Unions in the Global Economy.(Statistical Data Included)

Introduction

There are two main points expressed in this set of articles. First, globalization is complex and challenging, requiring a conversation among the many workers who have had direct experience with its effects--such as its impact on jobs, immigration, coordinated bargaining, and sweatshop monitoring--and providing a constant reminder of the workers' ownership of the struggle. Second, there is the continuous need to work in coalitions beyond borders.

The articles in this special issue attempt to illustrate the complexity of the globalization debate and thus, by implication, the breadth of the subjects that need to be understood so that working people can construct a political and trade union agenda that will meet our needs.

Indeed, the very word "globalization" may not be the correct term to describe the phenomena of worldwide economic domination by the most powerful capitalist countries. Somehow globalization does not capture the reality of falling living standards, attacks on trade unions, forced emigration, and thus immigration, job loss, and the disruption of entire communities. Nor does globalization capture the reality of huge increases in the living standards and wealth of the top 10 percent of the world's population.

The papers presented in this special issue of the Labor Studies Journal are arranged in order to take the reader from general issues to specific analyses. We have also tried to arrange them in chronological order.

James M. Cypher's paper, "NAFTA's Lessons: From Economic Mythology to Current Realities," describes the myths surrounding the so-called free trade debate. Cypher shows that securing safety for capital and enhancing capital mobility are the real objects of this legislation. He systematically compares the gains that were predicted by the proponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the reality of the NAFTA policies on working people and the economies of the United States and Mexico. He concludes by urging the passage and "meticulous enforcement" of Core Labor Standards as part of NAFTA. He also notes that the economic realities of Mexican and U.S. relations can and must be reflected in equally deep linkages between working people, and their unions, on both sides of the border.

Mark Anner looks at the process of globalization from a different perspective in his work "Labor and Economic Globalization in Eastern Europe and Latin America." Unique among most scholars in the discussion of globalization, he focuses on a comparison between eastern Europe and Latin America, particularly El Salvador. He has also used a structural analysis of industry as a means of describing a major aspect of the new manufacturing--namely a system of segmented production. This analysis of the production system provides insight into how the structure of the export-oriented industries in eastern Europe and Latin America are in fact quite similar--even if the products, culture, and recent history are different. He also notes that the social policies of the firms engaged in this type of production seem similar in their hostility to unions, precarious employment, low wages, and isolation from the rest of the economy of the country. Indeed, it almost seems these plants are parasitic, in that they draw manpower and skills from the local economy while giving little back. Since the manufacture of clothing has long been a segmented industry, Anner concludes his article with a detailed description of how workers in El Salvador have attempted to overcome the power of the maquiladora firms that use the flexibility and mobility of segmented production to maintain low wages and oppressive working conditions and to keep out unions.