This book puts Indian garment workers and their organisations at the centre of the analysis. Taking the Bangalore export-garment cluster as a case study, the book explores the conditions that enable but also constrain the capacities of garment workers’ unions to build collective power vis-à-vis employers and thereby improve their conditions. Drawing on theoretical concepts from labour geography, relational economic geography, and Global Production Network (GPN) analysis, the book highlights, on the one hand, how the complex labour control regime in the Bangalore export-garment cluster poses manifold challenges and constraints for workers’ and unions’ collective agency. On the other hand, the book illustrates the various networked agency strategies that local garment unions in Bangalore have developed over the years to overcome these constraints by tapping into coalitional power resources from worker, consumer and labour rights organisations in the Global North.
This book is therefore highly relevant for economic geographers and other scholars interested in dynamics of labour and development in GPNs as well as for unionists and labour rights activists committed to improving working conditions in the global garment industry.
This is an open access book.
Author(s): Tatiana López
Series: Economic Geography
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 322
City: Cham
Foreword
Acknowledgements
About This Book
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Part I Introduction
1 Introduction: Why We Need Stronger Unions in the Global Garment Industry
1.1 Towards a Relational Analysis of the Enabling and Constraining Conditions for Local Union Agency in Garment Producing Countries
1.2 Empirical Case Study of This Book: The Export-garment Cluster in Bangalore, India
1.3 Structure of This Book
References
Part II Theoretical Framework
2 From a ‘Decent Work’ Approach to a Marxist Analysis of Labour Control and Labour Agency in Global Production: Reviewing Research on Labour in GPNs
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’ Approach
2.2.1 The ‘Decent Work’ Approach to Labour in GVCs/GPNs
2.2.2 The ‘Marxist Political Economy’ Approach to Labour in GVCs/GPNs
2.3 Research on Labour Control in GVCs/GPNs
2.3.1 Studies from Labour Process Theory: Approaching Labour Control in GVCs/GPNs with a Focus on the Workplace
2.3.2 Spatial Approaches to Labour Control: National and Local Labour Control Regimes
2.3.3 Multi-Scalar Approaches to Labour Control Regimes
2.3.4 Interim Conclusion: Contributions and Shortcomings of Existing Analytical Approaches to Labour Control in GPNs
2.4 Research on Labour Agency in GVCs/GPNs
2.4.1 Approaching Union Agency Through the Lens of Worker and Union Power Resources
2.4.2 ‘Scaling’ Worker and Union Agency in GPNs: ‘Scale-Jumping’ and ‘Up-Scaling’
2.4.3 Network Approaches to Labour Agency in GPN: ‘Networks of Labour Activism’
2.4.4 Interim Conclusion: Contributions and Shortcomings of Existing Analytical Approaches to Labour Agency in GPNs
References
3 Towards a Relational Approach for Analysing Labour Control Regimes and Union Agency in GPNs
3.1 A Relational Perspective on Networks, Space/Place, Scale and Territories
3.2 A Relational Approach to Labour Control Regimes in GPNs: Intertwining Processual Relations of Labour Control
3.3 A Relational Approach to Union Agency in GPNs: Linking Spaces of Labour Agency
3.4 Interim Conclusion: Benefits of a Practice-Oriented, Relational Approach to Labour Control and Labour Agency in GPN
References
Part III Research Design and Methodology
4 Grounding Dynamics of Labour Control and Labour Agency in GPNs Through an ‘Extended Single Embedded Case Study Design’
4.1 Research Design: The ‘Extended Single Embedded Case Study’
4.1.1 Scientific-Philosophical Positioning of This Study
4.1.2 Constructing the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster and Local Garment Unions as a Single Embedded Case
4.1.3 Embedding the Case Within Wider Structural Forces with Burawoy’s Extended Case Method
4.2 Field Access and Data Collection
4.2.1 ‘Opening Up’ the Field: Dealing with Gatekeepers and Multiple Researcher Positionalities
4.2.2 Collecting Data Through Participant Observations
4.2.3 Collecting Data Through In-Depth Interviews
4.3 Data Analysis and Interpretation
4.3.1 Preparing the Data: Protocols and Transcriptions
4.3.2 Analysing Data with Qualitative Content Analysis
References
Part IV Introduction of Empirical Case
