CAPITAL MOBILITY AND THE SOCIAL ACCORD: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE GE COORDINATED BARGAINING COMMITTEE

Frank Borgers

doi:10.1016/S0742-6186(03)12004-5

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Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations

ISSN: 0742-6186
Series editor(s): David Lewin and Paul Gollan

Subject Area: Human Resource Management

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CAPITAL MOBILITY AND THE SOCIAL ACCORD: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE GE COORDINATED BARGAINING COMMITTEE

Document Information:
Title:	CAPITAL MOBILITY AND THE SOCIAL ACCORD: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE GE COORDINATED BARGAINING COMMITTEE
Author(s):	Frank Borgers
Volume:	12 ISBN: 978-0-76231-028-9 eISBN: 978-1-84950-215-3
Citation:	Frank Borgers (2003), CAPITAL MOBILITY AND THE SOCIAL ACCORD: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE GE COORDINATED BARGAINING COMMITTEE, in (ed.) 12 (Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations, Volume 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.73-114
DOI:	10.1016/S0742-6186(03)12004-5 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Extract:	This paper uses the Coordinated Bargaining Committee (CBC), formed by GE unions in the mid-sixties to coordinate their bargaining with GE, as a lens to critically examine labor’s response to GE’s transformation. This paper argues that the CBC’s inability to significantly raise the costs of, let alone halt, GE’s rampant global capital mobility is largely attributable to a failure of strategy. This failure can, in turn, be traced to the limitations of the post war labor-management accord and U.S. labor’s continued confinement within the narrow parameters of business unionism. Examining the CBC’s response to GE’s transformation therefore reveals the broader political-economic and institutional challenges of global capital mobility facing U.S. labor. The paper briefly outlines the origins and early victory of the CBC, the post-1970 evolution of bargaining at GE, and concludes with a critical examination of the limitations of the CBC and some suggestions for alternate directions.