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PERI Research

Brenner, Mark, Defining and Measuring Living Wages in a Global Context, Paper prepared for the Global Labor Standards and Living Wages Working Group Meeting, Amherst, Mass., April 19-20, 2002. (pdf)

Heintz, James, Global Labor Standards: Their Impact and Implementation, PERI Working Paper No. 46, Amherst, Mass., 2002. (pdf)

Heintz, James and Robert Pollin, Informalization, Economic Growth and the Challenge of Creating Viable Labor Standards in Developing Countries, PERI Working Paper No. 60, Amherst, Mass., 2003. (pdf)

PERI Global Labor Standards and Living Wages Working Group Meeting,
April 19-20, 2002.

Pollin, Robert, Justine Burns, and James Heintz, Global Apparel Production and Sweatshop Labor: Can Raising Retail Prices Finance Living Wages? PERI Working Paper No. 19, Amherst, Mass., 2001. (pdf)

Selected Bibliography

Papers
Barry, Christian and Sanjay Reddy, Just Linkage: International Trade and Labor Standards (.pdf), 2005.

Bivens,  L. Josh and Christian Weller, Rights Make Might: Ensuring workers' rights as a strategy for economic growth, Economic Policy Institute Issue Brief No. 192, Washington, DC. 2003.

Bivens, L. Josh, Adam Hersh, and Christian Weller, How Well Are We Measuring Workers’ Rights? Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 302-10, 2005

Broad, Robin and John Cavanagh, The Corporate Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities(.pdf), World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, 1998.

Elliot, Kimberly Ann and Richard Freeman, White Hats or Don Quixotes? Human Rights Vigilantes in the Global Economy (.pdf),  NBER Conference on Emerging Labor Market Institutions, August 2000.

Freeman, Richard , What Role for Labor Standards in the Global Economy? (.pdf), 1998

Issac, Jeffery C., Thinking About the Antisweatshop Movement: A Modest Proposal (.pdf), Center for the Study of Democracy and Public Life, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Marshall, Ray, Labor Standards, Human Capital, and Economic Development, Economic Policy Institute Working Paper No. 271, Washington, DC, 2005.

Palley, Thomas I.,  The Economic Case for International Labour Standards, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 21-36, 2004.

Rock, Michael T., Public Disclosure of the Sweatshop Practices of American Multinational Garment/Shoe Makers/Retailers: Impacts on their Stock Prices (.pdf), Hood College Dept. of Economics Working Paper, Frederick, MD, 2001.

Singh, Ajit and Ann Zammit, The Global Labour Standards Controversy: Critical Issues for Developing Countries, South Perspectives, South Centre, Geneva, 2000.

Weisbrot, Mark, Robert Naiman, and Natalia Rudiak, Can Developing Countries Afford to Ban or Regulate Child Labor? (.pdf), 2002.

Books and Reports
Elliot, Kimberly Ann, and Richard Freeman, Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization? Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, 2003.

Featherstone, Liza, Students Against Sweatshops, Verso, London, 2002.

Fung, Archon, Dara O'Rourke, and Charles Sabel, Can We Put an End to Sweatshops? Beacon Press, Boston, 2001.

International Labor Organization, Labour Practices in the Footwear, Leather, Textiles, and Clothing Industries, Geneva, 2000.

Kabeer, Naila, The Power to Choose, Verso, London, 2000.

Louie, Miriam Ching Yoon, Sweatshop Warriors, South End Press, Boston, 2001.

Moran, Theodore, Beyond Sweatshops, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, 2002.

Commitee on Monitoring International Labor Standards, National Research Council, Monitoring International Labor Standards: Techniques and Sources of Information, National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2004.

Plant Closings and Labor Rights in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, Washington, DC, 1997.

Aidt, Toke and Zafiris Tzannatos, Unions and Collective Bargaining: Economic effects in a global environment, World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002.

Key Documents

GATT-World Trade Organization Article XX (1947) (Social Clause)

ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998)

U.S.-Jordan FTA Side Letter on Labor and Environment (2001)

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

U.S. Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 - Section 2202

Data and Resources

Center for Economic and Social Rights

Freedom House - Freedom of the World Country Rankings

Globalization and Labor Standards Bibliographic Library

ICFTU - Country reports for the World Trade Organization (.pdf)

ILO - Child Labour Statistics Database

ILO - National Labor Law Database

ILO - Ratification of Core Labor Standards

ILO - International Trade Union Database (by request only)

Polity IV: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2003

U.S. Department of Labor - Monitoring International Labor Standards Indicators

U.S. Department of State - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Action and Monitoring

Academic Consortium on International Trade (ACIT)

AFL-CIO Stop Sweatshops

AFL-CIO Center for International Labor Solidarity

American Rights at Work

Behind the Label

Campaign for Labor Rights

China Labour Bulletin

Clean Clothes Campaign (Europe)

Fair Labor Association

Human Rights Watch

ICFTU - Trade and labour standards

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour

Independent University Initiative Final Report (.pdf)

Labor Rights Now!

Maquila Solidarity Network (Canada)

National Labor Committee

National Museum of American History, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops 1820-Present"

North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation Secretariat

Pilot Project for Licensing Code Implementation (Full report .pdf)

Rugmark

Scholars Against Sweatshop Labor (SASL)

Self-Employed Women's Association (India)

Social Accountability International (formerly Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency)

Sweatshop Watch

UNITE-HERE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees)

United Students Against Sweatshops

Verite

WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing

Workers' Rights Consortium