Abstract
A profile of today’s transnational community of labour organizations reveals a network ‘headed’ by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Greater organizational consolidation continues, with plans to form a single, unified peak body incorporating all leading confederations revealed ahead of the ICFTU’s Eighteenth World Congress in Japan, December, 2004.219 A reduced number of industry-specific trade secretariats continue to work closely with the ICFTU. On a vertical plane, there exist a myriad of regional organizations that together represent a secondary level of representation. Highly extended and detached forms of internal relationships prevail. These manifest themselves in high levels of delegated representation — be it in distant intra-union fora, or in those associated with inter-governmental organizations — and also in the use of web-based advocacy. This profile also reveals a community of labour organizations committed to statist developmentalism; but at the same time, one that is strident in its advocacy in defence of human rights. Let us now dismantle this profile, and contrast each dimension of change — the organizational, integrative, and political — with those of previous eras. In so doing, we will gain a better understanding of the ways in which organized labour has integrated across national borders, as well as the ways in which it has projected itself outwards and away from the realm of state-mediated politics. Ultimately, we will find that a more integrated network has in some ways engaged in a deeper form of globalization; but it has done so in ways that do not necessarily entail a turning away from the state.
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Notes
Dan Gallin, ‘Labour as a global social force: past divisions and new tasks’, in Global Unions? Theory and Strategies of Organized Labour in the Global Political Economy, edited by Jeffrey Harrod and Robert O’Brien, RIPE Series in Global Political Economy (London, 2002), p. 240.
Energy and General Workers’ Unions (ICEF) International Federation of Chemical, ‘Computers of the world unite: the ICEF is networking’, ICEF INFO 4 (1993): 6.
For an account of the ICEF’s early use of e-mail and databases see Peter Waterman, International Labour Communication by Computer: The Fifth International?, Working Paper Series number 129, July 1992 (The Hague, 1992), pp. 25–8.
Energy and General Workers’ Unions (ICEF) International Federation of Chemical, ‘Yearbook,’ (Brussels, 1994).
Eric Lee, ‘Trade unions, computer communications and the new world order’, in Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalization: Alternative Union Models in the New World Order, edited by Ronaldo Munck and Peter Waterman (London, 1999), p. 240.
An excellent account of such computer-mediated campaigns can be found in Andreas Breitenfellner, ‘Global unionism: a potential player,’ International Labour Review 136 (1997).
See also Jeff Rechenbach and Larry Cohen, ‘Union global alliances at multinational corporations: a case study of the American alliance’, in Unions in a Globalized Environment: Changing Borders, Organizational Boundaries, and Social Roles, edited by Bruce Nissen (New York, 2002).
See Stig Jutterstöm, ‘Help us improve the IMF News’, IMF News 4 (1999).
For a similar example see International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW), ‘IFBWW Action Programme 1997–2001’, Building and Wood: Bulletin of the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers 2 (1997): 7.
W Form, quoted in Daniel B. Cornfield, ‘Labor transnationalism?’, Work and Occupations 24 (1997): 284.
See Terry Boswell and Dimitris Stevis, ‘Globalization and international labor organizing’, Work and Occupations 24 (1997): 297–8.
Gordon Laxer, ‘The movement that dare not speak its name: the return of left nationalism/internationalism’, Alternatives 26 (2001).
James Goodman and Patricia Ranald, eds, Stopping the Juggernaut: Public Interest versus the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (Annandale, 2000), p. ix.
Tim Harcourt, ‘Australian perspectives on the MAI: Australian Council of Trade Unions’, in Stopping the Juggernaut: Public Interest versus the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, edited by James Goodman and Patricia Ranald (Annandale, 2000).
Robert O’Brien, ‘Workers and world order: the tentative transformation of the international union movement’, Review of International Studies 26 (2000): 544.
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘ICFTU presses for a social clause,’ Free Labour World (1994),
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘Social clause debate reaches the ILO’, Free Labour World (1994),
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘The social clause remains firmly on the agenda’, Free Labour World (1994).
SALB-Editorial, ‘COSATU, the ICFTU and dictatorships in Asia’, South African Labour Bulletin 17 (1993).
See Mike Allen, ‘New internationalism … or old rhetoric?’, SA Labour Bulletin 16 (1991), SALB-Editorial, ‘COSATU, the ICFTU and dictatorships in Asia’, Waterman, ‘The ICFTU in SA’.
