Globalization and Labour in the Asia Pacific Region edited by Chris Rowley and John Benson, London: Frank Cass, 2000, 314 pp., ISBN 0-7146-5035-8 (cloth) and ISBN 0-7146-8089-3 (paper).

This edited volume focuses on the impact of globalization and deregulation on workers and labour organizations and their responses to these challenges in the Asia Pacific region. It begins with an introduction of key issues and themes, notably the problematic nature of globalization, its impact on state power, and its effects on labour and its organizations, and concludes with a summary of findings for the countries studied. One of the important findings of this volume is that globalization’s terrain is uneven and contested (p. 307), and hence neither the thesis of universalism nor the “social dumping” and “race to the bottom” views can be supported. Chapters 2 and 3 address the issue of the impact of globalization and deregulation at the regional level, whereas the rest of the chapters do so at country levels. Of the country chapters, three are devoted to Australia, one to a comparative study of trade union responses to globalization in two socialist countries (China and Vietnam), and the rest to other selected Asian countries. All the country chapters have comparable thematic coverage. Keith Abbott in Chapter 2 questions the assumption that there is commonality in the objectives and modes of action across all unions, especially unions operating at the regional level. He then proposes that “the movement in regional trade union imperatives will typically run from the ideological to the political, and only then from the political to the industrial” (p. 24). The author produces some evidence in support of his thesis from the case study of the Asia Pacific Regional Organization of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. In Chapter 3, John Price examines the nature of interaction between the international labour movement and APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), with particular focus on APEC’s Human Resource Development Working Group. He finds that union participation in regional organizations has enabled labour to confront globalization more effectively. Although the propositions put forth by both Abbott and Price are thoughtful, substantiation of these propositions would require more data and more rigorous analysis. Different aspects of strategic responses of Australian trade unions to the challenges of globalization and deregulation have been dealt with in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. In Chapter 4, Richard Hall and Bill Harley use the Australian National Trade Union survey data to discuss different types of Australian unions and their varying response to the challenge of globalization and deregulation. Their methodology to analyze the data appears rather simple. A more sophisticated analytical tool would have been more appropriate for addressing such a complex issue. Tim Harcourt in Chapter 5 first reviews the literature on the welfare effects of globalization. He divides Australian union strategies for dealing with the impact of globalization into international and domestic, and assesses Australian trade union performance on this basis. In Chapter 6, John Burgess brings in a new element in the discussion: the globalization imperative, non-standard workforce and trade union density nexus. He clearly demonstrates that there is a connection between the rise of non-standard workforce and the decline in trade union density in Australia, which, in turn, is further intensified by globalization. This conclusion makes a lot of sense, and it should be possible to generalize this to other countries as well. Chapters 7 through 15 deal with the varying responses of trade unions to globalization and deregulation in a host of Asian countries, ranging from Japan to Vietnam. This is an interesting mix of countries representing developed, developing and transitional economies. Given this diversity, one would expect significant variations in trade union responses to globalization and deregulation. In fact, this is borne out by country studies …