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

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
The IMF based its response to TNCs on similar principles, starting
in the automobile industry. The first IMF auto workers’ conference
focusing on TNCs was held in Paris in 1959. Successive conferences in
the 1960s progressively built up a strategy of World Auto Company
Councils for the nine world corporations, accounting at the time for
80 per cent of the Western world’s production. The first three World
Auto Councils (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) were set up in June
1966, the fourth (Volkswagen-Mercedes Benz) in November 1966, and
the fifth (Fiat-Citroën) in November 1968.
Through these world councils, the IMF organized specific actions,
such as the participation of an experienced negotiator from the union in
the country of the parent company in local negotiations at a subsidiary
location. They also organized communication of economic and collective
bargaining information between unions operating in the same company,
and intervention by unions that had the support of the parent company
in strikes at subsidiary plants.
A conference of the IMF World Auto Company Councils, held in
London in March 1971, defined specific demands for each of the councils
and adopted a declaration, part of which stated:
On the collective bargaining front it is imperative that the centralized control
of the international corporations be countered by the closest possible
co-ordination of unions in all nations representing the workers of each
such corporation. … Help must be given, in every country where it is
needed, to organize the still unorganized workers of such corporations.
Collective bargaining rights, including the right to strike, must be won in
every country where they are now denied. National affiliates of the IMF
must be provided with all the help they require to strengthen their organizations
and to train their members and leaders to bargain more effectively
with their employers.
We call for meetings of representatives of each of the IMF World Auto
Company Councils with the top policy-makers of these respective international
corporations. Among the priority items to be discussed at such
meetings are information concerning investment and production plans
and job security.
Common expiration dates should be established for collective bargaining
contracts in all nations, corporation by corporation, so that the full weight
of the totality of the firm’s organized workers can be brought to bear upon
each corporation, under conditions in which all unions involved are free
of contractual restrictions.
In 1967, the IMF had established a Commission for Multinational
Corporations to coordinate its general policy in this area. The action
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