Andrew Herod, ‘The geostrategics of labor in post-Cold War Eastern Europe: an examination of the activities of the International Metalworkers’ Federation’, in Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism, edited by Andrew Herod (Minneapolis, 1998), pp. 51–8.
Sarah Ashwin, ‘International labour solidarity after the Cold War’, in Global Social Movements, edited by Robin Cohen and Shirin M. Rai (London, 2000), pp. 103–7.
See also ICFTU-Editorial, ‘Transformation of trade unions in Central and Eastern Europe’, Free Labour World 14 (31 August, 1990).
For more on the ways in which the trade secretariats approached this transition see ICFTU-Editorial, ‘ITS develop contacts in the East’, Free Labour World 14 (31 August, 1990).
Bill Jordan, ICFTU, ‘The global market — trade unionism’s greatest challenge’ (paper presented at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Sixteenth World Congress of the ICFTU, 1996), p. 1.
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘Delegates unanimous on social clause’, Free Labour World (1996): 5,
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘ILO, ETUC, TUAC and WCL … all fighting on the same side’, Free Labour World (1996): 2.
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘ICFTU aims to be at the centre of a worldwide social movement’, Free Labour World (1996).
ICFTU, ‘The future shape of the trade union movement’, Trade Union World 5 (2000): 34–5.
See also ICFTU, ‘End discrimination: equality for women now! decision adopted by the Seventeenth World Congress of the ICFTU’ (paper presented at the Seventeenth World Congress of the ICFTU, Durban, 25–29 June 2000).
For background on the ICFTU’s campaign against child labour see ICFTU, ‘Campaigning for an end to child labour’ (paper presented at the 17th World Congress of the ICFTU, Durban, 25–29 June 2000),
ICFTU, ‘Eradicating child labour: a strategy to deal with the causes of child labour: Congress Resolutions’ (paper presented at the 16th World Congress of the ICFTU, Brussels, 25–29 June 1996),
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘The world’s best kept secret’, Free Labour World 6 (1994).
For more on the question of violence directed against trade unionists see ICFTU, ‘An ICFTU strategy to defend trade union rights: decisions adopted by the 17th World Congress of the ICFTU’ (paper presented at the 17th World Congress of the ICFTU, Durban, 25–29 June 2000),
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘Being a trade unionist is a dangerous occupation’, Free Labour World (1994),
ICFTU-Editorial, ‘Union rights abuses “still alarming”, says ICFTU’, Free Labour World (1990).
World Confederation of Labour (WCL), ‘The policy resolution and the topical resolutions of the WCL’ (paper presented at the 25th Congress of the WCL, Romania, October 2001), pp. 36, 38, 9, 8.
For more on its position on child labour and the social clause see Delphine Sanglan, ‘Child Labour: Ratify Convention 182’, Labor Magazine (2000/1),
World Confederation of Labour (WCL), Social clauses — Reciprocal Social Commitments (RSCs) as levers [Internet] (World Confederation of Labour, 2000 [cited 18 December 2002]); available from http://www.cmt-wcl.org, WCL-Editorial, ‘Women — marching to be respected’, Labor Magazine (2000/1).
Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), ‘Trade and labour standards: TUAC Briefing Note for OECD Workshop’, (Paris, 1996),
Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), ‘The trade union view on International labour standards’ (paper presented at the ITGLWF Conference on International Trade, Copenhagen, 5–6 October 1995).
Global-Unions, ‘Global Unions Statement to International Conference on Financing for Development’ (paper presented at The 4th Prepcom of the International Conference on Financing for Development, New York, 14–25 January 2001), p. 3.
Bill, Jordan, ICFTU, ‘The global market — trade unionism’s greatest challenge’, p. 22, Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), ‘Now is the time to reflate the global economy’ (Paris, 2002).
TUAC and ITS Global-Unions: Statement by the ICFTU, ‘The role of the international financial institutions in a globalized economy’ (paper presented at the 2001 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, Washington, 29–30 September 2001),
ICFTU, ‘Employment, sustainable development and social justice: ICFTU programme for sustainable economic growth’ (paper presented at the 17th World Congress of the ICFTU, Durban, 25–29 June 2000).
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© 2005 George Myconos
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Myconos, G. (2005). 1989–2005 — Internal Change: Consolidation and Integration. In: The Globalizations of Organized Labour. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230512276_6
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