CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
which points to complex inter-firm relations and the potential coverage
of these agreements. Also, there seems to be a trend within recent IFAs
towards a broader range of issues that are dealt with, and towards the
inclusion of a greater number of trade unions from different geographical
locations and scales as signatories (which mirrors general trends in the
development of private standards; Nadvi and Wältring, 2004). However,
given the important role of branded and retailing MNCs, the crucial issue
is the social regulation of workplaces that are not controlled by those
MNCs, that form part of the hinterland of global supply and value
chains, and that are often in the informal economy.
Thus, apart from the considerable variation within IFA provisions,
we have to recognize that IFAs are supposed to work in very different
contexts, both in terms of the industrial and employer structures, as well
as the trade union capacities and strategies. This chapter focuses on the
implications of global production structures for the way that fundamental
labour rights can be secured. The central issue in this respect concerns
the double orientation of IFAs to social regulation within MNCs as well
as along the value chains of those MNCs. The coordination of intra-firm
relations poses a range of challenges that are very different to the coordination
of inter-firm relations, and the same obviously holds for the
implementation and monitoring of fundamental labour rights in those
contexts. It is argued that one of the biggest challenges for IFAs is to make
them work within buyer-driven value chains.
The chapter proceeds by outlining emerging structures of global
production and contrasts the implications of MNCs’ operations on the
one hand, and the dynamics of global value chains on the other, for social
regulation and labour strategies. The questions are: Where do IFAs fit
into the global economy and how they can serve as tools to achieve fundamental
labour rights within MNCs as well as along global value chains?
The argument is based on an exploration, via survey, of the substantive
and procedural content of IFAs as well as the institutions of labour representation.
The survey shows that IFAs vary considerably in terms of
their provisions, and the conclusion argues these agreements are in fact
used very differently depending on the governance of global value chains
as well as union capacity and strategies.
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