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

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
Developing a tool for international industrial relations
The first IFA, concluded at BSN in 1988 (renamed Danone in
1994), 3 was preceded by a long history of social dialogue in the company.
At that point Danone was a France-based company, shaped by the
humanist vision of its founder Antoine Riboud, and essentially operating
within the European market. In the mid-1980s, the traditionally
good relations with national trade unions were taken further by the International
Union of Food Workers (IUF) in a dialogue with Danone management.
This resulted in a series of agreements: a Plan for Economic and
Social Information in Companies of the [then] BSN Group (1989), an
Action Programme for the Promotion of Equality of Men and Women at
the Workplace (1989), an Agreement on Skills Training (1992), the
IUF/BSN Joint Declaration on Trade Union Rights (1994) and a Joint
Understanding in the Event of Changes in Business Activities Affecting
Employment or Working Conditions (1997).
The IUF followed up the Danone IFA with an agreement with
Accor in 1995. Other agreements were signed by (what was then) the
International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW) with
IKEA (1998) and Faber-Castell (1999), as well as ICEM with Statoil
(1998). Some global union federations such as the (then) International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the IFBWW, the IMF,
and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation
(ITGLWF) drew up “model agreements”, which reflected the specific
challenges of the different sectors. As of late 2007, there are 62 IFAs with
the IMF having concluded 17, followed by Union Network International
(UNI) with 15, ICEM with 13, the Building and Wood Workers International
(BWI) with 12, and the IUF with 5. The Public Services International
(PSI), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the
ITGLWF have signed one agreement each. Three of these IFAs were
signed jointly: ICEM reached the Électricité de France (EdF) IFA
together with PSI, the Lafarge agreement with BWI, and the Umicore
IFA with the IMF.
An overview of the signatories on the trade union side shows interesting
patterns between global and local actors as well as trade union and
works council representation. Whereas the BWI and ICEM tend to
involve national (home country) unions, the IMF agreements include
3
The appendix gives further information on the various IFAs discussed.
96