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39 Lab. Stud. J. 5 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/labstuj39 and id is 1 raw text is: Official Journal of UnedAssocatin for Editorial Labor Education- Labor Studies journal 2014, Vol. 39(I) 5-8 Labor Confronts Austerity: @ 2014 UALE Reprints and permissions: An Introduction sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1 177/0160449XI4530689 Isj.sagepub.com Stephanie Ross' and Larry Savage2 Organized labor and working people around the globe are experiencing sustained political and economic attacks from governments of all political stripes. From the global economic forces precipitating an international race to the bottom, to capital's ability to tame those few governments willing to reject neoliberal imperatives, to the disorganization of unions and division and resentment within the working class, unions around the world are under attack. Throughout the European Union, hundreds of thou- sands of workers have had their wages frozen or have been thrown out of work to pay for an economic crisis not of their making. In the Global South, International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity measures continue to foster anti-union labor law reforms and dramatic reductions in public spending in the name of flexibility and global com- petitiveness, despite their inability to spur sustained economic development. In much of Asia, including China and Bangladesh, unprecedented and militant strike actions and protests have erupted in response to increased unemployment and intensified exploitation at work that have resulted from employer responses to the global eco- nomic crisis. In the North American context, strategically capitalizing on the elector- ate's economic anxieties, the Tea Party movement's stunning electoral success in the 2010 midterm elections and the election of a Conservative majority government in Canada in 2011 have set the stage for an all-out legislative attack on unions. In Wisconsin, ironically the first state to allow public-sector collective bargaining, and in Michigan, the cradle of American industrial unionism, the recent adoption of anti- union right-to-work legislation has justifiably set off alarm bells for workers' orga- nizations far and wide. While attacks on the labor movement are certainly not new, the most recent round of austerity measures, unleashed in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 Great Recession, has been especially challenging for union members. In its simplest form, austerity 'York University, Toronto, ON, Canada 2Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada Corresponding Author: Larry Savage, Centre for Labour Studies, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A I, Canada. Email: Isavage@brocku.ca

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