Abstract
Labor standards are moving to center stage in international trade policy, but the debate has been conducted largely within the framework of competitive economic theory. In that framework, working conditions are viewed as the outgrowth of an informed choice by workers and by firms. To make the labor standards of the advanced, industrial countries a condition for trade is at best the naïve imposition of the values of rich nations upon the poor in the developing world who can ill afford them. At worst, it is simply covert protectionism (Bhagwati, 2002). There is a certain abstract logic to this view, but it is not grounded in field experience. I have been looking at firms in Mexico over the last six years as they have tried to adjust, first to the opening of that economy to trade and then to NAFTA, and in Mexico at least these views seem completely out of touch with reality (Piore, Dussel-Peters and Ruiz-Duran, 1997; and Kuznetsov et al., 2001).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Berger, Suzanne and Richard K. Lester (1997) (eds), Made by Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Berger, Suzanne and Michael Piore (1980) Dualism and Discontinuity in Industrial Society, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bhagwati, Jagdish (2002) “Free Trade and Labour,” Financial Times, August 29.
Bloch, Marc (1961) Feudal Society, Volume 2, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 113–16.
Boltanski, Luc and Eve Chiapello (1999) Le Nouvel Esprit du Capitalisme, Paris: Gallimard.
Boltanski, Luc, Y. Darre and M-A Schiltz (1984) “La Dénonciation,” Actes de la recherche en sciences socials 51: 3–41.
Boltanski, Luc and Laurent Thévenot (1987) Les Economies de la Grandeur, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Duprilot, Jean Pierre (1975) “Le controle adminstitratif des licenciements,” Droit Social, June (No. 6): 53–75.
Fung, Archon, Dara O’Rourke, and Chuck Sabel (2001) “Realizing Labor Standards,” The Boston Review, New Democracy Forum: February/March.
Gereffi, Gary, David Spener and Jennifer Bair (2002) (eds), Free Trade and Uneven Development: The North American Apparel Industry After NAFTA. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Iskander, Natasha (2000) “Beyond factory walls: Labor Standards and the Case of Tehuacan, Mexico,” MIT Center for International studies Newsletter, Fall 2000.
Iskander, Natasha (2002) “International Labor Standards in Local Struggles: Tehuacan, Mexico,” mimeo, Sloan School of Management, MIT.
Kuznetsov, Yevgeni, Michael Piore, Clemente Ruiz Duran, and Charles Sabel (2001) “Think Globally, Act Locally: Decentralized Incentive Framework for Mexico’s Private Sector Development,” World Bank Informal Research Report #22643.
O’Rourke, Dara (2001) “Sweatshops 101: Lessons in Monitoring Apparel Production Around the World,” Dollars and Sense, September/October.
Piaget, Jean (1965) The Moral Judgment of the Child. Translated by Marjorie Gabain. New York: The Free Press.
Piore, Michael J., Enrique Dussel Peters and Clemente Ruiz Duran (1997) (eds), Pensar Globalmente Pensar Globalmente y Actuar Regionalmente: Hacia un Nuevo Paradigma Industrial Para el Siglo XXI, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de México: Fundación Friedrich Ebert: Editoral Ius. Mexico.
Piore, Michael J. (1990) “Labor Standards and Business Strategies,” in Stephen Herzenberg and Jorge Perez Lopez (eds), Labor Standards and Development in the Global Economy, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, pp. 35–50.
Piore, Michael J. (2002). “Thirty Years Later: Internal Labor Markets, Flexibility and the New Economy,” Journal of Management and Governance, 6: 271–9.
Pyke, Frank, Giacomo Becattini, and Werner Sengenberger (1990) (eds), Industrial Districts and Interfirm Cooperation in Italy, Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies.
Sengenberger, Werner, and Duncan C. Campbell (1994) Creating Economic Opportunities: The Role of Labour Standards in Industrial Restructuring, Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies.
Schmitz, Hubert and Khalid Nadvi (1999) “Clustering and Industrialization: Introduction,” World Development 27 (9): 1503–14.
Thevenot, Laurent (1985) “Introduction,” in Laurent Thevenot et al., Conventions economiqus Cahier du center d’etudes de l’emploi, Presses Universitaires de France, pp. v–xviii.
Thomas A. Kochan, Michal Smith, John C. Wells, and James B. Rebitzer (1994) “Human Resource Strategies and Contingent Workers: The Case of Safety and Health in the Petrochemical Industry,” Human Resource Management 33 (1) Spring: 55–78.
United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., No. 443, Supreme Court of the United States, 363 U.S. 574; 80S. Ct. 1347; 4 L. Ed. 2d 1409; 1960 US.
Weber, Max (1958) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Scribner.
Weiner, Myron (1991) The child and the state in India: Child labor and education policy in comparative perspective, Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Piore, M. (2004). Rethinking International Labor Standards. In: Milberg, W. (eds) Labor and the Globalization of Production. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523968_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523968_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51760-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52396-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)