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

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
The last century saw a wide diversity in the development of national
unions and industrial relations systems. In most industrialized countries,
the period after World War II was one of national consolidation of industrial
relations. However, MNEs can evade national boundaries and can
shift production and investment between countries. The first international
attempts to address the problems posed by such mobility among
MNEs came as internationalization intensified in the 1960s and 1970s.
Reviewing these historical developments of transnational collective bargaining
at company level form the main object of this chapter. They are
the forerunners necessary to an understanding of how international
framework agreements (IFAs) later developed.
While we make a distinction between transnational agreements
with MNEs signed at European level and those signed at global level, we
intend to show that the two are more closely related than the discussion
about IFAs has revealed so far, and we use the term transnational collective
bargaining to refer to both types. By transnational collective bargaining,
we mean collective bargaining practices, between employer and
employee representatives, that aim at reaching transnational agreements
(European, global or other international level, such as North or South
American, Asian, African, and bilateral) regardless of the nature of the
agreements (whether reached or not), the content of which can be just
symbolic or extremely far-reaching. 4 We start with the origins of the first
world councils; continue with developments in Europe (which fostered
transnational collective bargaining); and then focus on the automobile
sector to outline the articulation of national, European and global union
strategies underlying transnational collective bargaining and the signing
of transnational agreements. We highlight the interaction between, on
the one hand, voluntary bargaining practices and, on the other, legislative
initiatives at the European Union level — particularly those related
to the establishment of European works councils (EWCs).
4
While we have found no better term, we do not consider all forms of transnational collective
bargaining as fully fledged collective bargaining and entirely adhere to the analysis of Papadakis et al.
(this volume).
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