Globalization for the Organized Labor Movement in Rich Countries - Essay Example

?Globalization is an unstoppable force, which is slowly spreading throughout the world and influencing many things, which were once thought to be only specific to certain regions. Globalization had not only had a huge impact on the political and economic arena of the world but it has also had far-reaching effects on the labor movements in rich countries. It has captured the attention of many of these labor movements in all the levels at which they are involved, be it national or regional and it has made them aware of the changing labor trends in the world today. In this paper, we shall be looking at the impact of globalization on the labor movement of developed countries and how these impacts affect these movements. The process of globalization, with the liberal economic policies, which have been adopted by many countries, has come to weaken the strong foundation upon which many trade unions have been built. Globalization has intensified the economic competition among the various developed nations of the world and to increase this competitiveness, these countries have adopted very liberal trade policies to ensure that their products remain at the top of the global market. These new policies have had an impact on trade unions in very negative way because one of their key parts are the legal restrictions which have been placed on the rights of workers for the sake of a higher efficiency of the economy. A major consequence of these restrictions has been the fact that trade unions in these countries have come to lose those rights, which they had struggled for many years to gain, and this has ensured that the political foundations of such trade unions have been increasingly weakened1. At the same time, the liberal policies that have been brought about by globalization have been creates more in favor of the employers than the workers. These policies advocate for the flexibility of the labor market and this has meant that the labor market has been deregulated and that employers have been empowered in areas the hiring of workers, their firing, the choice of how much to pay them, as well as the choice of the use of labor. As a result of this, informal employment and other cheap forms of labor have become prevalent because employers prefer them not only for the cheapness of wages paid to them, but also for the fact that they do not have to cover them in such matters as insurance and safety. This has made it very difficult for trade unions to be able to organize workers into the powerful force that they previously were because many of these informally employed people are not members of unions. The swift change in the development of equipment as well as the globalization of the economy has led to the acceleration of structural adjustment. With the division of labor on the international scene, some of the developed countries have opted to shift those enterprises that they consider labor intensive to other countries where there is cheaper labor. This has led to the trade unions in these countries to lose those industrial sectors, which had been their traditional bases of support. To add to this, the use of new technologies in such traditional industries as steel, manufacturing and construction has led to the drop in the demand for labor from these industries due to the fact that most of the labor within them has become redundant. Moreover, the traditional ways through which trade unions worked have been challenged by the development of the Information Technology and other related industries, and it is against this background that trade union activities in developed countries, are on the decline2. Globalization has enabled the speeding up of the work of trade unions at an international level. Trade unions have developed as a product of the social and economic conflicts that have been brought about by industrial disputes. They gain their legitimacy through their legalization at a national level and they function as the protectors of the rights of the workers who fall within their jurisdiction. Due to the globalization of the economy, capital has also rapidly become global meaning that, there are challenges to the traditional means through which trade unions protect workers. Furthermore, globalization has brought about the internationalization of labor disputes and this has become a problem for many local trade unions, which have no international jurisdiction. This has brought about the need for the development of international trade unions to cater for the needs of workers at an international level because many companies have become multinationals with great global influence. In many countries in the developed world, it has become a tendency by employers to oppose trade unionism in their countries stating that they are an inconvenience to the day-to-day running of their operations. There is evidence to show that employers are taking any action that they think is necessary to ensure that an environment free of trade unions is maintained. They have come to influence the government so much that any reforms made by the government tend to restrict the focus on the interest of the organized labor movement. It has been found that many workers have the desire to have a union to represent their interests but what concerns them about joining unions is the fact that their employers are very hostile to organized labor. Moreover, the management of the company for which these people work tend to be very non-cooperative with unions and in fact, the legal and institutional arrangements often give the management a very large capacity to influence the process of the unionization of their workers3. Germany is a good situation to consider when dealing with the issue of employer hostility to unions. Many employers in Germany have demanded that a change should be made to the collective bargaining mechanism with unions stating that they want this agreement to be limited to matters concerning