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

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
European-level negotiations, and has signed the latest agreements which
entailed the delegation of a mandate to negotiate from its affiliates. Thus,
at least three types of coordination have been developed: between the
national and EU levels; between the EWCs and the national unions
involved; and between the EWCs and the EMF. Such coordination
legitimizes and gives strength to these transnational agreements at company
level.
In some companies with important production sites outside
Europe, unions wanted to include workers’ representatives from these
sites in the EWCs. In some EWCs, representatives from outside Europe
were actually accepted as “observers”. Volkswagen played a pioneering
role in this movement. It had been the first automobile company to set
up an EWC on a voluntary basis in 1990, before the adoption of the
EWC Directive. In 1999 it was the first automobile company to create a
WWC. Renault and DaimlerChrysler followed suit in 2000 and 2002.
In these three cases, the existing EWCs served as a model and starting
point for the creation of the WWCs.
In the case of Renault, the new WWC, called the Renault group
committee, incorporates the functions of an EWC and those of a
“national group committee” (comprising delegates from the various
national-level works councils of the group). In the cases of Volkswagen
and DaimlerChrysler, the European and WWCs function in parallel and
with a partial overlapping of membership. This facilitates coordination
and organization of common meetings.
The new WWCs have replaced the world company councils created
by the IMF in the 1960s, which subsequently met sporadically. Given
recent developments, the IMF has elaborated a multifaceted strategy. It
now tries to transform the old IMF councils into smaller units, which
would meet on a more regular basis and, if possible, with recognition and
financial support from the respective MNEs. In the cases of Ford and
GM, the IMF has created new union networks, called the Ford World
Steering Committee and the GM Action Group. These union networks
work in close coordination with the EWCs of these companies.
The WWCs of Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Renault have
signed IFAs, all of them co-signed by the IMF. The EWCs of GM and
Ford have done the same, but with no IMF co-signature and only European-wide
validity of agreements on corporate social responsibility. In the
case of GM, the agreement was also signed by the EMF. In all five cases,
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