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

The role of the ILO in promoting the development – Drouin
(ILO, 1972, para. 95). They advocated the adoption of an ILO convention
on MNCs, notably including with regard to industrial relations: recognizing
trade unions; facilitating trade union work at international level;
prohibiting unfair bargaining practices, such as the threat to transfer production
abroad; and providing adequate information to the trade unions
on the national and global operations of enterprises (ILO, 1976a, paras.
108-109). 17 The employers’ experts and representatives, for their part,
were largely opposed to the possibility of collective bargaining at international
level, which they saw as both undesirable and unrealizable (ILO,
1972, para. 88).
While many possible elements and forms of principles and guidelines
relating to MNCs were explored (ILO, 1976b), the consensus that
finally emerged in the form of the Tripartite Declaration fell short of the
workers’ initial expectations: the instrument does not have the legal binding
effect that a convention would have produced, and the chapter on
industrial relations does not contain specific recommendations on
transnational collective bargaining and consultation.
Yet the ILO Tripartite Declaration tackles some of the challenges
posed to the organization of labour by the activities of MNCs. Governments
are urged to apply the principles of Article 5 of Convention No.
87 “in view of the importance, in relation to multinational enterprises,
of permitting organizations representing such enterprises or the workers
in their employment to affiliate with international organizations of
employers and workers of their own choosing” (ILO, 2006a, para. 45).
The Declaration specifies that “representatives of the workers in multinational
enterprises should not be hindered from meeting for consultation
and exchange of views among themselves” (ILO, 2006a, para. 47)
and that “Governments should not restrict the entry of representatives of
employers’ and workers’ organizations who come from other countries at
the invitation of the local or national organizations concerned for the
purpose of consultation on matters of mutual concern” (ILO, 2006a,
para. 48). It further states that MNCs, in the context of collective negotiations,
should not threaten to transfer the whole or part of their activities
from the country concerned in order to influence these negotiations
unjustly (ILO, 2006a, para. 53).
17
The workers’ group’s position echoed the standpoint of some prominent international trade
unions, such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ILO, 1973, pp. 84-87).
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