Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns (review)

Capital has long been organized globally: corporations operate in many countries; executive career paths involve years outside the borders of the home state; supra-corporate bodies establish uniform criteria for data gathering; rules guarantee free movement of goods and capital; and corporate global governance institutions such as the International Monetary Fund regulate and discipline even relatively powerful actors. Although Marx called for workers of the world to unite and labor parties once came together in the first, second and third internationals, since World War II unions have fallen ever further behind corporations in the scale of their organization. Although many U.S. unions referred to themselves as “international,” this meant only that they had some members in Canada.

In the past two decades, however, unions have at least begun to address this disparity and to take steps to organize global campaigns, some more successful than others. Unions have repeatedly found that in order to win local struggles they need to make global connections. This awareness has come in part from the increasing depth and sophistication of corporate research, which, as it follows the money (and ownership), has often come to understand that the key points of leverage are outside the borders of the country where the struggle began.

Global Unions is the product of a unique 2006 conference that brought together unions and labor researchers from around the world. Conference organizer and book editor Kate Bronfenbrenner writes that “The overall goal of the conference was to strengthen labor’s capacity to conduct more effective strategic corporate research and run more effective comprehensive cross-border campaigns against the world’s largest transnational firms.”(1) The case studies focus on Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Central and South America, Europe, Australia and the United States, with less systematic attention elsewhere. An opening chapter by Tom Juravich lays out a framework and method to use in doing union strategic corporate research, a “how to” guide for covering the bases, points to consider, sources to consult. These are unequivocally and unabashedly union-side articles: almost every contributor identifies himself or herself as being actively involved with unions, including in the campaigns on which they report. (It’s also worth mentioning that half of the 12 contributions are authored or co-authored by women.)

Some of the articles are too caught up in the specifics and details, making it extremely difficult to see the forest for the trees. The prolific use of acronyms further complicates the problem, particularly given that there is no glossary. Sentences like “Denmark would be the proper place for the amalgamated United Federation of Danish Workers (3F) of KAD and SID to persuade APM-Maersk to enter an IFA with the ITF regarding transport activities”(54), are only slightly easier to understand in context than when encountered in isolation in a review. Many of the articles are focused on insiders, with careful attention to listing all the various union groups involved, the level of involvement and the relations between groups. For many purposes this is important, but it would be even more valuable to be able to step back and form generalizations and provide a theoretical lens to understand the tensions inherent in such campaigns and the factors mostly likely to lead to success, including a discussion of the varying meanings of “success.” (For a brilliant analysis of related issues, see Gay W. Seidman, Beyond the Boycott, Russell Sage Foundation 2007.)

Global Unions does an excellent job of conveying how many countries and how many unions are actively involved in building global campaigns. Amanda Tattersall uses the U.S. Service Employees International Union’s work with Britain to develop a systematic analysis of the keys to successful coalitions. Peter Turnbull analyzes the changes that took place among European dock workers as they (successfully) battled European Union directives. Samanthi Gunawardana uses her year living in a boarding house and working as an unskilled factory worker in Sri Lanka’s export zone industries...