Deck 6: Labor Power: Can Workers Shape

Question 1

When workers demand better pay or working conditions, a popular argument is that if they make themselves too _________________, then jobs and investment will simply go elsewhere.

A) Expensive
B) Demanding
C) Confrontational
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 1

All of the above

Question 2

The persistent threat that corporations may _______________ production becomes a powerful tool for employers when determining wages and benefits, contracts, and investment strategies with employees.

A) Relocate
B) Accelerate
C) Localize
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 2

Relocate

Question 3

Interplace competition among workers fosters a progressive ___________________ of labor terms and conditions.

A) Scaling-up
B) Ratcheting-down
C) Strengthening
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 3

Ratcheting-down

Question 4

Interplace competition among workers enables mobile capital to seek out the best rates of return, a process sometimes known as the:

A) "Scaling up of corporate capital"
B) "Race to the top"
C) "Race to the bottom"
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 5

Interplace competition among workers occurs at which of the following scales:

A) International
B) Subnational
C) Local
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 6

In general, the geographic mobility of capital has __________________ over the last few decades.

A) Increased
B) Decreased
C) Reached an equilibrium point
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 7

________________________, as seen in the lowering of barriers to international trade and foreign direct investment, increasingly enables the transfer of both finished goods and inputs for the production process.

A) Taxation
B) Centralization
C) Deregulation
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 8

Technological changes have allowed ___________________ in many production processes so that jobs are displaced by machinery that is sourced globally.

A) Automation
B) Deregulation
C) More unskilled workers to gain access to apprenticeship programs
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 9

Refers to the ways in which workers are sustained from one day to the next and socialized from one generation to the next:

A) Living Wage Campaign
B) The politics of place
C) The reproduction of labor
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 10

It is increasingly the norm (and necessity for some) for household incomes to be derived from the work of _______________ family members.

A) Several
B) Male
C) Well-educated
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 11

The single largest employer in almost every territory around the world is:

A) Telecommunications companies
B) Car manufacturers and heavy industry
C) The Information Technology industry
D) The government or the public sector
E) Retail shops

Question 12

Labor markets are "socially regulated" in ways that:

A) Are a natural outcome of a capitalist system
B) Can be contested
C) Equitable and just
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 13

Labor laws enacted by governments include:

A) Standards for health and safety in the workplace
B) The details of pension schemes
C) The rules governing the collective organization of labor in trade unions
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 14

Control over access to trades and professions is a specific form of local labor market _________________.

A) Regulation
B) Decentralization
C) Flexibility
D) Deregulation
E) Sustainability

Question 15

If governments provide attractive pay and benefits, then private-sector employers will have to ____________________ in order to attract talent.

A) Enact legislation
B) Do the same
C) Cut worker's salaries
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 16

The characteristics of the labor market are determined by its ___________________ in geographically-specific social institutions.

A) Embeddedness
B) Trust
C) Detachment
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 17

In domestic spaces of the home, many governments ____________________ the working conditions of people employed as domestic workers.

A) Inspect
B) Regulate
C) Control
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 18

The role of temporary staffing agencies is essentially to:

A) Supply employers with short-term contract-based staff members
B) Play a go-between role in linking supply/workers and demand/employers of labor
C) Act as intermediaries in the labor market
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 19

By using temporary staffing agencies, employers avoid a direct ________________ relationship with the people working for them, and can hire and fire such workers at will.

A) Contractual
B) Personal
C) Binding
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 20

An example of a national economy with labor market regulation that minimizes regulation is:

A) Denmark
B) Japan
C) United States
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 21

An example of a national economy with labor market regulation that prioritizes government involvement in labor market processes is:

A) Germany
B) Canada
C) Australia
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 22

The term lean production has been used to describe the nature of the production system in contexts where employers:

A) Attempt to constrain the activities of unions within the workplace
B) Insist on workplace bargaining and dispute resolution as opposed to collective bargaining at larger spatial scales
C) Push for one-union rather than multi-union workplaces
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 23

A conceptualization for the ways in which labor is disciplined and controlled, and how this is often distinctively arranged in specific places, is called:

A) "Corporate control theory"
B) "Local labor control regime"
C) "Disciplinary labor regime"
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 24

Employers in industrial estates in the developing world have been shown to attempt to shape a tightly controlled workforce through the:

A) Preferential hiring of young women
B) Regulation of the non-work environment through the extensive use of dormitories
C) Offering of religious, educational, and sporting activities at or near the worksite
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 25

____________________ can serve to constrain worker organization through trade union legislation.

A) Transnational firms
B) National regulatory policies
C) Monetary policies
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 26

Labor geography is a specific field that seeks to understand how workers exert ______________ in the face of the economic structures around them.

A) Agency
B) Compliance
C) Legal frameworks
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 27

All employer-worker relations inherently embody tension concerning:

A) Worker autonomy
B) Wages
C) Nonwage benefits
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 28

______________________ worker activism involves workers collaborating with others outside of their own employment situation in order to create solidarity and to tackle employers at a larger scale.

A) Upgrading
B) Upscaling
C) Realigning
D) Downgrading
E) Downscaling

Question 29

Organizing worker activism across localities prevents different groups of workers from being _______________________, and it enables more resources to be tapped when national and international organizations are involved.

A) Re-assigned
B) Laid off
C) Played off against each other
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 30

"Worker internationalism" refers to:

A) The drive for all workers to gain valuable international experience in an increasingly globalized job market
B) Worker activism coordinated at the international scale to try and tackle the global reach of firms and capital
C) National regulatory policies aimed at deregulating the immigration barriers to temporary foreign workers
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 31

Labor has to be seen as a(n) ______________ agent in the production process.

A) Active
B) Negligible
C) Place-bound
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 32

In 2010, the number of people living outside their country of birth was estimated to be about ________ of the world's population.

A) 80%
B) 50%
C) 33%
D) 10%
E) 3%

Question 33

In China alone, internal migrants (from rural to urban areas and between regions) are estimated to number around:

A) 1 billion
B) 150 million
C) 20 million
D) 5 million
E) 500 thousand

Question 34

"Mobile elites" are often characterized as:

A) Being very wealthy and holding assets such as homes and businesses in several countries
B) Living in one country in order to avoid higher tax rates in another
C) Being employed by transnational corporations
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 35

Temporary foreign workers often have ____________________ citizens of the countries in which they are working.

A) Fewer rights than
B) More rights than
C) Comparable rights to
D) Equivalent status to
E) Equivalent wages to

Question 36

In 2010, about _______ of the U.S. workforce was estimated to be unauthorized immigrants.

A) 70%
B) 25%
C) 10%
D) 5%
E) 1%

Question 37

The emergence of "third-sector" community-owned and run enterprises is an example of:

A) A state-funded welfare scheme
B) An alternative formal employment space
C) An informal venture where workers are paid in cash to evade taxes
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 38

Informal, nonmarket work activities include:

A) Childcare
B) Part-time work
C) Freelance work
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 39

Estimates suggest that between ________ of total employment within the cities of Latin America, Africa, and Asia is informal in nature.

A) 80-100%
B) 60-80%
C) 40-60%
D) 20-40%
E) 0-20%

Question 40

Labor markets are essentially:

A) Natural outcomes of a capitalist system
B) Outside the scope of government intervention
C) Comparable between countries
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 41

Provide three concrete examples of how labor terms and conditions may be impacted as a result of interplace competition among workers. Can these impacts be regarded as either positive or negative?

Question 42

Discuss four examples of how a labor market can be "socially regulated."

Question 43

Under what conditions would the state benefit by constraining worker organization through trade union legislation? In which sectors are such constraints typically imposed, and why?