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Impact of Globalization on Union Membership
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Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. The essence of globalization
3. The decline of union membership under the impact of globalization
4. The difference in the union movement in different countries
of the world
5. Conclusion
6. Works cited
Introduction
The process of globalization produces a profound impact on
practically all spheres of life of the modern society and
all countries of the world. In fact, even those countries
that attempt to distance from global economic and political
trends and tend to isolationism cannot fail to take into account
the process of globalization. Nowadays, a country that develops
international economic relations with other countries of the
world gets inevitably involved in the process of globalization,
which, to a significant extent, stimulates the cooperation
between countries on all levels, including economic, political
and socio-cultural. In such a situation, the question concerning
possible effects of globalization arises. On the one hand,
there are supporters of the process of globalization who sincerely
believe that globalization accelerates the economic development
on the global scale and, therefore, contributes to the progress
and improvement of standards of life in all parts of the world.
On the other hand, there is an absolutely different view on
the process of globalization, as a tool of the expansion of
well-developed countries that leads to the dramatic stratification
of the contemporary world and growth of the gap between rich
and poor (McBride, 2001). In such a situation, the position
of the labor force, employees, which constitute the overwhelming
majority of the population of the world is under a threat
because the process of globalization increases the opportunities
for large, multinational corporations to overcome traps, which
are traditionally imposed on them by unions since the difference
in legislation and the level of the development of the union
movement in different countries of the world allows them avoiding
a substantial impact of unions on their policy. As a result,
the threat to the efficient protection of rights and interests
of workers and ordinary employees by unions increases dramatically,
while the declining union membership, which may be traced
worldwide, is one of the major indicators which reveals signs
of the possible crisis in the union movement in global terms.
In such a situation, it is extremely important to understand
the essence of the process of globalization and its impact
on the union movement and union membership in different countries
of the world.
The essence of globalization
In order to better understand possible effects of the process
of globalization on unions and union membership, it is primarily
necessary to dwell upon the essence of this process. Basically,
globalization has started as the process of economic cooperation
and integration of countries. To put it more precisely, the
development of national economies and introduction of new
technologies created the foundation for the construction of
a totally new system of international economic relations.
The introduction of technologies and improvement of logistics
as well as the growing attractiveness of international markets
for many companies, the formation of multinational corporations
stimulated the trend to integration of economies of different
countries and their growing interaction (Gomory, 182). In
this respect, the example of the EU is particularly noteworthy
since the formation of the EU may be viewed as a model of
the process of globalization on the regional level.
In this respect, supporters of the idea that globalization
will tie the world together argue that the contemporary EU
is a perfect example that proves benefits of economic integration
of countries, which, by the way, resulted not only in economic
but also political and even cultural integration of countries
(Siaroff, 1999). The integration of national economies determined
by objective needs to expand markets led to the elimination
of fiscal barriers and the emergence of free trade accelerated
further development of the process of globalization.
As a result, nowadays, the world economy is closely intertwined
and largest companies of the world operate worldwide that
basically decreases the significance of the national markets.
At the same time, the internationalization of trade and economic
relations led to the growing number of direct foreign investments
that, according to supporters of globalization, is a positive
trend (Van der Borght, 200). In such a context, globalization
is supposed to facilitate the flow of capital, human resources
and technologies worldwide. Potentially, this means that the
world economy will be more balanced as international cooperation
and competition stimulates leading companies expand their
business and enter markets of developing countries, where
they could build their plants, introduce their production
facilities, establish their international standards of quality
of production and work, etc. Naturally, in such a situation,
it is possible to speak about the uniting power of globalization
since people from different countries and cultures are working
together and companies from developed countries are interested
into the development of production and business in developing
countries (Ogbu, 122). The latter should stimulate economic
development of developing counties, which, by the way, also
get access to markets of developed countries due to the emergence
of free trade.
However, the actual situation is far from perfect and the
process of globalization is not always positive, especially
in relation to developing countries of the world. In this
respect, it is important to underline that the process of
globalization is consistently more beneficial for multinational
corporations and developed countries because the elimination
of fiscal barriers, which actually stimulate free trade, opens
markets of developing as well as developed countries to the
expansion of multinational corporations and companies operating
in developed countries. In such a situation, each country
attempts to take its own niche in the international market.
However, companies based in developing countries prove to
be uncompetitive, especially in high-tech and knowledge based
industries, where companies from developed countries and multinational
corporations dominate (Dunning, 231). As a result, developing
countries are doomed to use either their natural resources
which they supply mainly to developed countries or developed
the main industry, which is, as a rule, not highly technological,
such as the production of some agricultural goods, or diamonds,
for instance.
As a result, the process of globalization makes markets of
developing countries practically defenseless in face of the
expansion of companies and multinational corporations from
developed countries, while national companies become absolutely
uncompetitive. In such a way, instead of tying the world together
globalization leads to the pauperization of developing countries
and enrichment of developed ones that widens the gap and polarize
the world (Dunning, 1998). In such a situation, the position
of workers and ordinary employees worldwide deteriorates consistently
because the poor economic development of developing countries
and the deterioration of socioeconomic position of employees
in developed countries, because of the free movement of the
labor force and elimination of barriers between countries,
undermine the position of workers worldwide. Naturally, unions
are particularly affected by the process of globalization
since they are susceptible to the considerable external influences
which weaken the role of union even in those countries where
their position was traditionally very strong.
