Decent Work in Global Supply Chains
- FREE
- English
- Interdisciplinary
- with certificate upgrade option
What is the course about?
Welcome to our FREE online course "Decent Work in Global Supply Chains"!
According to the UN organization UNCTAD, 80% of trade takes place in global supply chains linked to transnational corporations. Governed by powerful transnational corporations, these global supply chains set the ‘rules of the game’ of today’s global production system. For the majority of workers, this production system translates into poverty wages, excessive working hours, unsafe workplaces and repression of workers’ right to form and join democratic trade unions.
This course offers a careful mix of video lectures and interviews, readings, online resources, and exercises to gain both knowledge and practical skills for promoting decent work in global supply chains. In some countries, the online learning experience will be complemented with local workshops for a truly global learning experience.
The course started with a Facebook live discussion with Prof. Dr. Mark Anner on 12 January 2017. You can watch the FB live here: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalLabourUniversity/videos/10154300252512602/
What will I learn
This course discusses the particularities and strategies of transnational corporations as actors orchestrating global supply chains, as well as their impact on labour relations worldwide. It looks at regulatory frameworks for trade, investment and taxation, and explores whether global supply chains contribute to development.
After presenting the major decent work gaps in today’s global supply chains, the course will look at the existing governance framework and its gaps. What are the governance gaps and what are strategies and tools for an alternative governance structure that promotes sustainable development and decent work in global supply chains?
What do I need to know?
The course requires a working level of English and draws on the fields of political science and law at the level of a Masters’ programme. However, theoretical concepts are explained in an accessible and well-illustrated way, so it is also possible to participate in the course using skills and knowledge acquired outside formal education.
Course workload
The estimated workload is 5-6 hours per week if you read also the key reading for each unit.
Certificates and Scholarships
You can enrol and complete this course for FREE. If you would like to get a certificate, you have two options:
Certificate of Participation
You can obtain a Certificate of Participation at any time after completing the course. This means watching all the videos and responding to the quiz questions of each video. The Certificate of Participation costs 29€. If you are from a non-OECD country or a trade unionist from an OECD country, you can apply for a scholarship, by sending an email to online@global-labour-university.org indicating your organisation and the country you are from.
Certificate of Accomplishment
Aside of complying with the conditions for a Certificate of Participation, obtaining a Certificate of Accomplishment requires taking an online exam. Options for such a certificate are limited to the periods in which the GLU Online Academy organises an exam phase. The Certificate of Accomplishment costs 49€. Again, if you are from a non-OECD country or a trade unionist from an OECD country, you can apply for a scholarship, by sending an email to online@global-labour-university.org indicating your organisation and the country you are from.
How to use the course materials?
You can organise a local workshop on the topics of the course combining the course materials with local experts from trade unions, labour research institutes and universities.
If you work for a university, trade union or any other labour-related institution you are welcome to integrate the course material into your education and training programmes. All video lectures and interviews, readings, online resources, and exercises can be downloaded separately and used for free.
Course structure
You can study at your own pace- any time you want. The estimated workload is 3-4 hours per week.
Chapter 1: Introduction to global supply chains
This chapter introduces the evolution and drivers of global supply chains as today’s dominant production system. It discusses whether the “East-Asian miracle” countries can serve as an example for development through global supply chains and explores the architecture and strategies of transnational corporations. Participants will be invited to introduce themselves and share relevant material in an interactive world map.
Chapter 2: The regulatory framework on trade, investment and taxation
Chapter two provides an overview of the evolution and characteristics of the global trade system and the framework of investment and taxation. Who sets the rules? How does dispute settlement work in today’s trade regime? What are the implications of these rules for human and workers’ rights, social justice and the environment?
Chapter 3: Global supply chains and development
This chapter discusses the role of global wage hierarchies and investment policies as drivers of global supply chains and explores their impact on development. What can we learn from the example of the extractive industries in Africa, and from the impact of privatization on public services? In which way do global supply chains rely on forced and child labour. How does insertion into global supplies chains affect middle-income countries?
Chapter 4: Decent work gaps in global supply chains
Featuring the ITUC’s general secretary Sharan Burrow, this chapter explores the different levels of decent work gaps in global supply chains. It looks at the fragmentation of labour and the realities of informal economy workers at the bottom of many global supply chains.
Chapter 5: Key elements of the existing governance framework
How are global supply chains governed today? What are the main instruments of Corporate Social Responsibility, what do the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights say and how does the complaints mechanism under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises work? Given the existence of these mechanisms, why do massive workers’ rights violations in global supply chains continue?
