Labour Control and Union Agency in Global Production Networks

Front matter

Economic Geography

Iam —

Labour Control and Union Agency in Global Production Networks

Foreword

For a long time, labour and its conditions were neglected in economic geography and related disciplines. The dominant research interest focussed on companies in their competitive regional and international environments. In this context, workers and employees were portrayed in a subordinate role: Theoretical concepts framed the working population either as passive and controlled by capital actors or as a mere location factor in managers’ decision-making processes. However, since the end of the twentieth century, international work in economic geography has started to deal with labour control questions and the active role of blue- and white-collar workers. In this context, female work and gender relations have increasingly come into focus as well.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, labour geography has developed into a highly dynamic field of research focussing on human labour in the context of capitalist production. Within the structural context of capitalist competition, translated into labour control within companies, work organisation is hardly self-determined and provides limited meaningful task designs for many workers. A Taylorist or neo-Taylorist division of labour processes into small tasks often prevents meaningful work. This tendency is further exaggerated due to technological development, such as digitisation. In the context of digital work restructuring, the interests of workers and employees and aspects of attractive task design are often not systematically considered.

How work takes place and how it is controlled differs according to the level of competencies of the workers and employees. In general, the work of professionals is often more demanding and characterised by a higher degree of responsibility and complexity. In contrast, simple work is often repetitive; this is the case, especially for work on the shop floor, such as in factories and logistic centres. The extent of high and low work requirements varies from sector to sector as well as along different stages of the same value chains. Moreover, the geographical location makes a difference: Working conditions differ in the Global North and the Global South (and, on a smaller scale, between regions of a country) and between metropolises and rural areas.

The focus within labour geography on the spatial conditions of labour sheds light on the international integration of local labour and employment relationships on the vi Foreword one hand. Still, it also highlights resistance, labour conflict, co-determination and negotiation, on the other hand. Local institutional settings, embedded in political dynamics (such as labour laws and co-determination laws), and networks of local actors (such as trade unions, works councils and the local state), play a central role here. At the same time, the analysis of local institutions and actors needs to be linked back to the intertwined world economy. Not only companies operate internationally, but also organisations that represent workers’ interests.

The present book by Tatiana López addresses this topic through the lens of a case study of the garment industry in the Indian city of Bangalore and its surrounding areas. The study illustrates the interplay of dynamics of labour control with the agency strategies of worker organisations. The book introduces the reader to current debates at the intersection of labour geography and Global Production Network (GPN) analysis using a relational, practice-oriented research approach. The juxtaposition of ‘decent work’ approaches and critical political-economic perspectives on work control is central to the theoretical concept.

Furthermore, the book addresses a research gap in previous scalar analyses of labour control in GPNs. The relational approach developed by Tatiana López in this book not only reveals how labour control as a structural context is constructed through interrelated practices of different state and capital actors in Bangalore and beyond, but it also sheds light on spaces of intervention and change.

Based on a qualitative, single-embedded case study of Bangalore’s garment export cluster, the book substantiates the constraints for creating decent work. These include, among other things, the recruitment of female surplus labour force from rural areas, tight workplace control by factory managements and ‘pro-business’ state practices. At the same time, the book also shows ‘spaces of labour agency’. In this regard, the study reveals certain yet limited opportunities for improving working and social conditions for labourers in the industrial export sectors of the Global South through international regulation, such as supply chain laws and consumer campaigns. The book illustrates that to bring about sustained improvements of working conditions, building local union bargaining power in production countries remains central.

The book is, therefore, a highly valuable contribution worth reading for anyone interested in human and humane labour, its conditions and potential for improvements. In addition, the book provides valuable cause for thought for scholars involved in theory building in Labour Geography and GPN analysis. It is an important basis for practitioners working in trade unions and international organisations committed to improving working conditions in the global garment industry.

Cologne, Germany Martina Fuchs October 2022

Acknowledgements

This book is the outcome of my Ph.D. research project conducted between 2015 and 2021 at the Department for Economic and Social Geography at the University of Cologne. Here, I wish to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to all the fantastic people I have met on this journey who have supported me in one way or another.

