The recent economic crisis has revealed the interconnectivity of the contemporary world. Financial crises that began on Wall Street spread to government takeovers of automobile companies that included imposed concessionary bargaining on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Countries around the world — both developed and developing — their business sectors, citizens, and workers have all been coping simultaneously with this crisis. This course focuses on a number of themes that globalization and the new economy raise for workers, unions, and the state. Through seminar discussions, presentations, and the completion of a research essay, students will have the opportunity to explore these themes in greater depth and come to an appreciation of the increasing complexity of industrial relations in a globalizing world.