Logistics workers and global logistics: the heavy lifters of globalisation

Abstract

This article examines the growing importance of logistics and logistics workers, the growth of offshoring and the changing balance between manufacturers and retailers in the post-Fordist era due in part to the bar code. It explores the interdependent relationship between technological innovation, globalisation and the expansion of the logistics sector and the impacts of time-space compression on logistics work, before examining the vulnerabilities created in global supply chains by these interdependencies. It concludes that the central place of distribution in a global economy confers a new strategic power on logistics workers.