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Martina Fuchs, who has provided me with invaluable academic and practical support throughout all stages of my Ph.D. I would like to also extend my thanks to my second Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Matthias Pilz for reviewing the manuscript for this book and to my mentor Dr. Manuela Maschke. Their tips and support were crucial during the writing process. I am also grateful to my first postdoc supervisor Prof. Martin Krzywdzinski for his support in the publication phase.

Second, I thank my colleagues at the University of Cologne and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center who have been an important part of my journey and who have helped me in so many ways—from bouncing conceptual ideas around over lunch to developing strategies for coping with stress, insecurities and other challenges. In this line, I would like to also thank the student assistants who have helped me transcribe interviews and create maps for this book.

Third, I am grateful to all the fantastic people from the TIE Global union network I have had the luck to meet and work with over the past six years: Thank you for allowing me to become a part of this great network, for the political and theoretical discussions, for the inspiring and motivating meetings and for your friendship.

Fourth, I am deeply indebted to all the people and organisations who have enabled me to conduct the field research for this thesis: first and foremost, the union leaders and activists from GATWU, GLU, KGWU and the AITUC Bangalore chapter who have given me many hours of their valuable time. My sincere appreciation also extends to all other interviewees for sharing their knowledge and insights with me.

Fifth, I am thankful for the financial support from the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, the Global South Studies Centre Cologne and the Department of Social and Economic Geography at the University of Cologne, for my various field research trips. Moreover, I am grateful for funding from the WZB Berlin Social Science viii Acknowledgements

Center, the Leibniz Open Access Monograph Publishing Fund and the Department of Social and Economic Geography at the University of Cologne, who made the open-access publication of this book possible.

Last but not least, I want to thank my family and friends for always being there for me through all the ups and downs. Special thanks go to my husband Bruce for his constant encouragement and support.

Without the input and support from every single individual or organisation mentioned here, this book would not exist.

Cologne Tatiana López October 2022

About This Book

This book explores the conditions that enable and constrain the capacity of local unions in garment producing countries to bring about lasting improvements for workers. It makes the central argument that even in globalised production, local worker power and agency remain central for promoting positive change in working conditions. Theoretically, the book integrates concepts and frameworks from labour geography with Global Production Networks (GPN) analysis and relational, practice-oriented research approaches in economic geography.

After the introductory chapter, which sets out the context and relevance of this book, Chap. 2 situates this book within broader debates on labour in global value chains (GVCs) or GPNs. First, the chapter delineates two contrasting analytical approaches to labour in GVCs/GPNs—the “Decent Work’ approach and the “Marxist political economy approach’—and places this study within the latter approach. The chapter then proceeds to discuss major conceptual contributions from economic and labour geography with regard to explaining labour control and labour agency in GVCs/GPN. In this context, the chapter highlights the lack of attention by hitherto dominant scalar conceptualisations of labour control and labour agency in GPNs for the interrelations and interdependencies between processes at different levels—from the workplace to the international level of the global production network.

To tackle this research gap, Chap. 3 develops a practice-oriented, relational approach to studying labour control regimes and union agency in GPNs. It conceptualises labour control regimes at specific nodes of a GPN as emerging from place-specific articulations of six processual labour control relations stretching across various distances with localised labour processes. These labour control relations are, on the one hand, sourcing relations at the vertical dimension of the GPN and, on the other hand, territorially embedded workplace, wage, employment, industrial and labour market relations at the horizontal dimension of the GPN. Chapter 3 further presents a heuristic framework for studying labour’s networked agency strategies in GPNs through the lens of three relational ‘spaces of labour agency’ constructed by unions through relationships with different actors: (1) spaces of organising constituted through unions’ practices of building relationships with workers; (2) spaces of collaboration constituted through unions’ relationships with other labour or civil x About This Book society organisations; and (3) spaces of contestation constructed by unions around specific labour struggles through practices of targeting employers, lead firms and state actors, and through practices of ‘drawing’ allies into struggles.

