TY - JOUR
T1 - CSR Participation Committees, Wildcat Strikes and the Sourcing Squeeze in Global Supply Chains
AU - Anner, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
The author thanks the Pennsylvania State University for its support for field research in Vietnam. The author is also grateful for the support provided by the International Labour Organization through its visiting scholars program. And he thanks Better Work for providing access to its data and for facilitating field research. Jennifer Bair, Nguyen Hong Ha, Khalid Nadvi, Arianna Rossi and Samantha Rudick provided insightful feedback on earlier incarnations of this work. And Joyce Sinakhone and Denny Monteiro offered valuable research assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2018/3
Y1 - 2018/3
N2 - Lead firms in apparel global supply chains are increasingly using social compliance programmes that require worker-management participation committees in their supplier factories. These committees are designed to ensure respect for internationally recognized labour standards, to empower workers, and to reduce labour unrest. However, these committees have remained weak, and in countries such as Vietnam worker unrest remains common. This article argues that this is because lead firms in these CSR programmes are imposing a ‘sourcing squeeze’ on supplier factors by reducing the prices and production times they allot to their suppliers, which undermines efforts by committees to address cost-sensitive issues and overtime violations. At the same time, the sourcing squeeze increases strike leverage, providing workers with a much more effective source of worker voice.
AB - Lead firms in apparel global supply chains are increasingly using social compliance programmes that require worker-management participation committees in their supplier factories. These committees are designed to ensure respect for internationally recognized labour standards, to empower workers, and to reduce labour unrest. However, these committees have remained weak, and in countries such as Vietnam worker unrest remains common. This article argues that this is because lead firms in these CSR programmes are imposing a ‘sourcing squeeze’ on supplier factors by reducing the prices and production times they allot to their suppliers, which undermines efforts by committees to address cost-sensitive issues and overtime violations. At the same time, the sourcing squeeze increases strike leverage, providing workers with a much more effective source of worker voice.
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U2 - 10.1111/bjir.12275
DO - 10.1111/bjir.12275
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032981596
SN - 0007-1080
VL - 56
SP - 75
EP - 98
JO - British Journal of Industrial Relations
JF - British Journal of Industrial Relations
IS - 1
ER -