In the 1990s, once globalization had momentum and it was obvious to many observers that "decent work" wasn't the end all in terms of solutions, Munck continues. Is "decent work" just a "backward-looking utopianism" as Waterman (2008) insisted it is? Yes, Munck agrees it is a bit utopian, because its promise is based on "the myth of a golden era of social harmony" and yet, a "decent work" movement could reduce poverty and provide that "human face" no matter how many negative things can be said about it.
A second suggestion for mitigating the negative consequences of globalization for workers is to encourage trade unions to get involved in social movements (which in the history of the American trade unions was part of their agenda). Munck offers some optimism on that topic when he quotes Dan Clawson: "Labor's links with other [social movement] groups are denser and stronger than they have been for half a century" (Clawson, 2003: p. 205). The relationship between trade unions and social change has led to "…new, more progressive policies… in relation to undocumented immigrants," Munck explains.
Because many workers in the United States were involved in "the informal economy" (as this paper has alluded to earlier in the context of African women being in the informal economy) trade unions -- concerned with social justice and fairness for workers -- got involved and helped workers of color and women to organize themselves. Why couldn't that also take place in the context of a globalized world where workers in developing nations are suffering and struggling just to eek out a living?
In fact poor people's movements have shown "…great degrees of inventiveness" and they should be given credit for their creative strategies that can help them approach housing and health care issues (and decent pay) with a plan that gets the attention of the multinational companies and other powerful globalized companies. Indeed the very nature of transnational communication and networking could help mitigate and overcome the obstacles that hitherto had prevented women and people of color from healthy, hopeful lives. So by using the tools of the globalized society -- the digital world of the Internet -- trade unions in unison with struggling populations in developing countries could indeed mitigate some of the more dire issues facing poor people.
Meanwhile, Adam Hanieh writes ("Migrant Labour, Class Formation and the Geographical Displacement of Crisis: A Case Study of the Gulf Cooperation Council") that the working class people in the Gulf region -- many of them Arab immigrants hired as cheap labor from Middle Eastern Muslim nations -- should get organized to push for radical change. Albeit that idea is an extreme...
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