Dimitris Stevis

Globalization and International Labor Organizing A World-System Perspective

Globalization, the rapid increase in the pace of world market and social integration, is producing a ripening global awareness among all nations and a plethora of international organizations to coordinate and promote its further development. Huge transnational corporations have led the way, followed by neoliberal states, but also included are all kinds of social, scientific, sports, and other international organizations. Missing among the major players are labor unions. Why is globalization not producing transnational labor organization? A world-system perspective is employed to explain that the sources of increased market integration are also culprits in the weakening of unions and the associated decline of the welfare state. The authors overview the current state of international labor politics and examine the prospects of the leading organizations, focusing on North America. The research agenda that is advocated emphasizes a long-term perspective and a new look at the past repertoire of international organizing.

Global labour unions and just transition to a green economy

Questions of justice in the transition to a green economy have been raised by various social forces. Very few proposals, however, have been as focused and developed as the “just transition” strategy proposed by global labour unions. Yet, labour unions are remarkably absent from discussions of the transition towards a green economy. This is surprising as labour unions are arguably the largest organizations in the world fighting for basic rights and more just social relations. This paper tries to advance the potential contribution of labour unions in this arena by asking: what is the full scope of “just transition” today and how have labour unions developed and refined it over the years to render the move towards a green economy both environmentally and socially sustainable? The concept of just transition is hotly debated within labour unions and has different interpretations, and hence different strategies. The last section assesses these interpretations by means of a normative framework, which seeks to fuse political economy and political ecology. Empirically, we add to the growing literature on labour environmentalism, as well as transitions more generally. Analytically, our goal is to place the various approaches to a “just transition” within a heuristic framework of environmental justice that is explicit about power relations when demanding justice, two themes central to this special issue.

Rules and politics in international integration: Environmental regulation in NAFTA and the EU

Deepening global and regional integration has brought in its wake various public policies and public policy proposals. The comparative study of those public policies can shed light on variations amongst them as well as alert us to any common dynamics. Here we offer a systematic comparison of the environmental policies associated with North American and European integration by examining their procedural and substantive rules within their respective political contexts. Not surprisingly, we find that the two regions exhibit obvious differences in their procedural and substantive rules; they also, however, exhibit an important convergence towards market‐based environmental policies and ‘weak ecological modernisation’. This convergence, we suggest, is bound to influence future international environmental policies, given the preponderant role of the two regions in the world political economy.

Implementation of Global Framework Agreements: towards a multi-organizational practice perspective

Over the past decade Global Union Federations have signed an increasing number of Global Framework Agreements, most of which – over 80 per cent – have been with European-based Transnational Corporations. But while Global Framework Agreements are slowly, but continually, increasing in numbers, the results of our empirical research reveal extensive deficits in their implementation. This article begins with a review of these implementation problems and challenges. Drawing on two exemplary case studies, we introduce our multi-organizational practice perspective to illuminate how the contents of Global Framework Agreements as negotiated are linked to implementation, conflict monitoring and resolution procedures. We conclude that there is a need for a systematic and integrated implementation procedure as a means of dealing with the complexity of the Global Framework Agreement process. Our proposal is built on three sets of practices – information dissemination and communication; training programmes; and operational measures – and encompasses both unilateral and joint policies and actions pursued by Global Union Federations and the management of Transnational Corporations.

The politics and dynamics of energy transitions: lessons from Colorado's (USA) “New Energy Economy”:

This article examines the political dynamics of energy transitions in a case study of the State of Colorados (USA) efforts to create a “New Energy Economy” through a series of legislative and administrative actions between January 2007 and January 2011. Drawing on an emerging literature on the politics of social-technical transitions, we argue that transitions involve contestation between and within coalitions of incumbents and challengers, which result in policies that benefit particular actors and a reconfiguration of the core values around which transition policies are articulated. We explore these dynamics through an analysis of the process that led to the adoption of Colorados 30% Renewable Energy Standard in 2010, which is often held up as one of the crowning achievements of the New Energy Economy initiative, in order to illustrate how these political debates shape the nature and trajectory of the transition process.

The globalizations of the environment

Abstract The environment was cast in global terms at least as early as the late 1940s. Ever since, the meanings of environmental globalization have changed to reflect broader developments in the world political economy and the ability of various social forces to frame these developments. In the first part of this article, I discuss my understanding of globalization in order to undermine the facile framing of the environment in globalized terms. This is followed by the main part of the essay, which traces some of the key framings of the global environment since World War II in order to highlight the shifting conceptions of the globalized as well as the politics behind them. I close by very briefly outlining some of the implications of the globalization discourse on our understanding of the environment. The twin goals of this paper are to contribute to the discussion of the environment as a globalized issue as well as to the debates over globalization, more generally.

Translating European Labor Relations Practices to the United States Through Global Framework Agreements? German and Swedish Multinationals Compared

Extensive research has shown that European multinational enterprises (MNEs) have a propensity to avoid collective employee representation when going abroad. This study investigates whether Global Framework Agreements (GFAs) can reverse this pattern by comparing how four European MNEs—two from Germany and two from Sweden—implement GFAs in the United States, a country with weak collective representation rights. The authors find that an MNE’s home country labor relations (LR) system mediates whether GFAs support collective representation in the United States. Sweden’s monistic LR system, in which unions are the dominant organizations legally representing workers, gives unions the power to directly influence the negotiation and implementation of GFAs. By contrast, Germany’s dualistic LR system, in which unions and works councils share worker representation, weakens the influence of unions on implementing the GFA. MNEs’ home country LR systems thus influence how transnational instruments are used to improve collective representation in host countries.

Labour: From national resistance to international politics

Beyond the built‐in agenda, issues which have been proposed by some countries include trade and labour standards (the most potentially controversial of all these subjects). Renato Ruggiero, Director‐General, World Trade Organization (WTO), 28 May 1996

Why achieving the Paris Agreement requires reduced overall consumption and production

Abstract Technological solutions to the challenge of dangerous climate change are urgent and necessary but to be effective they need to be accompanied by reductions in the total level of consumption and production of goods and services. This is for three reasons. First, private consumption and its associated production are among the key drivers of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, especially among highly emitting industrialized economies. There is no evidence that decoupling of the economy from GHG emissions is possible at the scale and speed needed. Second, investments in more sustainable infrastructure, including renewable energy, needed in coming decades will require extensive amounts of energy, largely from fossil sources, which will use up a significant share of the two-degree carbon budget. Third, improving the standard of living of the world’s poor will consume a major portion of the available carbon allowance. The scholarly community has a responsibility to put the issue of consumption and the associated production on the research and policy agenda.

Agents, Subjects, Objects, or Phantoms? Labor, the Environment, and Liberal Institutionalization:

The liberal institutionalization of world politics has engendered a vibrant debate over its form and its content. The proposals range from those aiming at the democratization of international institutions to those that aim to modify them at the margins. This contribution proposes that the democratization of social institutions has both an internal (within an organization or sector) and an external (in relation to whole political economy) dimension. Not surprisingly, unions and environmentalists have limited influence on international institutions when compared to corporations and liberal economic ministries. There is enough evidence, however, that liberal elites are advocating the selective inclusion of liberal unionists and environmentalists at the expense of social unionists and environmentalists. In addition to other responses, social unions and environmentalists should make internal democratization a priority and should utilize domestic fora, where unions and environmentalists have more access and resources, in a manner that embeds domestic tactics within inclusive internationalist strategies.