Jörg Nowak and Marco Santana (2023) "Social Media and Collective Action in Brazil" Socialism and Democracy

Nowak, Jörg and Marco Santana. 2023. “Social Media and Collective Action in Brazil: The Experience of Truck Drivers and Delivery Workers.” Socialism and Democracy, online first, 17 May, pp. 1-21. 

Introduction

Collective action by workers and the role of social media have received increasing attention in the recent years (Lazar et al. Citation2018; Garelli Citation2020; Maffie Citation2020). This research is embedded in a larger literature about the logics of connective action (Bennett and Segerberg Citation2012) which are distinguished from an earlier logic of collective action (Offe and Wiesenthal Citation1980) with connective action exhibiting a specific organizational dynamic.

In this article, we address the experiences of delivery workers and truck drivers in Brazil with social media as an instrument of workers’ organizing and an element of collective action. We will ask more specifically about the role of social media in the 2018 truckers’ strike and the 2020 national strike of app-based delivery workers, Breque dos apps (Apps Brake). We explore both the possibilities and limits of the use of social media for worker action.

Jörg Nowak (2023) "The Pandemic Politics of the Bolsonaro Government in Brazil"

Nowak, Jörg. 2023. “The Pandemic Politics of the Bolsonaro Government in Brazil: COVID-19 Denial, the Chloroquine Economy and High Death Rates.” Pp. 105-23 in The Political Economy of Global Responses to COVID-19, edited by Alan W. Cafruny and Leila Simona Talani. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Addresses how different political regimes tackled the pandemic

• Looks at the global response to the pandemic and tackles the political economy response to COVID 19

• Covers all global regions based on rigorous primary research

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series (IPES)

Pablo Pérez Ahumada (2023) Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform

Pérez Ahumada, Pablo. 2023. “Trade Union Strength, Business Power, and Labor Policy Reform: The Cases of Argentina and Chile in Comparative Perspective.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Ahead-of-print edition (March 26).

Abstract

In this article, I explain why pro-labor reforms succeed or fail. Focusing on the cases of Argentina and Chile, I show that labor reforms are more successful in extending trade union rights when unions successfully build associational power and employers are less able to do so. Consistent with this argument, a quantitative analysis of time-series cross-sectional data from 78 countries suggests that the level of class power disparity is negatively correlated with the extension of workers’ collective rights. At the end of the article, I discuss how these results have implications for the study of labor reforms and power resources.

Keywords

Employer associations, labor reforms, labor rights, Latin America, power resources, trade unions

Michele Ford, Michael Gillan, and Htwe Htwe Thein (2023) Calling multinational enterprises to account

Ford, Michele, Michael Gillan, and Htwe Htwe Thein. 2023. “Calling Multinational Enterprises to Account: CSOs, Supranational Institutions and Business Practices in the Global South.” Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, pp. 1-15.

Abstract

How do civil society organizations (CSOs) use state-backed supranational institutions to call multinational enterprises (MNEs) to account? There are few studies of precisely how CSOs—union and other—use institutional power in global value chain (GVC) governance or the impact of institutional change on actor behaviour. To address this gap, we assess the impact of changes in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on CSO engagement with MNEs, comparing complaints lodged by CSOs before and after the Guidelines were revised in June 2011 to accommodate the rise in global prominence of the human rights and business frame. In our analysis, we focus on how constitutive and institutional power plays out in GVC governance, with special attention to the impact of institutional change on actor behaviour. Our analysis reveals that this state-backed mechanism provides CSOs with a structure through which to address human rights violations in some MNEs’ supply chains but also that, despite its high degree of reflexivity, ongoing design flaws limit its capacity to address the uneven distribution of power not only between CSOs and MNEs, but among CSOs themselves. In doing so, we draw attention to the need for further research on the dynamic multilevel interactions between the configuration and adjustment of supranational institutions and how these mediate CSO and MNE interactions.

Michele Ford, Michael Gillan, and Kristy Ward (2023) Beyond the brands

Ford, Michele, Michael Gillan, and Kristy Ward. 2023. “Beyond the Brands: COVID‐19, Supply Chain Governance, and the State–Labor Nexus.” Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 62(2): 172-188.

Abstract

This article analyses the role played by brands, producer-country governments, and unions in mitigating the impact of disruptions caused to garment supply chains by COVID-19 in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Its findings challenge brand-centric accounts, highlighting the need for more serious consideration of the dynamic, relational nature of labor governance—and, in particular, of the role of the state–labor nexus in determining producer-country  unions'  ability  to  exercise  strategic  agency  within global supply chains.

Charles Weathers, , Shinji Kojima and Scott North (2023) Litigating Equal Pay for Equal Work in Japan, 2012–2020

Weathers, Charles, Shinji Kojima and Scott North. 2023. “Litigating Equal Pay for Equal Work in Japan, 2012-2020.” Journal of Contemporary Asia, pp. 1-21.

ABSTRACT

Litigation and courts have been important arbiters of labour policy reforms aimed at redressing Japan’s growing social inequality. This article considers seven lawsuits brought by non-regular workers, who sought to use Article 20 of the 2012 Labour Contracts Act to gain equal pay for equal work. All seven cases reached Japan’s Supreme Court amid Abe Shinzo’s 2018 labour reforms. The Court’s interpretations reaffirmed employer discretion in categorising employees as a reasonable principle, albeit one which limits the law’s power to redress wage inequality. However, the Court also found the non-provision of various minor benefits to be unreason-able. These outcomes evince a pattern in which litigation margin-ally transforms reformed labour policy into institutional support for greater equality of compensation and benefits between workers of different statuses. More than advancing equal pay for equal work, the outcomes of these cases support recent government-industry campaigns to boost productivity by encouraging increased use of job-based treatment and diversifying Japan’s employment system.

KEYWORDS

Equal pay for equal work; inequality; Japan; non-regular employment; Work Style Reform

2023 Journal of Contemporary Asia

Ahttps://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2183140

Kim Scipes (2023) The Growing Crisis of the Colorado River

Scipes, Kim. 2023. “The Growing Crisis of the Colorado River: A Sign to Us All.”  ZNetwork, April 24. (The river has actually dropped 40 feet since the picture was taken in 2018—and the lake is 110 miles long!)

Kim Scipes, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, Indiana, and has taught a course on “Environment and Social Justice” since 2006.  Raised in the desert Southwest and a 1969 graduate of Alhambra High School in Phoenix, Dr. Scipes has lived, worked, traveled, and served in the US Marine Corps in the Southwest, where his siblings still live.  The author of four books, his “Climate Change, Environmental Destruction, and Social Justice” web page can be reached at https://www.pnw.edu/faculty/kim-scipes-ph-d/publications/climate-change-publication/.