2. In today’s world, it is easy to underestimate the profound power that workers have in
utilizing labor unrest as a way to bargain for better work conditions. Beverly J Silver’s Forces of
Labor reexamines the idea of working class struggle in the context of global capitalism. In
particular, Silver argues that when a business forms around the accumulation of profit, it
produces resistance from workers who want a fairer share of that profit. As a result, businesses
relocate their capital to different places where costs of production are lower and new working
classes come about. In this essay, I will introduce Silver’s concept of labor unrest and define
how the worker creates it through the acquisition of bargaining power. Then I will analyze the
“crisis of profitability” that businesses face when the costs of labor are too high to sustain
adequate revenue (Silver 20). Finally, I will prove that her concepts of a “spatial fix”, and a
“product fix” allow new working classes to emerge in different geographic locations and
different industries when companies face issues of expensive labor.
Silver’s main argument begins with the concept of ‘labor unrest’ derived from the lack of
proper or fair treatment by a business towards its workers. The idea is rooted in capitalism and
more specifically, in the concept of mass production of goods, whereby a single worker can have
critical negative effects on the production output of a company if they decide to strike or
unionize (Silver 32). When workers feel as if they are being treated as a commodity, they have
an incentive to lobby for change at a point where production can be disrupted (Silver 182). The
negative repercussions of a disruption in production allow workers to acquire power and lobby
for their own interests. Bargaining power works as a tool to enhance wages and working
conditions. Forms of bargaining power include the power to unionize, the ability to conduct a
peaceful strike, and the possession of a set of skills that employers find above average value in
(Silver 6).
3. Bargaining power is the tool by which workers engage in labor movements. Silver lays
out this structure and then introduces the idea of an internationally “homogenized” (Silver 8)
working class that is a product of the “globalization of mass production” (Silver 168). This is
the second part of her argument that provides pretext on how new working classes eventually
arise. Commodification of workers allows businesses to classify labor as a cost, and in their
pursuit to keep costs as low as possible, businesses engage in global production of goods where
labor is cheaper (Silver 17). Car factories in Asia and textile production centers that were
outsourced from the UK are examples of companies searching for cheaper labor.
The quest for cheap labor is a direct response to firms addressing a reduction in their own
profits from having to pay higher wages. When a workforce gains enough bargaining power,
businesses are forced to respond to the crisis of profitability, the final precursor to proving how
working classes form around the world. The crisis of profitability occurs when too much of a
firm’s capital is devoted to the response that is required when labor unrest occurs (Silver 150).
This can include spending money on higher wages or moving capital towards the production of
new factories that improve working conditions. These things all combine to create an
environment where labor unrest serves as an effective mechanism to promote change. Once labor
unrest is established and has a large enough affect on profits, a company has to respond. This is
where Silver introduces how working classes come into fruition.
In chapter three, Silver gives two solutions on how a business can react to the negative
consequences that come about when laborers exercise their structural bargaining power. These
solutions end up combining to prove that labor unrest does indeed give way to new working
classes. The first solution is known as the “spatial fix”. A spatial fix is what Silver describes as
the “geographical relocation of production” that attempts to solve the crisis of profitability that a
4. firm faces when workers demand either higher wages or better working conditions (Silver 39).
The initial creation of the textile industry serves as effective evidence of this concept. In the
nineteenth century, the textile industry began to thrive and due to the massive profits that a few
companies were reaping, labor unrest was relatively scarce. However, as more textile companies
emerged, competition grew and laborers gained more bargaining power at the point of
production. As a result, these companies fought to keep labor costs low by outsourcing their
factories to different places around the world where the cost of work was cheaper. When
factories sprouted up in places like China and India, working classes of textile laborers were
created (Silver 85). As time goes on, these classes of textile workers gain bargaining power,
improve their conditions and contribute to the creation of an international working class derived
from manufacturing. The textile industry shows that labor unrest created not only different
geographical working classes, but also a more internationally based class of workers who share
similar levels of bargaining power regardless their location (Silver 169).
Textile production also serves as evidence of an even greater labor phenomenon known
as the “product fix”. The product fix is the idea that as the cost of labor unrest becomes too high
for a company to endure, they shift their capital to other industries where workers serve as less of
a hindrance to the accumulation of profits (Silver 39). Silver explains this ‘cyclical’ (Silver 78)
process by referencing the textile industry again. The first textile firms of the nineteenth century
experienced “windfall” profits because of their monopoly power over the industry (Silver 83).
The immense profit was used to suppress labor unrest and labor movements. When other firms
began to manufacture textiles, competition arose and labor movements were easier to organize.
In 1870, The Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners and Twiners was
established as the largest form of union representation for textile workers up until that point
5. (Silver 84). This allowed textile workers to easily lobby for higher wages and better working
conditions, cutting the firm’s profits by a wide margin. Throughout the first half of the twentieth
century, the rise of the automobile industry provided a much more enticing option for the
allocation of a firm’s capital. Thus, successful labor movements in the textile industry prompted
an international transition from a declining sector to one that was beginning to thrive. As a result,
new working classes emerged in the auto industry with the relocation of capital to a different
place. In this example, Silver is able to successfully demonstrate that specific labor events were
followed by an introduction of a new set of working classes. The working classes in the auto
industry will inevitably garner their own bargaining power, and the process of working class
formation repeats itself. The quick development of manufacturing jobs that coincided with the
introduction of the automobile industry “created a new working class: new in size and in
experience” (Silver 55).
The nineteenth and twentieth century offer a unique glimpse at prominent industries that
were associated with labor unrest and the formation of new working classes. When workers are
able establish a legitimate amount of bargaining power, they have the power to attain higher
wages and cut into the profit of the company they work for. As a result, businesses relocate their
capital to geographically different locations or they refocus on a different industry that is less
prone to labor unrest. In effect, Silver is able to successfully argue that these new places and
industries serve as the environment for the rise of new working classes internationally.
6. Bibliography
1. Silver, Beverly J. Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization since 1870.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.
