ABSTRACT
Since 1980 there has been an extraordinary growth in corporate globalisation, marked by a greater than eight-fold increase in the number of multinationals and a nearly twelve-fold increase in foreign direct investment (UNCTAD 2004: Table B.3, 376). As of 2004, there were over 61,000 multinational companies (MNCs) that had ownership in over 900,000 foreign affiliated operations dispersed around the world. These foreign affiliates alone managed over US $31 trillion in assets, generated over US $17 trillion in sales, accounted for some 33 per cent of exports and 10 per cent of gross domestic product worldwide, and employed more than 54 million employees (UNCTAD 2004: 8-9). The everexpanding transnational reach and influence of MNCs in the world economy raises a number of important industrial relations issues, especially against a backdrop in which union penetration has generally declined across most countries and stagnated in others over the last two decades (see Chapter 10).
