International Allies, Institutional Layering and Power in the Making of Labour in Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT This contribution discusses trajectories of labour power in the making. Taking a practice theory perspective on power, and focusing on the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the author asks how Bangladeshi trade unions are attempting to use changes in the industrial landscape after the factory collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013 to constitute different power sources. The article challenges assumptions in power resource theories that associational, institutional and social‐cultural power are pre‐existing factors, arguing that trade unions have to co‐construct and enact those power sources in order for them to become meaningful. The article contributes to the debate on Networks of Labour Activism (NOLA) by showing that networked interactions with global unions and other labour support organizations help to construct power in an incremental way through information sharing, claim reframing, increasing social recognition, and the construction of a ‘shadow of protection’ for trade unions. But it also points out new limitations resulting from managerial and political resistance, which aims to contain and reverse the growing power of labour. The Bangladesh Accord is a double‐edged sword: on the one hand it provides unions with new opportunities for developing strategic capabilities, while on the other hand it is used by powerful domestic actors to discredit trade unions and mobilize workers against the constraints of the Accord.