ABSTRACT
In the emerging neoliberal context of the 1980s Global Union Federations (GUFs) took up elements of a strategy developed in the 1960s to respond to the growing power of transnational corporations (TNCs). While the original aim to coordinate bargaining across the international operations of TNCs proved largely unsuccessful, the new International Framework Agreements (IFAs) established GUFs as counterparts of TNCs in transnational labour relations and committed the latter to a core set of fundamental labour rights (as reaffirmed in the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work). Broadly, IFAs have two goals: to establish intra-firm labour relations at transnational level, and to secure fundamental labour rights through inter-firm networks. A large part of IFAs contain a commitment on the part of the lead firm to influence their suppliers and subcontractors in this respect (indeed, a number of agreements make these provisions mandatory for the latter). Although transnational bargaining still constitutes the strategic goal, the focus here is on the ‘space to organize in the global economy’ in the first place (see Wills 2002).
