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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS and FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION Analysis of National Experiences in Europe, America and Asia

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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS and FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION Analysis of National Experiences in Europe, America and Asia Recerca INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION Analysis of national experiences in Europe, America and Asia Ignasi Brunet, Alejandro Pizzi & David Moral INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION Analysis of national experiences in Europe, America and Asia Ignasi Brunet Alejandro Pizzi David Moral Tarragona, València, 2019 Publicacions de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili Av. Catalunya, 35 · 43002 Tarragona Tel. 977 558 474 · [email protected] www.publicacions.urv.cat Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat de València Arts Gràfiques, 13 Baix · 46010 València Tel. 96 386 41 15 · [email protected] https://puv.uv.es 1st edition: March 2019 ISBN URV (paper): 978-84-8424-620-6 ISBN URV (PDF): 978-84-8424-623-7 ISBN UV (paper): 978-84-9134-398-1 ISBN UV (epub): 978-84-9134-399-8 DOI: 10.17345/9788484246206 Legal deposit: T 148-2019 Cite the book. Find the book in our website. Book licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. PublicacionsURV is a member of the Unión de Editoriales Universitarias Españolas and the Xarxa Vives, which ensures the dissemination and sale of its publications nationally and internationally. Summary Introduction ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 Chapter 1. Capitalism, politics and institutions: a conceptual revision 13 Introduction �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13 Systems of accumulation, capitalisms and biopolitics ���������������������������������������������������14 National states and financialisation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Financial accumulation, work and labour relations . .27 Discussion and conclusions �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������33 Chapter 2. Gender, Fordism and post-fordism �������������������������������������������������37 Introduction �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������37 Wage relation and gender order in the Fordist regime �������������������������������������������������40 Genealogy of the Fordist gender order . .42 Wage relation and gender order in post-Fordism ���������������������������������������������������������44 Final comments �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������49 Chapter 3. Industrial Relations in Continental Europe . .51 Introduction �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������51 Financialization and globalization (1990–2017) �����������������������������������������������������������53 Social partners, the state and collective bargaining: specific cases. .60 Germany �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������60 Sweden ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������66 Spain ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������71 Chapter 4. Industrial relations in Eastern Europe . .77 Historically shared aspects . .77 Components of the Eastern European Model . .79 The Russian Federation �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������79 Poland ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������86 Hungary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������96 5 Chapter 5. Industrial relations in Anglo-American countries �������������105 General features of industrial relations . .105 Fordism and social liberalism in the United States and the United Kingdom ���������107 The Conservative revolution �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������110 Labour relations in the United States . .115 Labour relations in the United Kingdom . .119 An Anglo-American model? Common trends and national political specificities ���123 Chapter 6. The Latin American Model of Industrial Relations: The “Flexible Corporatism” of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico . .131 Introduction ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������131 The impact of the process of social and labour-market modernization on Brazil, Argentina and Mexico �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������133 The end of the industrialist cycle . .136 Years of neoliberalism . .138 Latin American neoliberalism at the dawn of the twenty-first century . .142 Employment situation during the post-neoliberal experience in Brazil and Argentina �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������145 Labour relations in Brazil . .147 Labour relations in Argentina �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������151 Labour relations in Mexico ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������156 Concluding remarks ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������159 Chapter 7. Industrial relations in East Asia ������������������������������������������������� 161 The system of labour relations in China . .162 Macroeconomic Data �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������164 China since the proclamation of the Republic . .165 Actors in the field of labour relations . .170 Collective bargaining . .174 The national system of labour relations in India ���������������������������������������������������������176 Macroeconomic Data �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������177 India, from independence to today ���������������������������������������������������������������������������179 Actors in the field of labour relations and collective bargaining in India . .183 Chapter 8. Final remarks: democracy threatened by financial logic .187 Bibliography �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������193 Webography ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������260 6 Introduction Capitalism is now present in almost every state in world, including the former communist territories, which adopted the neo-liberal ideology – “the new reason of the world”, according to Laval & Dardot (2013) – as soon as they opened up to free trade and free movement of capital and reinforced capitalist social relations (Panitch & Gindin, 2015). The nerve centre of neo-liberal ideology is managerialism, represented by the principle of freedom of choice. This principle, in turn, is grounded in “the idea of the “psychological’ subject endowed with propensities he or she tries to realize” (Žižek, 2008:11). To this end, this ideology concludes that all individuals find engaging in relationships with other individuals rationally useful, and that these relationships form a complex system of exchanges that make up the basis of society. This liquid society (Bauman, 2002) dissolves Fordist Workerism’s personal, collective, and political identity and replaces it with “the new spirit of capitalism” (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2002), which prescribes what the new subjectivities committed to creativity and innovation must be like. It is regarded as a mechanism in the hands of rational, informed citizens who try to maximise its use and who, in their search for greater efficiency, have lost faith in public services, unless “they are under the supervision of private companies” (Crouch, 2004: 67) or the cultural values of economic corporations (Parker, 2015). These are based on “spontaneous orders of cooperation” (Hayek, 1985), which are amoral (Comte-Sponville, 2004), and therefore rarely generate dissent, resistance or rebellion due to the strategy of presenting the obligation to choose as freedom of choice (Bauman, 2017), and an example of human rationality. Neo-liberalism, which has triggered countless structural changes, is not simply an ideology that aims to transform the social state in order to guarantee that the market functions smoothly; it is also a technology of power. In this regard, Foucault (2008) discussed the ability of states and governments to have a certain influence on 7 Ignasi Brunet, Alejandro Pizzi & David Moral behaviours and obtain more or less constant obedience (Gago, 2015: 221). To this end, states need to construct and take part in a global market. This was pointed out by Lordon (2012: 31–32), who believes that states, on their own initiative, “freely and deliberately organise an institutional system which deprives them of their sovereignty. They are clearly and willingly creating a situation that makes capital markets dependent (by deregulating them, but also by preventing all other ways of financing deficits) and submits economic policies to their free judgement, since markets are deliberately set up as means of vigilance and normalisation.” Current disorganised capitalism (Lash & Urry, 1987) consists of “business states” (Hedges,
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