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

Introduction – Papadakis
tices under the influence of globalization. 10 In particular, as the
structure of the modern MNE has become increasingly organized
around national production units that are globally integrated and
often buyer-driven (an early commentator on this was Gereffi,
1994) there has been a consequent need for harmonization/coordination
between the national and global levels from the perspective
both of management and of workers/trade unions. On the company
side, managers consider that the geographical and cultural rift
between the “centre” of the MNE, where the traditional trade union
action takes place, and the “periphery”, where many strategic decisions
are made (ultimately determining the effects on employees in
the different production sites), can be healed through interaction
with GUFs. On the workers’ side, the affiliates of GUFs and European
industry federations perceive their affiliation to a “global”
body as an indispensable way to reinforce social representation. 11
Overview of chapters
This volume brings together the contributions of 13 specialists in
the field of IFAs. They come from both academic and policy-making
backgrounds, such that this volume combines scholarly research with lessons
learnt through experience.
The volume is divided into five parts, plus this introduction. Part 1
(chapters 1-2) depicts the history of cross-border social dialogue, focusing
on the initial steps leading to the transnationalization of union action
vis-à-vis MNEs. In two chapters, Dan Gallin and then Isabel da Costa
and Udo Rehfeldt present the key historical episodes associated with the
emergence of transnational bargaining in MNEs, drawing on their experience
as a practitioner and academics, respectively. Based on his experience
as the representative of the GUF (the IUF) that signed the first IFA
(with Danone in 1988), Gallin depicts the events in terms of transnational
union action in the 1960s and 1970s, which paved the way for the
10
One of the decisions of the European Union Multistakeholder Forum on CSR has been to shape
education and the curricula of business schools in CSR-friendly ways. This Forum was quadripartite, including
representatives of employers, MNEs, trade unions and NGOs. See http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/csr/
documents/29062004/EMSF_final_report.pdf, pp. 12-15 [22 Oct. 2007]. On the objective of the EU to link
corporate social practices with business curricula, see also Verheugen (2007).
11
This was not the case of ITSs, which were viewed more as providers of information and coordinators
of ad hoc international solidarity actions; see for example Bourque (2005).
7