Chapter 6: Negotiated governance - strategies on the company and industry level
This chapter explores innovative strategies on the company and industry level to improve working conditions and voice and representation of workers, including Global Framework Agreements, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and IndustriALL’s ACT Initiative. What can we learn from them and how can they be extended?
Chapter 7: Regulating global supply chains - strategies on the political and legal level
What are the most promising political and legal strategies to realize decent work in global supply chains? This chapter combines the voices of international experts from the policy and legal fields and looks at the most common arguments of employers against the regulation of global supply chains. It closes with an overview of the way forward.
Chapter 8: Campaigning to win – strategies and tools
Even the best knowledge is useless without the right tools to push for change. Drawing on successful campaigns, this chapter explains the key methods and tools of strategic corporate research and campaigning as well as hands-on skills on how to use technology and communication to promote decent work in global supply chains.
Course team
Prof. Dr. Mark Anner (Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, and Political Science, Penn State University, USA)
Esther Busser (Geneva Office of the International Trade Union Confederation)
Dr. Michael Fichter (Senior Lecturer, Global Labour University, Germany)
Tandiwe Gross (Associate Fellow, Global Labour University)
Dr. Frank Hoffer (Executive Director, ACT Foundation)
Jenny Holdcroft (Assistant General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union)
Prof. Dr. Praveen Jha (Professor for Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)
Maité Llanos (Project coordinator, Global Labour University)
Adam Lee ( Organizing and Campaign Director, IndustriALL Global Union)
Ron Oswald (General Secretary, International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations)
Victor Hugo Ricco (Senior Specialist, Bureau for Workers’ Activities, ILO)
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scherrer (Professor for Globalization and Politics, Social Science Department of the University of Kassel, Germany)
Course instructors (in order of appearance)
Prof. Dr. Praveen Jha (Professor for Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)
Dr. Michael Fichter (Senior Lecturer, Global Labour University, Germany)
Prof. Dr. Mark Anner (Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, and Political Science, Penn State University, USA)
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scherrer (Professor for Globalization and Politics, Social Science Department of the University of Kassel, Germany)
Hilma Mote (ACTRAV, ILO)
Eddie Cottle (Project Leader, Labour Research Service, South Africa)
Sandra van Niekerk (Researcher at Public Services International’s research unit, South Africa)
Beate Andrees (Chief, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, ILO)
Daniel Bertossa (Director Policy and Governance, Public Services International)
Sharan Burrow (Secretary-General, ITUC)
Jane Barrett (Director, Organization and Representation Department, WIEGO)
Victor Hugo Ricco (Senior Specialist, Bureau for Workers’ Activities, ILO)
Esther Busser (Geneva Office of the International Trade Union Confederation)
Dr. Frank Hoffer (Executive Director, ACT Foundation)
Jenny Holdcroft (Assistant General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union)
Claudia Meyer (Director of DGB Bildungswerk, Germany)
Guy Ryder (Director-General, ILO)
Prof. Dr. Reingard Zimmer (Professor for Labour Law at Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany)
Victor Baez (General-Secretary, Trade Union Confederation of the Americas)
Tandiwe Gross (Associate Fellow, Global Labour University)
Ron Oswald (General Secretary, International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations)
Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner (Director of Labor Education Research, Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations)
Adam Lee (IndustriALL)
Cherrisse Fredricks (Communications Officer, IndustriALL)
Image Copyright (above): ILO/Crozet M
Course instructors
Mark Anner, Penn State University
Mark Anner is a Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, and Political Science, and he is the Director of the Center for Global Workers' Rights at Penn State University. He is also the chair of the MPS Program in Labor and Global Workers' Rights, which is a part of the Global Labour University network. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University and a Master's Degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. Dr. Anner's research examines freedom of association and corporate social responsibility, labor law reform and enforcement, and workers' rights in apparel global value chains in Central America and Vietnam. His publications include Solidarity Transformed: Labor Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America* (Cornell University Press, 2011). Before beginning his academic career, Mark Anner spent eleven years working with labor unions and labor research centers in Central America and Brazil, and he was a union organizer in Boston.
Esther Busser
Esther Busser is the Assistant Director in the Geneva Office of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and assistant secretary to the workers’ group in the ILO since February 2009. She previously worked as trade policy advisor for the ITUC from 2003-2009. She holds a Masters in Economic Policy from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and worked previously in the ILO and UNCTAD. She was secretary of the workers' group on the ILO discussion on global supply chains in June 2016 and is the secretary of the workers' group for the update of the ILO's Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy (MNE Declaration)
Michael Fichter
He moved to Berlin after receiving his BA in History at Stanford University. Until the end of 2011 he taught political science and labor relations at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. From 2005 to 2013 he also taught a seminar on "Strategies of Multinational Corporations and Labour" in the GLU German Program. His research focus for the past several years has been on global labor relations, in particular on the impact of global framework agreements and transnational union networks.