Chapter 4 introduces this study’s case study research design and discusses the different methods used for data collection and analysis. After that, Chap. 5 situates the empirical case of this study—the Bangalore export-garment cluster—within the garment GPN: The chapter first lays out the central characteristics of the garment GPN. It then describes the historical and geographical evolution of the Bangalore export-garment cluster.

Chapters 6 and 7 finally present the empirical analysis of the labour control regime and unions’ agency strategies in the Bangalore export-garment cluster. Chapter 6 analyses how the labour control regime in the Bangalore export-garment industry emerges from the articulations of labour control dynamics in the workplace with labour control dynamics at the state and international levels. It illustrates how the capital accumulation regime in the garment GPN is reproduced through a complex mesh of labour control practices, including local managers’ gendered worker exploitation practices, state authorities’ ‘pro-business’ practices and international lead firms’ predatory purchasing practices. Chapter 7 then scrutinises the different agency strategies of the three local garment unions active in the Bangalore export-garment cluster regarding their potential for bringing about sustained improvements for workers. It highlights local unions’ practices of building relationships with actors at various levels as a central element of unions’ networked agency strategies. These include community organising practices to evade the tight management control within factories and gain the trust of women workers, who constitute around 85% of the workforce in the Bangalore export-garment cluster. Moreover, unions build alliances with consumer and labour organisations from the Global North. However, the chapter exposes that collaborations with consumer organisations and NGOs from the Global North tend to have mixed or constraining effects on unions’ capacities to build associational, organisational and workplace bargaining power.

The concluding chapter (Chap. 8) summarises the central findings in light of the posed research questions and discusses this book’s empirical and theoretical contributions. In terms of empirical contributions, the book highlights local worker organisations’ central role in improving garment industry working conditions. At the same time, it sheds light on the complex, networked labour control structures that constrain the terrain for labour agency in garment producing countries. Against this background, the book stresses the need for unions to develop networked agency strategies that employ coalitional and moral power resources from international consumer and labour organisations to open spaces for workplace organising and collective bargaining. At the same time, unions need to be wary of the risks of relying on Global North actors’ power and financial resources. When power flows unilaterally from North to South, this can hamper internal union democracy and the space for workers and unions to develop strategic capacities, thereby further constraining unions’ capacities to develop associational power resources. Regarding the conceptual contribution, the analytical approach developed and applied in this study reinvigorates a relational understanding of labour control and agency in GPNs

About This Book xi as exercised through power-laden, networked relationships at the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the GPN. The study addresses a central gap in past scalar analyses of labour control and labour agency in GPNs, which have not sufficiently explored the links between network dynamics and territorial outcomes for labour at specific nodes of a GPN.

Part I Introduction 1 Introduction: Why We Need Stronger Unions in the Global

Garment Industry s.44cicscsiayceveydess Lede l eid bodeet neds tae 1.1 Towards a Relational Analysis of the Enabling

and Constraining Conditions for Local Union Agency

in Garment Producing Countries 2.22402 cesadeeceer cosas ecavdes 1.2 Empirical Case Study of This Book: The Export-garment

Part II Theoretical Framework

2 From a ‘Decent Work’ Approach to a Marxist Analysis of Labour Control and Labour Agency in Global Production: 2.1 From Linear Commodity Chains to Relational Production Networks: Opening Up Analytical Space for the Role of Labour ... 2.2 Contrasting Approaches to Analysing Labour in GVCs/GPNs: The ‘Decent Work’ Approach and the ‘Marxist Political Economy” Approathi <.3.0054 pind le iad es bs Uheouwheineaeeeds 2.2.1 The ‘Decent Work’ Approach to Labour in GVCs/GPNs ... 2.2.2 The ‘Marxist Political Economy’ Approach to Labour LC VCRAIPDS <2 4 2stsugsicedesdssatdetevacdaedeias ees 2.3.1 Studies from Labour Process Theory: Approaching Labour Control in GVCs/GPNs with a Focus onthe Workplace .sc ci asciwartnaeotseeehtinoasageors ns 2.3.2 Spatial Approaches to Labour Control: National and Local Labour Control Regimes: 22.00.04 .cssaeseseees

