Re: global pay equity and development
Lars Ekman/Lise Stensrud (stenekm@online.no)
Mon, 13 Jul 1998 17:26:11 +0200 (MET DST)
>
>Subject: Re: global pay equity and development
>
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>>Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 13:43:46 +1200
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>>Sender: owner-wsn@csf.colorado.edu
>>From: "David Fraser" <david_nz@xtra.co.nz>
>>To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>>Subject: Re: global pay equity and development
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>>TB
>>
>>The problems you identify are indeed significant. But there is more...
>>
>>I guess that I might be a closet member of the flat earth society because I
>>just don't get into globalism. Global anything, despite all of it's good
>>intentions is just another opportunity for exploitation by the global
>>colonialists (multi-national organisations supported by the G7).
>>A system of managing global pay equity implies a system of global pay
>>equity management. With all due respect to the Americans and Europeans in
>>this audience I suggest that the management of the global pay equity
>>process would be subsumed within a white positivist north american-centric
>>paradigm. While that would ultimately be good for American business the
>>rest of us would suffer.
>>Labour laws are foundational to national governance. As a country gives
>>away such law making capability, it's economy will be subjugated to
>>external economic interests, to the dis-benefit of it's citizens. (Mind
>>you that is happening already through the impact of World Bank policies,
>>Moody's, Standard and Pours et al.
>>
>>All of that is not to say that the problem of worker exploitation is to
>>hard and should therefore be ignored. But the solution must come from the
>>industrialised countries in a non paternalistic and therefore non global
>>process fashion. And there is the rub. Will industrialised countries,
>>whose corporate citizens exploit the exploited, forego the resulting
>>benefits (increased standard of living) in order to create global pay
>>equity. I doubt it.
>>
>>DF
>>----------
>>> From: Terry Boswell <TBOS@social-sci.ss.emory.edu>
>>> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>>> Subject: Re: global pay equity and development
>>> Date: Saturday, 11 July 1998 03:26
>>>
>>> WSN
>>>
>>> I share Kohler's call for global pay equity. I have raised this
>>> issue recently in talking with others in developmental studies who
>>> offered two criticisms. I do not fully agree with their critique, but
>>> I am interested in hearing responses and counter-arguments from
>>> others. I think we need to answer the following criticisms before the
>>> push for world pay equity would be taken seriously.
>>>
>>> 1. The cost of living varies so much across countries, and
>>> currencies fluctuate so frequently, that any single global wage
>>> standard, much less an equity standard, would be difficult, if not
>>> impossible, to measure and enforce. My response is to support
>>> minimum standards appropriate to each country, but this runs into the
>>> problem of getting individual states, many of which are corrupt and
>>> undemocratic, to enforce a global standard.
>>>
>>> 2. A worse problem is that applying global standards, even minimum
>>> wages, raises the cost of doing business in poor countries and makes
>>> it harder for them to develop. For example, the NYT ran articles on
>>> former sweatshop workers in Indonesia who now pick garbage or work
>>> as prostitutes. They long for their sweatshops. I think it was Rosa
>>> Luxemburg who said that the only thing worse than being exploited
>>> under capitalism is not being exploited. My response is that they
>>> would be better off in the long run by ending the cycle of attracting
>>> investment by offering cheaper wages than competitors. The problem
>>> is thus one of making the TNCs pay for a stepwise transition, which
>>> admittedly, would not be easy.
>>>
>>> I am not satisfied with my responses and hope others have additional
>>> replies. Raising global labor standards is, I am convinced, the most
>>> important task for transnational progressive movements.
>>>
>>> TB
>>>
>>> Date sent: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 10:47:50 -0400
>>> Send reply to: gernot.kohler@sheridanc.on.ca
>>> From: Gernot Kohler <gernot.kohler@sheridanc.on.ca>
>>> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>>> Subject: global pay equity
>>>
>>> ...if something similar has been stated somewhere else already, please
>>> forward a reference...
>>>
>>> Wallerstein has called for "renegotiation of historically grown wage
>>> bargains" in the world-system (Wallerstein 1978). The undervaluation of
>>> labour of low- and middle-income countries has been criticized by
>>Emmanuel
>>> (1962, 1969/72) and others. From a perspective of global Keynesianism,
>>low
>>> incomes of anyone in the world are bad for global demand.
>>>
>>> MOTION (to the global labour movement):
>>> "The global labour movement will place the demand for 'global pay equity'
>>> on its list of demands in its demand-setting process" Æ if it has oneÅ
>>>
>>>
>>> EXPLANATION: The women's movement has done a splendid job developing the
>>> theory, practice and politics of pay equity. An important principle has
>>> been developed which is already being used in praxis, e.g., in Canada,
>>namely:
>>>
>>> PRINCIPLE: "equal pay for work of equal value"
>>> (meaning: If persons A and B perform work of the same value, both must be
>>> remunerated at the same rate. The fact that one is a man and the other a
>>> woman is irrelevant.)
>>>
>>> This principle can and must be globalized and extended worldwide to any
>>> category of person. Thus, if a Mexican performs work of the same value as
>>a
>>> Canadian , he/she must be paid the same. The fact that we and "the
>>system"
>>> are used to discriminatory global wage differentials is deplorable and,
>>> with respect to the principle, irrelevant. In its globalized form, the
>>> principle could be stated thus:
>>>
>>> GLOBAL PAY EQUITY: "equal pay for work of equal value, globally"
>>>
>>> The demand for global pay equity would generate for the global labour
>>> movement added movement and solidarity.
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Gernot Kohler
>>> School of Computing and Information Management
>>> Sheridan College
>>> Oakville, Ont., Canada
>>> e-mail: gernot.kohler@sheridanc.on.ca
>>>
>>>
>>> "Imagination is more important than knowledge" Albert Einstein
>>> Terry Boswell
>>> Department of Sociology
>>> Emory University
>>> Atlanta, GA 30322
>>
>>