Tandiwe Gross
Tandiwe Gross graduated in political science and law and holds an M.A. in Labour Policies and Globalisation from the University of Kassel and Berlin School of Economics and Law. After working for the Global Labour University and the International Labour Organization in the area of labour rights and due diligence in global supply chains, she now works as Senior Programme Manager at the ACT Foundation.
Dr Frank Hoffer
Dr Frank Hoffer is a research fellow of the Global Labour University. He studied in Bremen, London and Moscow. He holds a PhD in Economics. During his professional career, Frank Hoffer was a Labour Attache at the Germany Embassy in Moscow, worked as a senior research officer at the International Labour Organisation and served as the Executive Director of the ACT Foundation. His main areas of interest and research are social policy, wage policies and the application of international labour standards. He is a non-executive director of the GLU Online Academy board
Jenny Holdcroft
Jenny was recently elected as Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL. Previously as Policy Director at IndustriALL she was leading the global union federation's campaigns on precarious work, living wages and sustainable industrial policy. She is a member of the steering committee of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and negotiated the Memorandum of Understanding between IndustriALL and global garment brands to create the ACT process to deliver living wages through industry collective agreements linked to brand purchasing practices. In 2001, she joined the International Metalworkers Federation as the Equal Rights Director. Jenny’s background is with the Australian trade union movement where she started as a shop steward.
Praveen Jha
Praveen Jha completed his Ph.D. from the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University and is currently a Professor and Chairperson at the same Centre. He was also the founding Chairperson of the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies. He has been a Visiting Professor at several universities and institutions and was also a Visiting Fellow at the International Labour Organisation. His major areas of research and teaching include: Political Economy of Development, with particular reference to Labour, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Public Finance, Education, and History of Economic Thought. He is one of the founding members of the Agrarian South Network and a founding editor of the Journal: Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy. His latest book is Labour in Contemporary India (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Adam Lee
Adam has worked as IndustriALL Global Union's Organizing and Campaigns Director out of the Geneva, Switzerland head office since 2014. Prior to that, he worked for 13 years in strategic campaigns and in international affairs for the United Steelworkers from the international headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He received a Masters degree from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 2001.
Maité Llanos
Born in Argentina and graduated in International Relations, Maité Llanos has been working with social movements and trade unions for more than ten years. From 2010 to February 2015 she coordinated the international department of CTA A–Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina-Autónoma. Before that, Maité has worked for the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas In São Paulo, focusing on environment and labour; and coordinated the continental campaign on trade agreements. In 2015 she moved to Geneva and worked as project coordinator and online tutor at the Global Labour University. Currently, she is Assistant Director at the ITUC Geneva Office.
Ron Oswald
Ron Oswald was elected General Secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations - IUF - in April 1997. He has been a union member since 1969, when he first worked as a baggage handler at London's Heathrow Airport. Oswald obtained a BA in Economics and a MA in Labour Economics from the Universities of Warwick and Leeds.
Prior to joining the IUF, he was a member and a shop steward/local union representative between 1973 and 1987. His international union experience prior to joining the IUF in 1987 included work with unions in the Caribbean, El Salvador, and West Africa.
Victor Hugo Ricco
Victor Hugo Ricco is a human rights lawyer. He is Senior Specialist in Workers’ Activities at the Bureau of Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). He coordinates ACTRAV's International Labour Standards team and leads labour migration topics. He previously worked at the Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development in Cordoba (Argentina) and as General Coordinator for International Environmental Affairs for the Government of Argentina. His work area of work has been Business and Human Rights . This includes experience in carrying out labour-related cases at the international level, particularly under the OECD Compliance Mechanism and membership in the coordination committee of OECD Watch network.
Christoph Scherrer
Christoph Scherrer is professor for Globalization and Politics and executive director of the International Center for Development and Decent Work at the University of Kassel and a member of Steering Committee of the Global Labour University.
Edlira Xhafa
Edlira Xhafa is the Executive Director of the Online Academy of the Global Labour University. She has a master's degree in Labour Policies and Globalisation from the Global Labour University (Germany) and holds a PhD in Labour Studies from the University of Milan, Italy. Since 2000, she has been engaged with national trade unions in her home country Albania, as well as in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar. She has also worked for, and collaborated with Education International, Public Services International, Building and Wood Workers' International, International Labour Organisation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and others.
Selected Course Reviews
Overall Rating 5.0 (2 students)
