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Spillover effects across transnational industrial relations agreements: the potential and limits of collective action in global supply chains

Sarah Ashwin, Chikako Oka, Elke Schüßler, Rachel Alexander and Nora Lohmeyer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Using qualitative data from interviews with multiple respondents in 45 garment brands and retailers, as well as respondents from unions and other stakeholders, the authors analyze the emergence of the Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) living wages initiative. They ask how the inter-firm coordination and firm–union cooperation demanded by a multi-firm transnational industrial relations agreement (TIRA) developed. Synthesizing insights from the industrial relations and private governance literatures along with recent collective action theory, they identify a new pathway for the emergence of multi-firm TIRAs based on common group understandings, positive experiences of interaction, and trust. The central finding is that existing union-inclusive governance initiatives provided a platform from which spillover effects developed, facilitating the formation of new TIRAs. The authors contribute a new mapping of labor governance approaches on the dimensions of inter-firm coordination and labor inclusiveness, foregrounding socialization dynamics as a basis for collective action and problematizing the limited scalability of this mode of institutional emergence.

Keywords: apparel industry; labor standards; transnational industrial relations; corporate social responsibility; supply chain governance; Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2020-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in ILR Review, 1, August, 2020, 73(4), pp. 995 - 1020. ISSN: 0019-7939

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