Labour in global production networks: Workers and unions in mining engineering work

Patricia Todd, Bradon Ellem, Caleb Goods, Al Rainnie and Leigh Smith
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Patricia Todd: University of Western Australia Business School, Australia
Bradon Ellem: University of Sydney Business School, Australia
Caleb Goods: University of Western Australia Business School, Australia
Al Rainnie: University of New South Wales, Australia
Leigh Smith: Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2020, vol. 41, issue 1, 98-120

Abstract: Understanding the role of labour, underplayed in global production networks (GPN) theory, has guided this research on the mining engineering services sector. During the project, the global mining industry entered a downturn. Asking how mining and engineering firms responded to that downturn is a specific variant of wider questions about the place of labour in GPNs and whether labour can shape the GPNs of which it is part. Based on interviews with union officials, workers and management in Australia, the authors show that cost-cutting by global mining companies impacted heavily on the mining engineering sector, pressuring global and local firms. Labour – be it the work process or workers themselves – was central to how firms reacted. The agency of workers and their union was deeply constrained because of the power of companies in GPNs and the nature of the national state and local economies, areas in need of further theoretical development.

Keywords: Engineering; global production networks; labour; labour process; mining; unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:41:y:2020:i:1:p:98-120

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X16684964

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