Jörg Nowak (2021) Brazil after the Collapse (SP)

Nowak, Jörg. 2021. “Brazil after the Collapse.” Socialist Project. 13 April.

Health experts warned about it for weeks. In early March, the Brazilian health system entered a state of collapse under the weight of a nationwide spike in COVID-19 infections. Hospitals were not able to attend to all patients who needed treatment. By the end of March, all over Brazil, more than 6000 people were waiting for an ICU bed, most of them in overcrowded health centres and emergency wards without the necessary equipment and personnel for treatment.

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Nora Räthzel (2021) “Trade Union Perceptions of the Labour - Nature Relationship” (Environmental Sociology)

Räthzel, Nora. 2021. “Trade Union Perceptions of the Labour - Nature Relationship.” Environmental Sociology. First Published 25 March, pp. 1-12.

ABSTRACT

This paper is based on research with environmentally engaged trade unionists in India. It follows their trajectories into the trade union and explores their environmental engagements. A short presentation of the history of Indian trade unionism, aims to understand its ‘multi-unionism’. Analysing three exemplary life-histories of unionists, their motivations to engage in unions and their relationships to workers and to poor people, three models of perceiving the labour-nature relationship are offered: the container model, nature as a mediator of survival, and the nature-labour alliance. I show that the way in which unionists perceive the labour-nature relationship is shaped by their practices and influences their environmental policies. Furthermore, trade unions who seek alliances with other social movements on equal terms, develop a more comprehensive perception of the labour-nature relationship and thereby the development of more wide-ranging environmental policies. I conclude suggesting that the conditions enabling a more comprehensive perception of the labour-nature relationship could become possible if workers along the value chain could collaborate to learn from each other about their working conditions and the natures they transform.

KEYWORDS: 

Environmental Labour Studieslabour-Nature Allianceworker environmentalismsocial movement unionism

Mark Levinson, with Jenny Chan (2021) "Dreams and Defiance in Foxconn" Dissent (Spring)

Levinson, Mark, with Jenny Chan. 2021. “Dreams and Defiance in Foxconn City: An Interview with Jenny Chan.” Dissent (Spring): 33-40. 

China’s rapid economic growth is built on a factory system that relies on hundreds of millions of exploited workers. In the face of repression, those workers have found creative ways to resist.

Bradon Ellen (2021) Labour and Megaprojects (The Economic and Labour Relations Review)

Ellem, Bradon. 2021. “Labour and Megaprojects: Rethinking Productivity and Industrial Relations Policy.” The Economic and Labour Relations Review. First Published 12 January, pp. 1-18. 

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has brought industrial relations policy to the centre of attention in many countries. In 2020, the Australian government convened tripartite bodies to address policy in several areas, one being for agreement-making to cover labour on ‘megaprojects’. This initiative revisited criticisms of unions for driving costs up and productivity down on these worksites, the most expensive of which had been Chevron’s Gorgon site, a liquefied natural gas project off the north-west Australian coast. Drawing on four usually siloed literatures – on industrial relations policy, megaprojects, the economic geography of resources and labour process – this article explains concerns about costs, delays and productivity in terms of project work itself. This approach leads to a different understanding of the merits of changing policy to address megaproject’s problems and productivity more broadly.

JEL Codes: J52, J58, L71

Keywords Agreement-making, economic geography, industrial relations policy, labour, labour process, liquefied natural gas, megaprojects, productivity, unions