5 Situating the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster Within the Garment GPN
5.1 The Vertical Dimension: The Garment GVC
5.1.1 Historical Development of the Garment GPN
5.1.2 Geography of the Garment GPN
5.1.3 Power Relations in the Garment GPN
5.2 The Horizontal Dimension: The Indian Garment Industry and the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
5.2.1 Situating the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster within the Indian Garment Industry
5.2.2 Historical and Geographical Development of the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
5.2.3 Industrial Relations in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
References
Part V Empirical Analysis
6 A Relational Analysis of the Labour Control Regime in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
6.1 Labour Process in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
6.1.1 Hedging the ‘Indeterminacy of Labour’ Through Labour Process Automating
6.1.2 Controlling Worker Performance Through ‘Production Targeting’
6.1.3 Interim Conclusion
6.2 Sourcing Relations
6.2.1 Retailers’ Practices of Managing Supplier Pools: Establishing Control Through Tight Auditing Regimes and Spatially Asymmetrical Buyer–Supplier Relations
6.2.2 Predatory Purchasing Practices
6.2.3 Interim Conclusion
6.3 Wage Relations
6.3.1 Undermining the Legal-Institutional Statutory Minimum Wage Setting Process
6.3.2 Wage Theft Practices at the Workplace
6.3.3 Interim Conclusion
6.4 Workplace Relations
6.4.1 Constructing the Workplace as a Tightly Controlled Space
6.4.2 Segregating Shop Floors Along Gender Lines
6.4.3 Undermining Collective Dialogue in Workplace Committees
6.4.4 Interim Conclusion
6.5 Industrial Relations
6.5.1 Discursively Constructing the Garment Sector as Exempt from Industrial Relations
6.5.2 Union-Busting Practices at the Workplace Level
6.5.3 Undermining the Industrial Dispute Settlement Process
6.5.4 Interim Conclusion
6.6 Employment Relations
6.6.1 Flexibilising and Informalising Employment Relations Through ‘Hiring and Firing’
6.6.2 Using Contract Labour to Reduce Permanent Labour Costs and to Undermine Unionisation Processes
6.6.3 Interim Conclusion
6.7 Labour Market Relations
6.7.1 Constructing a Complex, Multi-Level Training and Migration Regime for the Indian Garment Industry
6.7.2 Securing Adequate Labour Supply Through Expanding the Labour Market Frontier
6.7.3 Interim Conclusion
6.8 Interim Conclusion: Networked Labour Control and Resulting Constraints for Local Union Agency in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster
References
7 Union Agency in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster: Linking Spaces of Organising, Spaces of Collaboration and Spaces of Contestation
7.1 Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU)
7.1.1 The Origins: Community-Based Organising, Transnational Campaigning and Fire-Fighting
7.1.2 Towards a Strategic Factory Organising and Collective Bargaining Approach
7.1.3 Discussion: Lessons from GATWU’s Case
7.2 Garment Labour Union (GLU)
7.2.1 Spaces of Organising
7.2.2 Spaces of Collaboration
7.2.3 Spaces of Contestation
7.2.4 Discussion: Lessons from GLU’s Case
7.3 Karnataka Garment Workers Union (KGWU)
7.3.1 Spaces of Organising
7.3.2 Spaces of Collaboration
7.3.3 Spaces of Contestation
7.3.4 Discussion: Lessons from KGWU’s Case
7.4 Interim Conclusion: Networked Labour Agency and Lessons for Building Sustained Union Power ‘at the Bottom’ of GPN
References
Part VI Conclusion
8 Conclusion: Lessons for Building Union Power in Garment Producing Countries and Benefits of a Relational Approach for Analysing Labour Control and Labour Agency in GPNs
8.1 Answering the Research Questions: Summary of Central Findings
8.1.1 Labour Control Regime in the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster and Constraints for Union Agency
8.1.2 Building Unions’ Strategic Capacities and Power Resources in Relational Spaces of Labour Agency
8.2 Empirical Contributions of This Study: Lessons for Building Local Union Power in Garment Producing Countries
8.3 Theoretical Contributions of This Study: Producing New Insights Through a Relational Analytical Perspective
8.3.1 Contributions to Research on Labour Control and Labour Agency in GPNs
8.3.2 Contributions to GPN Analysis
8.3.3 Contributions to Practice-Oriented Research in Economic Geography
8.4 Final Reflections and Directions for Further Research
References
Annex I List of Interviews
Annex II List of Field Notes
Index
