Neoliberal Globalization - The End of Labor Unions in the Third World? A Minor Field Study on the Nicaraguan Labor Unions' Struggle to Survive

Sammanfattning: This thesis, based on a minor field study in Nicaragua, analyzes the impacts of globalization on the Nicaraguan labor unions. It also poses the question of how organized labor has responded to increasing economic globalization, in Nicaragua characterized by the neoliberal policies pursued by the government since 1990, backed by international financial institutes. The analysis demonstrates that the effects of globalization have had major negative consequences for the labor union movement. However, over the last years the unions have increased their member base, making Nicaragua an exception in a negative world trend for labor unions. In explaining how this has become possible I use a theoretical model formed by Lévesque and Murray. It focuses on three power resources that unions have to reinforce to resist the negative effects of globalization ? internal solidarity, external solidarity, and proactivity. My conclusions are that all three resources have been reinforced in Nicaragua. This is especially true for the first two factors. In combination with two minor features ? mass media appearances and the tradition of organizing ? the reinforcement of these power resources explains why the union movement in Nicaragua has been able to turn the trend of decreasing affiliation.