Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Workers in the Global Economy
- 2 Producing Globally
- 3 Inside and Out
- 4 Conceptualizing Workers’ Rights
- 5 The Overall Picture
- 6 Varieties of Capitalists?
- 7 Labor Rights, Economic Development, and Domestic Politics
- 8 Conclusions and Issues for the Future
- Appendix Data and Coding
- References
- Index
4 - Conceptualizing Workers’ Rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Workers in the Global Economy
- 2 Producing Globally
- 3 Inside and Out
- 4 Conceptualizing Workers’ Rights
- 5 The Overall Picture
- 6 Varieties of Capitalists?
- 7 Labor Rights, Economic Development, and Domestic Politics
- 8 Conclusions and Issues for the Future
- Appendix Data and Coding
- References
- Index
Summary
The status of workers in developing countries involves a range of issues. For instance, are workers routinely exposed to hazardous chemicals, or are women who become pregnant subject to dismissal? Or do labor inspectors visit factories unannounced, and do their inspection findings lead to an improvement in health and safety standards? Are workers paid for overtime work, and is the length of the work week limited to a certain number of hours? Do union members and union organizers face intimidation and threats of violence? Are employees who work in export processing zones (EPZs) able to leave their factories and dormitories? Do factories routinely employ children under the age of fifteen, even when international standards and domestic law prohibit this? As we consider the empirical linkages between multinational production and workers, we could treat one or more of these as our dependent variable.
Indeed, many accounts of workers’ status in developing countries – and particularly of workers employed by multinational corporations or their local subcontractors – focus on such outcomes. During the last decade, awareness-raising campaigns regarding workers in developing countries have focused on child labor in the soccer ball industry in Sialkot, Pakistan; working conditions and wages on Honduran banana plantations, especially those subcontracting for Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte; and the right to organize of garment-sector workers in the Philippines’ Cavite Export Processing Zone.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Labor Rights and Multinational Production , pp. 99 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010