ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors analyse globalization is in terms of its impacts on labour and its organization, and the possible responses, in the Asia Pacific region. Globalization needs to be grounded and located as part of several wider debates, and these are common to much of the work in this collection. If globalization means the reduction in influence of the nation state, then this will have a number of implications for trade unions that generally have been able to protect, at least to some degree, their members through national political means. Even the newness of globalization is debated, as is its impact on the power and position of the state. Another key element of globalization concerns its impacts on labour markets. The lexicon of globalization continues to be one of the most fashionable and is in common usage in a range of areas—even though globalization's exact meaning and effects remain contested.
