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Political Economy of World-Systems 2002 Conference Riverside, California |
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Abstract Shippers and Carriers: Class Struggle in the Global Logistics Sector Edna Bonacich This paper focuses on the ports of LA/Long Beach and the surrounding transportation systems up to and including warehouses and distribution centers. There has been a major attack and deregulation of all of the global cargo transportation industries (shipping, rail, trucking--also air, but I'm setting that aside for now), and resulting deunionization. How and why was this done? How are workers/unions fighting back? Right now the Teamsters are engaged in an alliance with the ILWU to try to organize the port truckers country wide. My basic argument is that the anti-union engine is driven, however distantly, by the "shippers," especially the giant discount retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Payless Shoes, etc., and they intervene politically to cut labor costs throughout all aspects of the supply chain. Knowing more about this is critical to an effective working class strategy to counter them. |
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27th Annual Conference of the Political Economy of World-Systems Spring Hosted by the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California, Riverside |