Documents Lohmeyer, Nora 4 results

"Global supply chains in the garment industry are marked by labour standard violations in factories as well as retail stores. Against this background it is important to strengthen the bargaining power of workers along the supply chain. Establishing direct relationships among workers along the supply chain could be one way to achieve this aim. This paper builds on extant literature on transnational solidarity and highlights the specific challenges of understanding solidarity in a transnational social space by looking at the empirical context of global garment supply chains. It hereby seeks to go beyond treating “solidarity” as a mere metaphor for any form of transnational union or worker cooperation, and instead engages with the cultural-normative dimensions of the concept as referring to mutual bonds among groups of workers. By looking at the case of the ExChains network, this paper examines some of the opportunities and challenges involved in establishing and maintaining transnational worker solidarity. The paper concludes by discussing the transformative potential, but also the limits of transnational labour solidarity regarding substandard working conditions in global supply chains."

"Using qualitative data from interviews with multiple respondents in 45 garment brands and retailers, as well as respondents from unions and other stakeholders, the authors analyze the emergence of the Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) living wages initiative. They ask how the inter-firm coordination and firm–union cooperation demanded by a multi-firm transnational industrial relations agreement (TIRA) developed. Synthesizing insights from the industrial relations and private governance literatures along with recent collective action theory, they identify a new pathway for the emergence of multi-firm TIRAs based on common group understandings, positive experiences of interaction, and trust. The central finding is that existing union-inclusive governance initiatives provided a platform from which spillover effects developed, facilitating the formation of new TIRAs. The authors contribute a new mapping of labor governance approaches on the dimensions of inter-firm coordination and labor inclusiveness, foregrounding socialization dynamics as a basis for collective action and problematizing the limited scalability of this mode of institutional emergence."

"Globale Wertschöpfungsnetzwerke haben als Organisationsform ökonomischer Aktivitäten in den letzten Jahrzehnten deutlich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Zurückgeblieben ist demgegenüber trotz der massiven Betroffenheit vieler Interessengruppen – nicht nur, aber besonders der Beschäftigten – eine effektive Vertretung der Interessen. Dies gilt zwar auch für die zumeist im globalen Norden angesiedelten Leitunternehmen solcher Netzwerke, mehr aber noch für die an den Netzwerkrändern im globalen Süden zu verortenden Organisationen. Gleichwohl finden sich hier wie dort Ansatzpunkte für eine effektive Vertretung nicht nur, aber vor allem der Interessen von Beschäftigten.

Interest representation in global production networks – Theoretical perspectives and empirical insights

Global production or value networks have gained significantly in importance as organizational forms of economic activity over the past decades. A by-product of this development, however, despite the widespread concern it has caused among many interest groups – not only, but especially among employees –, is an effective interest representation. This applies to the leading firms of such networks, most of which are located in the global North, but even more so to the organizations located at the networks' peripheries in the global South. Nonetheless, starting points for effective representation of the interests of employees and others are emerging here and there."