O oO xiii

2.3.4 Interim Conclusion: Contributions and Shortcomings o -9 Analytical innan to Labour Control

Contents

46 48 52 Panair a d ‘Up- -Scaling’ 59 2.4.3 Network Approaches to Labour Agenc: ; 2.4.4 Interim Conclusion: Contributions and Denoi of Existing jaan hosli to Labour Agency HCG. E EEE EEI T TETE. jHetieeees. 0 Po ea aa Mot aa a au Towards a Relational Approach for Analysing Labour Control Regimes and Union Agency inGPNs oiue 79 3.1 A Relational Perspective on Networks, — /Place, Scale and l yritories f 80 3.2 83 3.3 89 3.4 in GPN piriti E A a a “SO References .... 95 d Methodology

4 Grounding seus of Labour Control and Labour Agency ” Api — an ‘Extended Single Embedded Case 4 1 R search E The steddi Sgke Embedded Case a2

4.2.2 4.2.3

102 102

106 108

Contents XV

ing ee h Qualitative Content Analysis 120

ENE T EE EET eee ere ener reer ea mE he pe GE N 5.1 The Veica Dimen

SA De a of che 5.1.2 Geography of the Garment GP 5. 1.3 Pm er rB: | ations in ti Garment | Indian | arment Industry

and "a pe Bangalore Exporte garment Closter Mee beiwigeeiseoeanse aoe

Part V sige aia

‘Production Targeting’ (ie seaecewcres TA

6.2 t s 158 1 Through T ns ay eer

Regimes aoe wastes — trical ee

tio E USD

6.2.3 Interim Conclusi 164

6.3 Wage Relations . i i Mabe 16 6.3.1 Undermining the Lega in furion Situtary.

Saam age Setting Process sicrsrissssisossisoseisa 165

6.4 Workplace Relations eE tase tee deaeeteeceeeees

Contents

6.6.3 ee Pepin rn a e 193 and Migration Regime for the indian dp banen Industry eae 6.7.2 Securing Adequate Labour Supply Through 6.7.3 Interim Conc sine 6.8 Interim Conclusior Constraints for Local Union Agency Export-garment Cluster ARE e RAEE E oe ers E a 2 nsid EE E E EEE A E E T TE Ue the Bangalore

Union Agency in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster: Linking Spaces of Organising, Spaces of Collaboration

7.3.1 Spaces OF OPANIGINE irreais aa

8.1.1 Labour Contrat Regime in the Berlare ye Cluster and Constraints for Union petits se NG qicuimatianescenas 29 8.3.2 —— to Soe ripe ee ee ee ee:

Annex I: List of Interviews cceicscriciirissisisiisisadsirsddosastess 303

About the Author

Dr Tatiana López is an economic and labour geographer researching labour in global production and in the digital platform economy. She holds a Ph.D. in economic geography and a diploma in Latin American Studies from the University of Cologne, Germany. Currently, she is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Wiirzburg in the working group Economic Geography and a guest researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center in the research group Globalization, Work, Production.

Abbreviations

ADWU AEPC AITUC ATDC BMS CCC CITU CLB CoC CSR CWM ETI FoA GATWU GCC GLU GPN GVC HMS ILO INTUC ISDS KGWU LCR LPT MoU MSI NGO NOLA

Avery Dennison Workers Union Apparel Export Promotion Council All India Trade Union Confederation Apparel Training and Design Centre Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh

Clean Clothes Campaign

Centre of Indian Trade Unions China Labour Bulletin

Codes of Conduct

Corporate Social Responsibility Centre for Workers’ Management Ethical Trading Initiative

Freedom of Association

Garment and Textiles Worker Union Global Commodity Chain

Garment Labour Union

Global Production Network

Global Value Chain

Hindh Mazdoor Sabha

International Labour Organisation Indian Trade Union Congress Integrated Skill Development Scheme Karnataka Garment Workers Union Labour Control Regime

Labour Process Theory Memorandum of Understanding Multi-Stakeholder-Initiative Non-governmental Organisation Networks of Labour Activism xxii Abbreviations

NTUI New Trade Union Initiative OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer WRC Worker Rights Consortium

List of Figures

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

Fig.

