Unions can mitigate the negative impacts of globalization, a new study says. "Workers who belong to unions earn higher wages, work fewer hours, receive more training and have longer job tenure," say the researchers at the World Bank, who detail their findings in Unions and Collective Bargaining: Economic Effects in a Global Environment.

The review of more than 1,000 studies on the economic effects of unions and collective bargaining has found the economy works better when workers belong to unions. "The need for workers, employers and governments to find solutions that reduce poverty through both growth and distributional efficiency is becoming increasingly important in an era of rapid globalization," says Robert Holzmann, the World Bank's director of social protection, who commissioned the book.

Critics of the corporate globalization model say the new report by the influential World Bank shows that trade agreements and companies that fail to adopt basic worker rights can no longer hide behind claims they are good for the economy.

A copy of the report can be purchased at www.worldbank.org.