Globalization and labor

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Metalworker union's aim: globalization
By Peter Tirschwell, Journal of Commerce, 28 May 1997. Meeting in San Francisco to set its agenda for the next four years, the International Metalworkers Federation laid out an ambitious program to organize workers in developing countries while expanding alliances among unions in different countries in reaction to the globalization of labor.
U.N. report foresees worker backlash
By Bhushan Bahree, The Wall Street Journal, 16 September 1997. Western industrialized nations are the leaders so far in globalization, but they may face a political backlash from the middle class over growing job insecurity, a United Nations report says.
Globalisation Devastates Women, Say Unions
By Thalif Deen, InterPress Service, 4 March 1998. A coalition of more than 200 trade union affiliates is blaming free trade—and globalisation of the world economy—for a rapid deterioration in the social and economic standing of women throughout the world.
US Transnationals Accused of Waging Dirty War on Workers
By Alicia Fraerman, InterPress Service, 15 March 1999. U.S. transnational corporations that distribute bananas are waging a “dirty war” against workers in Central America, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).
Decent work for all in a global economy: An ILO perspective
ILO Statement to the WTO meeting, submitted by Juan Samovia, Director-General International Labour Office, December 1999. In spite of the benefits that trade liberalization can confer in terms of a better allocation of resources, greater economic efficiency, and higher growth, it has failed to deliver fully on the goal of raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand.
UN labor head says trade fails have-nots
Associated Press, The Age, Wednesday 16 February 2000. The head of the world's top labor organisation yesterday criticised globalisation for spawning a “casino economy” and failing to provide decent work for millions in the developing world.
Globalisation: the plight of billions stressed
By Reneé Grawitzky, Business Day, 30 March 2000. Multinational corporations remained the main beneficiaries of globalisation as more than 1,3-billion people around the world lived on less than $1 a day, an International Confederation of Free Trade Unions report said.
World labour agency counters trade claims
Business Day, Thursday 22 June 2000. Opposition to increasing globalisation and trade liberalisation is rooted in the greater insecurity they have caused for many income earners, according to the ILO's World Labour Report Income Security and Social Protection in a Changing World, which was released yesterday.
What globalization means to working people
By John Gallo, People's Weekly World, 20 April 2002. On every continent, the lives of working people are deteriorating. If they're not working from dawn to dusk for not enough to live on, they are being bombed and made homeless. Is it due to “globalization,” or greed, or laziness? Or is there something more fundamental, something less obvious, behind the world's current problems.
Globalisation sets scene for migrants' hyper-exploitation
By Terry Bell, Business Report, 1 November 2002. Globalisation and the deregulation of labour markets have created conditions for an international system of hyper-exploitation of migrant labour.
When back-office work moves overseas
From Knowledge@Wharton, special to CNET News.com, 3 November 2002. It may be good for business owners to shift back-office operations overseas, but is it good for workers? Critics say workers in the developing world can be exploited, and U.S. clerks, accountants and call center workers are by no means guaranteed a decent-paying replacement job.