Organizing Networks and Alliances: International Unionism between the Local and the Global

Abstract

After being pushed onto the defensive through the institutions of the Washington Consensus as well as unilateral management action in MNEs in the 1980 and 1990s, international trade unionism is making headlines again. Trade unions are part of multi-faceted campaigns to secure fundamental labour rights (Riisgaard and Hammer 2011) and to regain influence in the workplace. While these rights, based on the ILO core labour standards and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, constitute a common plank in the various campaigns, the latter are conducted through a variety of organizational forms. A large number of IFAs, for example, have been achieved against the background of established union networks within MNEs as well as the institutional platform of European works councils (EWCs); others only serve as a starting point for creating such international union networks. Thus, it should not be surprising that union networks can take different forms, have diverse power constellations, and serve different purposes. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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