4.2

4.3

Theoretical underpinnings and contributions of this book.

ODIO AMINO oc 25a Seo dou bee Loeb eee be binhi hiiti Obie 8 Horizontal and vertical dimension in the GPN framework.

Research approaches to labour in GVCs/GPNs—‘Marxist political economy’ approach and ‘Decent Work’ approach.

DOM CUNO porrer ekea karnai n Oen eera eE 23 Research strands on labour control in GVCs/GPNs.

SOUS SUNG vane eineeck eee ered cress wioimemseaniadan 34 Analytical emphases of LPT-influenced literature and labour

‘Nested scalar approach’ to labour control regimes by Smith

Intersecting structural forces and relations at the vertical and the horizontal level that shape the terrain for worker and union agency M GPNS ocr nce Se eon ohaebooneeeeaus 51

Labour control regime at a specific node of the GPN as constituted through place-specific articulations

Main case and sub-units of analysis in this study.

Geographical distribution of export-garment factory units

in the Bangalore export-garment cluster. Data source Own

Four phases of qualitative content analysis. Source Own

elaboration drawing on Schmidt (2004), Mayring (2004),

and Kuckartz (2016) 141642440 se4ee ed ceeekend ened esudonen 121 xxiii

List of Figures

- system for os category ‘labour ai

H&M 2021; elabeuation: Wilhelm Felk/ Tatiana Lopez/ QGis ... 139 Assembly line in Bangalore export-g: f Source Photo by Hubert Thiemeyer; stylised by author to ensure White board for documenting production targets in Bangalore export- aoc — Source Photo

or to ensure

173 211 237 pit pe | GATWU o oiae. ie rce a ECan 2019 sae 238

Worker canteen a r at Avery Den

Timeline of ovont of KONUS saniggle at Shahi 8 in 2018.

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Characteristics of the ‘Decent Work’ approach and the ‘Marxist political economy’ approach to labour

WUE 6656564466 54e649 498 SoHE SEEERRER ROA EMRARR ERE REA 24 Table 2.2 Overview of different research strands on labour control

Table 2.4 Overview of different research strands on labour agency

WONNE OPNS 455 Miceeesetabehinerieeheuierueueueseues 67

Table 4.1 Moments of interventions, process reconstruction, structuration and theory reconstruction in the research

(HOSS 2 cc A TE A died e peek E E E EEE 109 Table 4.2 Conducted in-depth intervieWsS ...ssiirscrccrcrssieserrews 115 Table 5.1 Overview of main characteristics of three Bangalore-based

COMMIT UNION 6.555.6502055%545549 4440s RR RRA RROARAE REREA 142 Table 7.1 Two strategic approaches underpinning GATWU’s agency

Part I Introduction

Chapter 1 A) Introduction: Why We Need Stronger crest Unions in the Global Garment Industry

Abstract For newly industrialising countries, the global garment industry is considered a vehicle for economic and social development, especially for increasing women’s participation in the labour market. At the same time, the garment industry has also been widely criticised for frequent labour rights violations, low wages and bad working conditions. Media and public discourses have focussed largely on private regulatory mechanisms and international labour standards as tools for promoting ‘decent work’ in the global garment industry. However, this chapter argues that lasting improvements for workers can only be achieved through the agency of strong local unions in garment producing countries. Against this background, this chapter introduces two central research questions that remain understudied in existing literature on labour in Global Value Chains (GVCs) and Global Production Networks (GPNs): (1) How do labour control regimes at specific nodes of the garment GPN shape and constrain the terrain for worker and union agency in garment producing countries? (2) Which relationships and interactions enable unionists and workers in garment producing countries to develop strategic capacities and power resources that allow them to shift the capital-labour power balance in favour of workers?

