Global Unions, Local Power: The New Spirit of Transnational Labor Organizing by Jamie K. McCallum (review)

The transnational nature of capital has arguably weakened the power of labor movement. Dwindling memberships and meek campaigns of trade unions are cited as markers of their powerlessness in a rapidly changing neoliberal economy. In his new book, Global Unions, Local Power, Jamie K McCallum provides a more positive account of labor unionism. Based on ethnographic research across a range of countries—from the United States to Britain to India and South Africa—this book suggests that labor movements may survive and thrive in a hostile global environment. Recent cases of transnational union cooperation demonstrate that effective campaigns targeting multinational firms could be launched at a global level. With active involvement of local unions, transnational labor organizations could demand universal standards for the workers of multinational firms. The success or failure of these campaigns in different locations is contingent upon the specificities of local structures, local labor laws, different histories of unionization, and local political and economic conditions. McCallum’s specific subject is transnational union cooperation around “global framework agreements” (GFA) that govern conditions in a multinational industry. He argues that despite their varying results, GFA centered labor struggles could reverse membership decline and help local and global unions re-invent their strategies.

McCallum examines the recent global campaigns of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to secure a GFA for the private security guards of G4S, the largest global private security firm. The book begins with a broad overview of labor transnationalism in the United States. In early twentieth century, nationalism and anti-communism significantly undermined global union cooperation. During the Cold War period, American unions unabashedly supported the imperialist and anti-communist interests of their government, neglecting the conditions of the international working classes. A shift in labor movements occurred with the emergence of neoliberal economic policies in the 1970s. For workers across borders, neoliberalism has meant the dilution of labor laws and growing restrictions on trade union activities. The need to counter global capital has pushed some unions to reformulate their organizing strategies. McCallum uses the G4S campaign of the SEIU as an example to understand new forms of unionization and cross-border partnerships.

Interestingly, SEIU’s leadership was initially doubtful about global campaigns. However, when its own experiences revealed the dominance of multinationals in the US security industry, SEIU opted for a global approach. It coordinated with other unions to pressure Swedish security corporation, Securitas that owned many American security companies, into signing a global framework agreement. By signing a GFA in 2003, the management agreed to a code of conduct that prevents it from hampering unionization efforts at all global locations of the firm. Extending this organizing strategy further, in 2004, the SEIU partnered with the United Network International (UNI), the largest global union federation, and launched an aggressive campaign against G4S. Together, UNI and SEIU pushed the G4S to accept basic rules regarding all its employees about 675,000 workers in 125 countries. By 2008, G4S signed a GFA and agreed to improve working conditions, refrain from anti-union activities, create new channels for dispute resolution, and follow national labor laws.

Taking his analysis further, McCallum asks how far the decisions taken at the global headquarters of G4S impacted unions and workers outside Europe and the United States? Did the promise of neutrality create similar opportunities of unionization at all locations of the corporation? At this point, McCallum examines the ‘local’ aspect of his work. He argues that successful implementation of global agreements depends on the ability of global and local unions to come together and use the GFA as a basis for “workers’ mobilization” and “membership gains.” In chapters four and five, he illustrates these points by case comparison of South Africa and India.

Both South Africa and India suffer from chronic unemployment and underemployment, situations that render workers vulnerable to poor working conditions and abusive managements. In South...