con- flict, Mobilisation and Solidarity in Argentina) and editor of Alternative Forms of Work Organisation. He has also published journal articles and book chap- ters on mobilisation theory, workers’ self-management and trade unionism in Argentina. Sheila Cohen is a trade union researcher and writer. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Work and Research Unit (WERU), University of Hertfordshire. She is the author of Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power and How to Get It Back, and most recently a history of the main trade union branch at Ford Dagenham in the UK, Notoriously Militant. Ralph Darlington is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Salford, UK. His research is concerned with the dynamics of trade union organisation, activity and consciousness in Britain and internationally within both contemporary and historical settings. He is author of The Dynamics of Workplace Unionism, The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy, Syndicalism