Keywords Bangalore - Garment industry - Global production networks - Labour power - Labour control regime - Union agency

1.1 Towards a Relational Analysis of the Enabling and Constraining Conditions for Local Union Agency in Garment Producing Countries

For newly industrialising countries worldwide, the global garment industry is considered a vehicle for economic and social development (Dicken 2015; Gereffi 1994, 1999). Particularly in Asian countries, the emergence of export-garment industries producing for US and European retailers has propelled industrialisation processes and created jobs for millions of workers (ILO 2015). In particular for low-skilled or unskilled workers, the garment industry can facilitate access to the formal labour market and—where state and industry actors invest in vocational education and

© The Author(s) 2023 3 T. Lopez, Labour Control and Union Agency in Global Production Networks, Economic Geography, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03 1-27387-2_1

4 1 Introduction: Why We Need Stronger Unions in the Global Garment Industry training—also important upskilling opportunities (Maurer 2011). Today, Asian countries account for eight out of the top ten global garment exporters (WTO 2020: 119). In these countries, on average, half of all manufacturing jobs are in the garment sector (ILO 2018: vii). The garment industry is also considered an important driver of female economic empowerment in the region, with women comprising the major share of the workforce in most Asian countries (ILO 2015). In India, for example, the textiles and apparel! sector provides direct employment for about 45 million people, of which about 70% are women (Indian Ministry of Textiles 2018; Make in India n.d.). Approximately 50% of the Indian textiles and apparel sector correspond to the ready-made garment industry with one quarter of produced apparels being sold on the global market (CareRatings 2019: 1).

Despite the significant contribution of the Asian export-garment industry to economic development and employment creation in the region, the industry has been widely criticised for frequent labour rights violations, low wages and bad working conditions (see, e.g., Hale and Wills 2005; Jenkins and Blyton 2017; Mezzadri 2017; Ruwanpura 2016). Anti-sweatshop movements and consumer organisations from the Global North have attributed these bad conditions to global fashion retailers’ and brands’ ‘predatory purchasing practices’ that ‘squeeze’ suppliers and workers (Anner 2019, 2020; Esbenshade 2004). Against this background, public and academic discourse has largely focussed on private regulatory mechanisms—such as Codes of Conduct or Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives—as well as on international labour standards as tools for promoting ‘decent work’ in the global garment industry (see, e.g., Bartley and Egels-Zandén 2015; Hess 2013; Hughes et al. 2008; Lindholm et al. 2016; Lund-Thomsen and Lindgreen 2018). In the same way, literature from economic geography and labour studies has predominantly highlighted the role of Northern actors—and particularly of transnational consumer and NGO networks—as main agents for change (Hauf 2017; see, e.g., Kühl 2006; Merk 2009). Most recently, legislative projects obligating companies in Global North countries to implement due diligence obligations along their supply chains—such as the French ‘Loi de Vigilance’? or the German ‘Supply Chain Act’*—have attracted great public attention as potential mechanisms for improving working conditions in the garment industry (see, e.g., Beckers et al. 2021; Clerc 2021; Maihold et al. 2021). However, far less attention has been paid to the role of workers in global garment producing countries as agents capable of improving their own working and living conditions (Kumar 2019a: 351; Wells 2009).

' The terms ‘garment’ and ‘apparel’ are used synonymously in this study.

? The French ‘Loi de Vigilance’ (engl. Vigilance Law) was passed in 2017. The law requires French companies with more than 5000 employees to implement and publish a so-called Vigilance Plan setting out proactive measures to prevent health, safety and environmental risks in their subsidies as well as across their subcontractors and suppliers (Clerc 2021).

3 The German ‘Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains’ was passed in 2021 and will come into force starting 2023. It establishes due diligence obligations for companies with a main seat or a branch office in Germany. These due diligence obligations apply to a company’s entire supply chains, and compliance failures may be penalised with a fine of up to 2% of a company’s global annual turnover (German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs [2021]).

