Jörg Nowak 2021 Do Choke Points Provide Workers in Logistics with Power? (Review of International Political Economy)

Nowak, Jörg. 2021. “Do Choke Points Provide Workers in Logistics with Power? A Critique of the Power Resources Approach in Light of the 2018 Truckers’ Strike in Brazil.” Review of International Political Economy. Online First, 29 June.

Abstract

Choke points in transport and logistics have been identified as devices of the power of workers in these sectors. The 11 day long strike of around 400,000 Brazilian truck drivers at more than 750 blockades in May 2018 exercised an effective blockade of the national economy but only led to meagre results. The article asks how this mismatch between the power to block the flow of goods and the lack of power to achieve significant improvements of the truckers’ situation can be explained. It demonstrates that analyses with a focus on the power resources of workers fail to understand the larger dynamics at play. The article proposes a political economy of labour as an analytical device that incorporates global economic relations, the characteristics of social formations and political-ideological relations into its ambit. It claims that in order to understand the economic and political leverage of workers in transport and logistics, one has to look at capital as a broader social relation which includes long term development strategies and material constraints like energy systems and infrastructure.

Jörg Nowak 2021 Brazil (Socialist Project, 23 July)

Nowak, Jörg. 2021. “Brazil: Between Pandemic Incompetence, Institutional War and Growing Polarization.” Socialist Project, 23 July.

Three critical issues recently infused themselves on Brazilian politics. First, a parliamentary commission by the Brazilian Senate to investigate the government’s handling of the pandemic is in the process of uncovering a vast network of corruption linked to the purchase of vaccines with the, at least, indirect involvement of president Jair Bolsonaro.

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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

Chris Rhomberg and Steven Lopez (2021) “Understanding Strikes in the 21st Century” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change

Rhomberg, Chris and Steven Lopez. 2021. “Understanding Strikes in the 21^st Century: Perspectives from the USA.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 44: 37-62.

Abstract

After decades of declining strike rates in the industrialized world, recent years have seen a surge of militant walkouts in the global South, political strikes in Europe, and unconventional strikes in nonunion sectors in the United States. This new diversity of strike action calls for a new theoretical framework. In this paper, we review the historical strengths and limits of traditions of strike theory in the United States. Building on the emerging power resources approach, we propose a model based on a multidimensional view of associational power, power resources, and arenas of conflict in the economy, state, and civil society. We demonstrate the utility of our approach via a case analysis of strikes in the “Fight for $15” campaign in the United States.