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Between legitimacy and cost: freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in global supply chains

Li, Chunyun ORCID: 0000-0001-5909-0889, Kuruvilla, Sarosh and Bae, Jinsun (2025) Between legitimacy and cost: freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in global supply chains. ILR Review. ISSN 0019-7939

[img] Text (Freedom of association and collective bargaining in global supply chains 2024 May) - Accepted Version
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Identification Number: 10.1177/00197939251314867

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners have advocated for freedom of association and collective bargaining (FOA/CB) rights as a key mechanism to improve labor compliance in global supply chains. Drawing on a longitudinal data set comprising 6,500 Better Work factory assessments across seven countries from 2015 to 2021, the authors compare violations of various FOA/CB elements to provide a general picture of the progress and problems of FOA/CB in supplier workplaces. They argue that suppliers are likely to selectively comply with FOA/CB elements that afford them some legitimacy but will violate the elements that impose significant costs on them. Specifically, the authors find fewer violations of union formation rights, in contrast to higher violations of union operation rights and of collective bargaining rights. Yet, when these latter rights are respected, they are associated with better compliance with other employment standards, with effective collective bargaining having the strongest effect.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2025 The Authors
Divisions: Management
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2024 17:12
Last Modified: 13 Feb 2025 08:54
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/125645

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