Global Union Federations Research Articles

International Framework Agreements and the Future of Collective Bargaining in Multinational Companies

This article emphasizes the contribution of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) to collective bargaining within multinational companies (MNC). For this purpose, we used various data, including content analysis of 42 IFAs and interviews with representatives of the five Global Union Federations (GUFs) involved in the negotiation of these IFAs, in order to assess the content and efficiency of these agreements. Our analysis reveals that IFAs usually include a commitment by the signatory MNC to conform to ILO’s core conventions in all its operations, and to inform its business partners of their obligations under the agreement. Regular meetings are held with unions’ representatives for the monitoring of thes e agreements to ensure their respect by the signatory multinational companies and their business partners. According to GUFs’ representatives, the IFAs have been effective in protecting basic trade union rights covered by ILO conventions 87 and 98. In the last part, we emphasize the IFAs’ contribution to collective bargaining within MNCs and discuss the prospects for future development of international collective bargaining, particularly in light of Levinson’s seminal work (1972) on this subject.

Legal Dimensions of International Framework Agreements in the Field of Corporate Social Responsibility

The aim of this article is to offer an in-depth analysis of the different legal aspects of international framework agreements (IFAs) negotiated between multinational companies and global union federations. Using examples from different agreements, the article shows the potential added value IFAs have in contributing to an effective social regulation within international groups and global supply chains that are today regulated insufficiently by national, European and international labour law standards. It also analyses the impact of the international negotiation process of the IFAs and the powers of the signatory parties on the legally binding character of these texts. To conclude, the article discusses the potential added value of an optional legal framework for IFAs.

The War on Europe's Waterfront - Repertoires of Power in the Port Transport Industry

When the European Commission proposed a Directive On Market Access to Port Services in February 2001, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) issued a declaration of war on Europe’s waterfront. To protect established terms and conditions of employment in the port transport industry, the ITF developed a strategy of internationalization that required dock workers to engage in a new politics of scale wrought by globalization. A new repertoire of collective action — based on more effective union articulation (i.e. stronger interrelationships between the workplace, national and international levels of organization) combined with the activities of new labour networks that connected port workers at the trans-national corporation, port range and pan-European levels — enabled dockers to sink the Directive in the European Parliament in November 2003. The dockers’ victory will not be lost on other European unions or indeed other global union federations, although their success will doubtless prove more difficult for other occupational groups to emulate.

Global Unions

International trade unionism faces a major challenge. Historically, Global Union Federations have been small and relatively remote international union secretariats with limited capacity to mobilize and speak on behalf of local members. However, with the changing architecture of international capital and nation states, these union bodies have started to renew themselves. The argument is that the emergent political economy provides the base upon which these unions can begin to campaign and represent members in more dynamic ways than in the past. Critical to these developments has been the promulgation of International Framework Agreements which adapt and extend familiar tools of representation. The outcome is the possibility of a multi-faceted form of trade unionism.

International Framework Agreements: global industrial relations between rights and bargaining

This paper examines the emergence and the main features of International Framework Agreements (IFAs). IFAs originated in the 1980s and proliferated after 2000. They aim to secure core labour rights across multinational corporations' global supply chains. Global Union Federations, as well as other global (World Company and Works Councils), regional (European Works Councils or European Industry Federations) and national trade union structures, are parties to IFAs. Based on various features of international trade union activity, such as World Company Councils, codes of conduct, the trade and labour rights campaign or international social dialogue, IFAs constitute an important and innovative tool of international industrial relations. An analysis of the substantive and procedural provisions of IFAs leads to an analytical distinction between ‘rights' agreements and ‘bargaining’ agreements. The article assesses the substantive and procedural aspects of the 38 IFAs concluded before June 2005. Finally, key issues such as the scope of agreements, trade union capacity, and global supply chains are discussed in the context of international labour's campaigning, organising and negotiation activities.

The union recognition dispute at McDonald's Moscow food-processing factory

This article reports on the union recognition dispute that took place at the McDonald's food-processing plant in Moscow. It examines this dispute in the context of McDonald's employment practices worldwide, the interventions made by international and local unions, and Russian government bodies. Despite these interventions it became impossible to either organise the workforce or establish a collective agreement. The case illustrates the difficulties facing both local unions and global union federations when confronted by intransigent multinational companies, especially in low-skilled sectors in transitional economies.

Sustainable Alliances: The Origins of International Labor Environmentalism

This article examines evaluates the strength of the Labor-Environmentalist alliance of the late twentieth century. It traces the evolution of trade unionists' thinking about nature and the human relationship to the environment by examining intellectual and political sources of labor involvement in United Nations' environmental policy making from the 1950s through the 1980s. The article explores the reasons trade union organizations, notably the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the International Trade Secretariats (Global Union Federations) and the European Trade Union Confederation, participated in a variety of international conferences and institutions such as the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. It finds that environmentally conscious trade unionists developed their own version of environmentalism and sustainable development based on a reworking of basic trade union principles, a reworking that emphasized solidarity with nature and made central the protection of the health and safety of workers, communities, and environments.

Negotiating International Framework Agreements in the Global Textile, Garment and Footwear Sector

This article outlines the policy and practice of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) with respect to multinationals in the sector. It concludes that while the multinational policy of the ITGLWF is in line with other global union federations, the negotiation of International Framework Agreements is proving to be a much harder objective to realize. This can, in part, be explained by an anti-union stance on the part of some multinationals, a plethora of existing voluntary initiatives, and possible collective employer resistance to such a development.

Bargaining for the space to organize in the global economy: a review of the Accor-IUF trade union rights agreement1

At the present conjuncture there are real opportunities for international trade unions to forge coalitions with other social movements, to foster transnational connections between workers, consumers and intermediaries, and to engage directly with global employers in order to bargain for workers. As companies declare their support for ethical practice in production and trade, a number of global union federations have seized the opportunity to sign International Framework Agreements with trans-national companies. These agreements secure commitments on the part of TNCs to respect workers’ rights. The agreement between the French-owned global hotel chain Accor and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) is explored in this paper. The Accor—IUF agreement has proved critical in supporting union organizing efforts in the USA, Canada and Indonesia. It has also allowed the IUF close involvement in trade union organization in Australia, in educational activities in Africa and Asia-Pacific, and in efforts to start organizing work in the UK and New Zealand. By integrating the international agreement into the operation of the European Works Council, the IUF has also found a means to overcome the geographical parochialism of many such bodies. This paper argues that such international agreements are an excellent way to defend and advance workers’ rights in the global economy while also allowing trade unions to develop a sophisticated multi-scalar response to the challenges of globalization.