Transnational trade union action has expanded significantly over the last few decades and has taken a variety of shapes and trajectories. This book is concerned with understanding the spatial extension of trade union action, and in particular the development of new forms of collective mobilization, network-building, and forms of regulation that bridge local and transnational issues. Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. Through original research conducted at different levels, this book disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Organized labour faces many challenges in the increasingly global economy, including the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers. This text, however, presents evidence that unions can survive and grow if labour is willing to co-operate across national borders. The book is a study of such co-operation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.

Why and how to study European solidarity? -- Analytical categories in conceptualizing solidaristic behaviour -- Presentation of cases -- The vertical dimension of Europeanization of the trade union movement -- Interaction and action as transformational mechanisms -- Framing solidarity : interests, identification and reciprocity -- Situational mechanisms : market integration and trade unions.

Based on comparisons of long-term developments and focusing on transnational connections, this book shows that historically there have been many varieties of trade unionism.

Monograph on international trade unionism and its implications for USA trade unions - gives historical background of the movement, discusses membership, financing, leadership, publications, aims, activities, and relationship to the ICFTU, and includes a directory of international trade secretariats. One-page bibliography and references.

News about labor unions is usually pessimistic, focusing on declining membership and failed campaigns. But there are encouraging signs that the labor movement is evolving its strategies to benefit workers in rapidly changing global economic conditions. Global Unions, Local Power tells the story of the most successful and aggressive campaign ever waged by workers across national borders. It begins in the United States in 2007 as SEIU struggled to organize private security guards at G4S, a global security services company that is the second largest employer in the world. Failing in its bid, SEIU changed course and sought allies in other countries in which G4S operated. Its efforts resulted in wage gains, benefits increases, new union formations, and an end to management reprisals in many countries throughout the Global South, though close attention is focused on developments in South Africa and India. In this book, Jamie K. McCallum looks beyond these achievements to probe the meaning of some of the less visible aspects of the campaign. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in nine countries and historical research into labor movement trends since the late 1960s, McCallum’s findings reveal several paradoxes. Although global unionism is typically concerned with creating parity and universal standards across borders, local context can both undermine and empower the intentions of global actors, creating varied and uneven results. At the same time, despite being generally regarded as weaker than their European counterparts, U.S. unions are in the process of remaking the global labor movement in their own image. McCallum suggests that changes in political economy have encouraged unions to develop new ways to organize workers. He calls these "governance struggles," strategies that seek not to win worker rights but to make new rules of engagement with capital in order to establish a different terrain on which to organize.

As Secretary General of the ICF and previously Assistant General Secretary of the IMF, Charles Levinson played an important part in developing the countervailing labour response to the multinational corporations. His earlier work, Capital, Inflation and the Multinationals (Routledge Revivals, 2013) displayed the force of his insight into the dynamics of modern economics and technology. First published in 1972, this book considers the opportunities which allow unions to command an increasing share in decisions that shape the worker’s destiny. Chapters include discussions on the multinational corporations, industrial democracy and the ideas behind collective bargaining.

First published in 1997, this volume discusses the conditions for contemporary and future unionism in the light of recent economic, political and managerial changes. It presents theoretical and empirical research from Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and the United States. Part 2 provides a rich international description of threats and challenges to contemporary and future unionism. Part 3 focuses on union strategical and structural change. Part 4 is concerned with the consequences of the changing union environment for member-union relations. Magnus Sverke and the contributors here present research addressing how the changing environmental conditions affect unions and their members and demonstrate the importance of applying an international and multi-disciplinary perspective on the analysis of these issues.

Organized labor faces enormous challenges in the increasingly global economy. The effect of multinational corporations, the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers in international commerce have all sparked widespread prophecies of trade union demise. This book, however, presents compelling evidence that unions can survive and grow if labor is willing to cooperate across national borders. Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions is a seminal study of such cooperation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.After assessing the challenges confronting organized labor, the authors turn their attention to specifics. They describe and evaluate the most important transnational labor associations, campaigns, and transnational cooperatives in a variety of industries. Contributors include academics who have assessed the status of union-management relations and international labor organizations as well as participants in union campaigns organized across national boundaries.