Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

1 primary work • 2 total works

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

by Ursula Huws

Published 20 May 2010

This is Volume 4 No 1 of the international interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation. When the irresistible force of globalisation meets the immovable object of specific national labour laws, industrial relations and working practices, as the song goes, 'something's gotta give'. This issue explores what gives when work is reshaped in this encounter. Pummeled between the rock of global market forces on the one hand and national laws, traditions and cultures on the other, how is work being reshaped in different industries and countries and what price is being paid by workers in their daily lives? How are national policies and trade union strategies able to resist the impact of global forces? And what other factors are shaping the experience of work in the 21st century?

The New Gold Rush

by Ursula Huws

Published 14 January 2009

Over the past few years a new breed of multinationals has arrived, almost unnoticed, on the scene. Like early capitalist adventurers, they have found a rich new source of wealth to exploit. But this seam of gold is to be found, not in the mountains of California or the depths of Africa but at the very heart of the welfare states of the developed world. This important collection of essays anatomises the emergence of the 'public services industry' and analyses the way in which government services have been commodified so that they can be privatised or outsourced. It charts the growth of the global companies that have sprung up to supply these services and documents the devastating impact on workers, including work intensification, casualisation, loss of union protection and erosion of occupational identities. It also explores the changing relationship between the state and the private sector and the implications for democracy of developments which transform citizens into shoppers.