The decline of union membership under the impact of globalization
On analyzing the impact of the process of globalization on
union membership, it is important to underline that, today,
it is possible to trace a trend to the decline of union membership
in many countries of the world. In this respect, it should
be said that globalization creates conditions unfavorable
for the development of the union movement. First of all, the
elimination of fiscal barriers between countries, which stimulate
the development of international trade and the formation of
international networks and multinational corporations prevent
unions from a strict control over the performance of large
multinational corporations and their policy in relation to
employees. As a result, the effectiveness of unions decreases
consistently and employees feel dissatisfied with their membership
in unions and naturally take decision to stop their membership
in unions. In fact, the employees’ dissatisfaction with
unions is one of the major causes of the decline of union
membership in the modern world (Waddington, 2006).
Obviously, the dissatisfaction of employees with unions decreases
their trust in the ability of unions to protect their interests
and rights and, therefore, employees view their membership
as useless or ineffective in the contemporary business environment.
At the same time, union membership requires permanent pay
offs, which become a considerable financial burden for employees
(Soskice, 1999). Naturally, in the situation, when the role
of unions decreases and the dissatisfaction of employees grows,
union membership decreases steadily.
At the same time, along with the growing dissatisfaction of
employees, it is possible to mention other causes of the decline
of union membership. In this respect, it is worth mentioning
such a cause as the redundancy or change of the workplace
by employees (Waddington, 2006). In fact, today, the problem
of redundancy becomes quite widely spread because the weakness
of unions in developing countries and outsourcing of production
in developed countries leads to consistent job cuts and, therefore,
employees either lose their job or change their workplace.
On the other hand, it is necessary to understand that redundancy
is another evidence of the weakness of unions and their inability
to protect interests and rights of employees. To put it more
precisely, the job cuts may be beneficial for owners of companies,
but, obviously, they produce extremely negative impact on
the life of employees. As a rule, the loss of a job means
the consistent deterioration of the life of employees and
members of the family because they lose a considerable part
of their earnings. Consequently, they are forced to change
their traditional lifestyle, limit the consumption of products
and services they get used to while working (Rose and Chaison,
1996). In such a context, unions have to protect employees
and minimize the risk of redundancy, which is probably one
of the major threats to the well-being of employees. However,
there are a lot of examples when unions have failed to prevent
redundancy. For instance, it is possible to remind the redundancy
in Sanmina, which resulted in considerable job cuts and employees
were practically left aside without any substantial financial
support from the part of the company or unions. Naturally,
such cases decrease the popularity of unions.
Even if employees take independent decision to change an employer,
they also stop their union membership because the new employment,
as a rule, implies the new union membership. However, in the
contemporary world, people tend to change their workplace
faster than they have used to do before in the past (Van der
Borght, 2000). In such a situation, the significance of union
membership decreases because frequent changes of working places
does not contribute to the stable union membership and any
benefits from such membership for employees.
Furthermore, L. Scruggs and P. Lange (2002) underline the
fact that economic globalization is marginal and conditional
on the union movement. In actuality, the increasing international
cooperation and internationalization of business contributes
to the free labor force movement worldwide that increases
the competition on the labor force market and, therefore,
decreases the opportunities to influence the policy of employers
even in spite of the pressure from the part of unions. In
addition, the process of globalization leads to the growing
trend to the weakening of the position of unions since the
low development of the union movement in developing countries
of the world deteriorates opportunities of unions in developed
countries to influence the policy of large multinational corporations
The difference in the union movement in different countries
of the world
In fact, the difference in the union movement in different
countries of the world produces a profound impact on the decline
of union membership. In this respect, it is important to underline
that the difference in the union movement is quite substantial
and it is not only the difference between the progress of
unions in developed and developing countries of the world.
For instance, M.J. Slaughter (2007) underlines the more advanced
development of unions in Europe compared to the US. However,
such a difference between the US and the EU does not prevent
the decline of union membership. The decline of union membership
is mainly determined by the inability of the unions to unite
their efforts and oppose to the pressure from the part of
employees.
On the other hand, it is important to underline that unions
attempt to undertake counteractions in order to prevent the
growing pressure from the part of employers, especially large
multinational corporations through restructuring the organization
of unions (Dunning, 1998). To put it more precisely, unions
attempt to develop international structures and modernize
their organizational structure in order to enlarge their opportunities
to operate on the international level and, therefore, consolidate
their policy and protect interests of employees and their
rights on the international level.
However, such restructuring often results in the growing bureaucratization
of unions and employees feel dissatisfied with unions (Rose
and Chaison, 1996). The latter may be partially explained
by the complexity of the organizational structure of unions.
In fact, employees are not confident in reorganized and restructured
unions and, what is more, they feel abandoned by unions because
the gap between union leaders and ordinary members of unions
grows wider. As a result, union membership decreases, in spite
of efforts of unions to increase the efficiency of their work
in regard to the protection of interests and rights of employees.
Conclusion
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible
to conclude that the development of globalization produces
a profound influence on the development of the union movement.
In fact, the process of globalization produces a multiple
impact on practically all spheres of life and the union membership
decline may be viewed as one of outcomes which is determined
by the general socioeconomic effect of globalization. What
is meant here is the fact that the role of large, multinational
corporations increases consistently that leads to the increase
of opportunities for employees to implement their policy concerning
employees and conditions of work regardless interests of employees
or position of unions. In fact, employers have got the access
to the international labor force market and, therefore, they
can manipulate with employees since they have a huge choice
of labor force due to the elimination of frontiers and free
movement of labor force within different regions of the world.
As a result, unions, which mainly operate on the national
level, can hardly resist to redundancy, for instance, which
deteriorates consistently the position of employees. In such
a situation, the effectiveness of work of unions decreases
consistently provoking the growing dissatisfaction of employees
with unions. In such a situation, employees, being dissatisfied
with union, stop their union membership. At the same time,
the difference in the union movement in different countries
of the world also contributes to the decline of union membership
because the lack of experience of union membership and their
ineffectiveness dissuades employees join unions worldwide.
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