Dark Clouds - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 173

in the information, media, and service sectors came together to form a
genuinely global federation of knowledge workers. Today, it gives voice
to 20 million workers in 150 countries through nine hundred afiliated
unions in a broad range of ields, including information technology and
services, media, entertainment and the arts, gaming and sport, inance,
commerce, and security, as well as to the growing numbers of workers
who toil for temporary employment agencies. Among its major activities
is negotiating global agreements with transnational companies to address
important issues such as child labor, discrimination, and the right to
organize local unions. By early 2013, it had completed forty-eight such
agreements with a wide range of companies, including a number in the
communication and information technology sector. It was also in the
process of negotiating fresh agreements with major transnational irms,
including IBM and Disney.
Ver.di and UNI are not alone among converging unions and inter-
national labor federations that are having an impact on global supply
chains, including those central to the growth of cloud computing. But
it is uncertain whether this development is the harbinger of a signiicant
upsurge in global labor activism or a defensive posture that can at best
slow down the inevitable decline and demise of organized labor. That
depends, in part, on how one deines organized labor, because another
important trend is the growth of labor organizations that are not formal
trade unions. These worker associations resemble unions but, either out of
choice or necessity, remain outside the legal and political structures that
govern the operation of trade unions. They operate all over the world,
and research has documented their importance in China, India, Europe,
and the United States (Mosco, McKercher, and Huws 2010). They are
especially active in the information, communication, and cultural sec-
tors where worker associations have represented employees in occupa-
tions ranging from call-center agent to software-engineering specialist.
Worker associations have won major victories for contract employees at
Microsoft and for telecommunications workers in India. Although they
do not typically negotiate contracts, worker associations have provided
employees with legal representation, group medical insurance, training,
model contract language, counseling, and support for collective resistance,
without suffering from some of the bureaucratic entanglements that plague
traditional trade unions. These associations are particularly active among