1.1 Towards a Relational Analysis of the Enabling and Constraining ... 5

A notable exception is provided by a growing corpus of studies combining Global Commodity Chain (GCC)/ Global Value Chain (GVC)/ Global Production Network (GPN) analysis with perspectives from Labour Process Theory and labour geography, which have been at the forefront of exploring the conditions and strategies for the agency of workers and unions in garment producing countries (see, e.g., Anner 2015b; Doutch 2021; Kumar 2014, 2019a; Ruwanpura 2015; Zajak 2017). These studies form part of two broader debates in economic and labour geography concerned with labour control and labour agency in GVCs/GPNs (Coe et al. 2008; Coe and Jordhus-Lier 2011; Cumbers et al. 2008; Newsome et al. 2015; Rainnie et al. 2011; Taylor et al. 2015). Drawing on Marxist theories, studies on labour control and labour agency in GVCs/GPNs highlight the exploitative nature of capitalist production as the root cause for ‘indecent work’ and stress that lasting improvements can only be achieved through collective worker organisation in garment producing countries (Selwyn 2013; Kumar 2019b: 351f.). A central concern of these studies has hence been to examine mechanisms of exploitation as well as conditions and strategies for the collective resistance of workers in garment producing countries.

Studies on labour control in the garment GVC/GPN have contributed in particular to our understanding of constraints for collective worker and union agency in garment producing countries. Inter alia, these studies have highlighted the presence of institutionalised labour control regimes that ensure the process of capital accumulation at specific nodes of the garment GPN through what Baglioni (2018: 111) refers to as “the interplay of labour exploitation and disciplining”. Whereas exploitation refers to the extraction of surplus value from ‘living labour’ in the labour process, disciplining refers to preventing, mitigating and repressing labour resistance (Baglioni 2018: 114). Even though studies on labour control in the garment GPN have focussed primarily on mechanisms of exploitation, these studies have also highlighted capital and state actors’ various disciplining mechanisms and practices undermining collective worker organisation in the garment industry (see, e.g., Anner 2015a; Ruwanpura 2015; Smith et al. 2018).

Against this backdrop, studies on labour agency in the garment GVC/GPN have tended to highlight the ‘constrained’ nature of the agency of workers and unions in garment producing countries (Coe and Jordhus-Lier 2011). Several studies have highlighted that workers and unions ‘at the bottom’ of the garment GVC lack domestic bargaining power “since they can easily be replaced and their wages are not expected to provide effective demand for the goods they produce” (Hauf 2017: 1001; see also Kumar 2014; Tsing 2009; Zajak et al. 2017). In face of these barriers for building domestic bargaining power, studies on labour agency in the garment GVC/GPN have repeatedly emphasised strategies of ‘up-scaling’ or “scale-jumping’ as central for workers in garment export countries to improve their own working and living conditions (Anner 2015b; Merk 2009; Wells 2009). In particular, these studies have stressed opportunities for local unions to ‘up-scale’ workplace conflicts through engaging with consumer campaigning networks or multi-stakeholder initiatives in the Global North. These actors can pressure brands and retailers to harness their lead firm power and to request improvements in working conditions from their suppliers (see, e.g., Anner 2011, 2015a; Armbruster-Sandoval 2005; Kumar 2014; Merk 2009).

6 1 Introduction: Why We Need Stronger Unions in the Global Garment Industry

However, accounts of successful ‘up-scaling’ of labour struggles by unions in garment producing countries have been accompanied by more critical writing, pointing out two important limits of cross-border campaigning strategies for achieving sustainable improvements of workers’ rights and conditions (Anner 2015b; Fink 2014; Fiitterer and Lopez Ayala 2018; López and Fiitterer 2019; Zajak 2017): First, campaigning strategies are always reactive and tend to be effective only in severe cases of labour rights violations, in which the cost of reputational damage is higher for lead firms and suppliers than the cost of corrective action (Ftitterer and Lopez Ayala 2018: 21; Kumar 2019a: 347). Second, particularly when the leverage of geographically distant consumers and lead firms is not underpinned by strong local worker organisation, the success achieved through lead firms’ and consumers’ ‘top-down’ pressure tends to be rather short-lived—or in the words of Ross (2006: 78) “a temporary rescue, fragile and vulnerable to employers’ attacks”.