Trade unionism in Brazil

Abstract

The operations of multinational companies in the developing world are coming under closer scrutiny from the international trade union movement. There are a variety of motives behind this interest. First, union-organised workers in the traditional manufacturing economies feel threatened by the 'world strategies' of the multinationals, especially in the motor industry, and argue that they should have rights of access and consultation before major overseas investment decisions are taken. Second, trade unionists have learned that multinational companies may be useful vehicles for aiding workers in other countries whose rights under the law are very restricted. Pressure on the parent company may result in concessions by subsidiaries to their employees which would not otherwise have been made: the treatment of black workers in apartheid South Africa is the most obvious example. Behind these two observations lies perhaps a more profound calculation. This is that the advancement of independent trade unionism in countries where it does not exist, while it can be justified on humanitarian or ideological grounds, may serve to equalise relative wage costs and thus promote fair as well as free trade. Recent developments on the trade union front in Brazil, a country in whose economy there is very substantial foreign participation, have thrown up some important lessons for labour organisations committed to developing 'international trade union solidarity' and for potential investors as well.