Workers have basic rights that should not be violated, notwithstanding the geographical locale of their work. But those rights often appear to conflict with the economic and commercial needs of both developing nations and multinational enterprises. Creative approaches are necessary if workers' rights are to coexist with commercial success, or even survival. This book introduces the current global labor milieu and showcases innovative solutions via original case studies (e.g., Nike, Levi Strauss), which demonstrate how multinational enterprises can respect worker rights while benefiting from the economic advantages of a global labor market. Part I provides an overview of global labor challenges from a broad variety of perspectives, including economics, public policy, philosophy, and strategic management. The facts and contention of the new sweatshop school of thought are analyzed, along with industrialization and utilization of labor in developing countries; the application of basic human rights to the circumstances of workers; the unique role of nongovernmental organizations in the debate over global labor practices; and the Total Responsibility Management approach to implementing improved labor practices. Part II analyzes case studies, based on original field research, of well-known global corporations. The examined programs provide examples of innovative responses by multinational firms, the International Labor Organization, and other NGOs to challenges regarding global labor practices. These cases can help other firms avoid the unhappy dilemma of either exploiting workers and enduring a public relations backlash, or terminating operations in various developing nations. The true solution lies in companies respecting worker rights, while benefiting from the economic advantages of a global labor market.

Long hours, low wages, and unsafe workplaces characterized sweatshops a hundred years ago. These same conditions plague American trucking today. Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation exposes the dark side of government deregulation in America's interstate trucking industry. In the years since deregulation in 1980, median earnings have dropped 30% and most long-haul truckers earn less than half of pre-regulation wages. Work weeks average more than sixty hours. Today, America's long-haul truckers are working harder and earning less than at any time during the last four decades. Written by a former long-haul trucker who now teaches industrial relations at Wayne State University, Sweatshops on Wheels raises crucial questions about the legacy of trucking deregulation in America and casts provocative new light on the issue of government deregulation in general.

Unmaking the Global Sweatshop gathers the work of leading anthropologists and ethnographers studying the global garment industry's impact on workers' well-being and examines the relationship between the politics of labor and initiatives to protect workers' health and safety.

This book explores how sweatshops provide the best opportunity to workers and the role they play in the process of development.

Thisÿ14-hourÿfree course explored the globalised production of 'big brand' labels and examined links to sweatshops and the exploitation of workers.

Suitable for undergraduate students, this title combines essays on actual causes and issues that mobilize activists with theory and concepts of social mobilization. It introduces the various causes, actors, and organization of transnational mobilization to provide a survey of cases and theory.

With facts, figures, and trenchant case histories, Jill Fraser chronicles the catastrophic sea change in industry after industry: telecommunications, the media, banking, information technology, Wall Street. Her book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the American economy--or worried about their own job.