IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v41y2020i1p98-120.html

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Patricia Todd & Bradon Ellem & Caleb Goods & Al Rainnie & Leigh Smith, 2020. "Labour in global production networks: Workers and unions in mining engineering work," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(1), pages 98-120, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:41:y:2020:i:1:p:98-120
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X16684964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X16684964
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X16684964?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:41:y:2020:i:1:p:98-120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.