Publisher's Synopsis
The explosive rise of export manufacturing in East Asia, and the continuing importance of Central America and Mexico in this regard, has shifted the center of gravity of world manufacturing from the North Atlantic to the Pacific Rim. Despite much discussion about the emergence of a postindustrial economy, more people labor on an assembly line today than at any other moment in world history. The establishment of a set of humane, uniform, and enforceable labor standards for these tens of millions of workers who reside in nations bordering the Pacific, therefore, stands high on the global labor rights agenda. This volume of original essays considers how the International Labor Organization has helped generate a set of ideas and practices, past and present, transnational and within a single nation, aimed at advancing social and economic reform in this vast region.