only wages and working hours. Furthermore, they would like these agreements to have an escape clause, which will allow them not to implement the terms of the agreements made whenever they want to. They suggest that the rest of the issues other than the above should be a matter of negotiation between individual companies and their employees. Union membership in Germany has been on the decline over the last twenty years and this has been mainly due to the hidden offensive being made against unions by firms, which employ their members. There has been a bid by many major firms to ensure that the influence of unions over their workers and activities are reduced to insignificance and this has come under the guise of reform. These firms would like a reduction in the social benefits received by workers and the removal of guarantees protecting the jobs of workers in firms with few employees. As can be seen, the general trend of many reforms in matters concerning trade unions has the motive of reducing their power, and all this is because of globalization. Globalization has brought about the reduction of workers’ wages in the developed world and this has resulted in very harsh economic times for many. The proposal to raise the minimum wages in these countries has been fiercely contested by employer firms. Workers today find themselves at a disadvantage because many of the unions, which they previously depended on for support, are slowly being deprived of their powers to act and this through the actions of companies. The hostility of employers towards trade unions as well as the job insecurity of workers who are members of such unions has ensured that many workers choose not to join them. They have instead chosen to remain outside of unions in order to make sure that their jobs are secure in the long term. The lack of members in unions has made it very difficult for them to marshal enough numbers to take the necessary action to counter the attacks that are being made against the unions’ right to protect workers. Globalization has made companies so secure in their power that they are able to challenge the once great influence of trade unions for the sake of having their way with their workers. It has become common practice for companies facing problems from unions in their home countries to move their most essential plants to developing countries where labor is cheap and the trade unions are not as well organized or are nonexistent. This has led to a loss of trade unions as many of their members have lost their jobs through these actions, and this has also led to a great reduction to the member contributions which are needed to keep them running. In this case, it can confidently be said the companies are practically bankrupting the trade unions in the developed countries out of existence. The desperation caused by this situation has forced many workers to take up jobs at low wages, which they normally would not have taken if globalization had not taken place4. The attempt by unions in developed countries to regain their power to protect the rights of workers has led to divisions within their various leaderships. One group of union leaders believes that the best course of action is to use their political influence to keep the trade agreements and tariffs of their respective governments from further eroding the standards of living, which their members are currently having. Another group of leaders on the other hand believes that the best thing for unions to do is to concentrate all their efforts in bringing into the fold of the unions the people who work in the growing service sector since these had been previously ignored. The latter group also believes that all the trade and tariff agreements made by the government have provisions for the basic human rights and the wages to be received by workers5. Because of globalization, corporate businesses have been over time getting bigger and bigger and this has led to an intense competition between those corporations based in the developed world. This competition has led to many of these corporations to look for every means possible to reduce the cost of production of goods while still making a profit. Since trade unions have traditionally worked towards the giving of workers’ wages which are in proportion to the work they have done, these corporations have chosen to attack trade unions to such an extent that they are unable to make any significant demands from them. In this way, corporations have managed to cut the wages of workers and even their jobs in a bid to maintain their competitiveness in the global market. The average union worker is increasingly becoming aware of the fact that globalization has not brought them the benefits which politicians and their statistics had promised them. Instead, they are now facing many problems that have been brought on them by globalization such as getting a lower income when compared to previous years as well as being very insecure in their jobs. Furthermore, they have now become aware that globalization has only benefitted those who own the means of production, namely their employers, while they themselves have been left out in the cold, so to speak. Globalization has seen the gap between the rich, the poor grow wider, and this has had a huge impact on the current lifestyle of people. Union workers, many of who formed a large chunk of the lower middle class in developed countries have now been pushed down into the lower classes of society as the power of their unions to protect them has waned. In addition to this, unions have recently seen some of the lowest levels of their membership since their formation and perhaps this is due to the development of a lack of confidence in them by workers. Many union members feel that the greatest cause of the weakening of unions is the corporate greed, which is condoned by government as well as the economic maneuvers being made by these corporations on a global scale. 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