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Addressing the Challenges of Globalization: Is There a Place at the Table for Labor Unions?

One of the challenges of globalization has been its impact on organized labor. One the one hand, labor unions have been engaged in the past in activities that we would now call CSR, in least in terms of safeguarding rights of and working conditions for their members. One the other hand, efforts to create institutionalized structures to govern the global market place (e.g. GATT, WTO, World Bank) have led first and foremost to benefits for corporations, whereas any effort toward similar structures for labor unions is beset with political and cultural roadblocks. The time seems thus ripe to ask whether labor unions, the old purveyors of CSR, still involve themselves in such activities or whether CSR is perhaps the 'new unionism'.

As part of the IABS 2008 Conference to be held in Tampere, Finland, 26 - 29 June 2008 we are organizing a symposium that focuses on the rise of global CSR combined with the declining rates of unionism and its impacts organized labor. We invite scholars to debate research questions such as the following:

• To what degree does CSR replace labor unions?
• How are labor unions responding to CSR?
• Do labor unions themselves have a social responsibility, how would it be characterized?
• How do labor union member perceptions of CSR differ across national boundaries?

If you are interested in participating in this symposium please submit an abstract of three to five pages, which should fully describe the objectives and scope of your research, to each either of the organizers by 20 November 2007.

For more information on IABS and its 2008 Conference, see:

            http://www.iabs.net

Hope to see you in Finland in 2008!

Lutz Preuss                              Cedric Dawkins

Royal Holloway                       California State University

University of London

Lutz.Preuss@rhul.ac.uk          cedawkins@csupomona.edu.