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

International framework agreements in the context of global production – Hammer
EWCs and European industry federations. The agreements with
Hochtief, Volkswagen, Daimler and Renault also include a world works
council; 4 those with Chiquita, EdF and France Telecom are also signed
by regional employee or trade union bodies (the Coordinadora Latinoamericana
de Sindicatos Bananeros, the Asia Pacific Concertation Committee
and the Group Worldwide Trade Union Alliance, respectively).
In the wake of the agreements at Danone as well as the global union
federations’ model agreements, several key elements have come to define
an IFA. The agreement has to be global in scope, comprise a reference to
ILO Conventions, and require the lead MNC to influence its subcontractors
and suppliers in a similar direction. On the trade union side, a
global union federation has to be a signatory, unions have to be involved
in implementation, and the agreement has to include the right to bring
complaints (Nilsson, 2002). Whereas most IFAs refer to the eight “core
labour standards” that were reaffirmed again in the ILO’s 1998 Declaration
on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (Conventions Nos.
29, 87, 98, 100, 105, 111, 138 and 182), there are significant deviations
in both directions. In this regard, Hammer (2005) distinguishes between
a logic of “rights” as opposed to “bargaining” agreements: whereas the
former are focused on the freedom of association, the right to organize
and collective bargaining, as well as workers’ representation — thus establishing
a “space to organize” (Wills, 2002a; Oswald, n.d.) — the latter
frequently include a wider range of ILO Conventions and issues, and are
often renegotiated regularly.
The existing 62 IFAs account for approximately US$3,495 billion
in sales and directly cover about 5.3 million employees. The potential
benefits from an extension along the value chain are obvious. There is an
immediate impact, for example, when the agreements are applied in companies
that are controlled by an IFA signatory: PSA Peugeot Citroën, for
instance, pledges to apply its IFA to Faurecia, a major components MNC
with 61,000 employees and sales of around US$13,000 million. In terms
of the scope of IFAs, two different perspectives must be distinguished.
From a legal viewpoint, it is argued that the core labour standards are
binding on States by virtue of their ILO membership, regardless of
whether States have ratified a particular convention or not, although this
view is disputed (Duplessis, 2004). From an organizing and monitoring
4
UNI’s agreement with Falck in fact establishes a world works council, rather than a commitment
to fundamental labour rights as such.
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