NAFTA and the Politics of Labor Transnationalism
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series, 2011.
““excellent, well-researched, and theoretically engaging volume””
““Anybody concerned with social movements in the 21st century, and especially the prospects for labor transnationalism, needs to read this book. Tamara Kay shows why and how a few U.S. and Mexican unions were able to turn NAFTA, which they had viewed as a threat, into an opportunity for new cross-border strategies. The results point to promising ways forward for global movements.””
““Challenging the conventional wisdom that economic globalization has left national labor movements isolated and defenseless, Kay argues - almost heretically in the case of NAFTA - that regional economic integration at the top can also spark transnational solidarity from below. In a classic case of unintended consequences, we see how NAFTA, through its governance institutions and side agreements, provided an opening for savvy organizers to build a more inclusive and unified North American labor movement to resist global capital’s unrelenting ‘race to the bottom.’ NAFTA and the Politics of Labor Transnationalism is a superb study that offers important lessons for scholars and activists alike.””
““In the bourgeoning interdisciplinary field of transnational studies, Professor Kay once again has demonstrated that she is the leading sociologist of transnationalism of her generation with this pathbreaking book. A must-read!”-”
The emergence of labor transnationalism in North America presents compelling political and sociological puzzles. First, how did NAFTA catalyze labor transnationalism? And, why did some unions more readily engage in transnational collaboration and embrace internationalism than others? The book answers these questions using data from over 140 in-depth interviews with Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. labor leaders, activists, and lawyers, and union newspapers and documents from archival collections of major North American labor unions. Beyond offering a new analysis of labor transnationalism, which remains understudied sociologically despite its proliferation in North America in recent years, the book also illuminates how global governance institutions can play a pivotal role in the development of transnational social movements. NAFTA stimulated transnationalism by creating two institutional fields -- transnational trade-negotiating and legal fields -- that provided new arenas for activists to build collective interests, strategies, and trust.
The analysis in the book provides a timely contribution to understanding how transnational laws and governance institutions constrain and expand transnational social movements. Broadly speaking, the case of NAFTA shows how a new institutional structure -- a transnational system for adjudicating labor conflicts for example -- can create an arena that generates transnational movement building. The case has clear implications for the myriad other international governance structures that are emerging around the world, and their effects on different kinds of social movements, from environmental movements seeking climate change regulation to investors lobbying for corporate governance reform.