Social Foundations of Trade Union Influence: Cross-Border Interaction of Unions and Employee Representatives

Abstract

I have argued in the previous chapter that social interaction between the MNC and trade unions in the host countries and subsidiaries plays a key role in the process of constructing employment practices. This argument has been confined to trade unions and/or works councils in a particular subsidiary context. In the current chapter, I depart from the subsidiary and seek to understand the role that cooperation across national and sectoral trade unions, and the MNC’s EWC, plays in constructing employment practices and employment standards across various host countries. In other words, I study the cross-border interaction of employee representatives and the capacity of this interaction to facilitate or constrain MNC embedding.