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GLOBAL UNIONS ;ship and Conference Series Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns EDITED BY KATE BRONFENBRENNER ILR Press AN IMPRINT OF Cornell University Press Ithaca and London This volume is dedicated to former Un president George Becker (1929-2007 Copyright © 2007 by Cornell University comprehensive cross-border campaign build global unions in their quest to br All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this to workers, their families, and their co book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14350. First published 2007 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2007 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Global unions : challenging transnational Capital through cross- border campaigns / edited by Kate BronfenbTenner, p. cm. — (Frank W. Pierce memorial lectureship and conference series ; no. 13) Papers originally presented at a conference held Feb. 9,2006 in New York, N.Y. Includes bibliographical references and indesL ISBN 978-0-S014-4616-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0-8014-7391-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) I. International labor activities—Congresses. 2. Labor unions—Congresses. 3. International business enterprises— Congresses, i. Globalization—Congresses. 1. Bronfenbrenner, Kate, 1954- II. Title. III. Series. HD6475.A1G57 2007 331.88091—dc22 2007018957 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publish ing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC :1| Tt inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or . ";N P. CA : partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit I • ••• • -•• our website at www.corneljpress.cornell.edu. l-MRfAL A::D Cloth printing 10 987654321 Cornel! I Paperback printing 10 987654321 CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 KATEBRONFENBRENNER 1. Beating Global Capital: A Framework and Method for Union Strategic Corporate Research and Campaigns ] 6 TOM JURAVICH 2. "Due Diligence" at APM-Maersk: From Malaysian Industrial Dispute to Danish Cross-Border Campaign 40 PETER WAD 3. Indian Labor Legislation and Cross-Border Solidarity in Historical Context 57 ASHWINI SUKTHANKAR AND KEVIN KOLBEN 4. Struggle, Perseverance, and Organization in Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones 78 SAMANTHI GUNAWARDANA 5. Organizing in the Banana Sector 99 HENRYFRUNDT 6. Dockers versus the Directives: Battling Port Policy on the European Waterfront 117 PETERTURNBULL viii CONTENTS 7. Going National or European? Local Trade Union Politics within Transnational Business Contexts in Europe VALERIA PUUGNAND 8. Labor-Community Coalitions, Global Union Alliances, and the Potential of SETU's Global Partnerships AMANDA TATTERSALL ACKNO 9. International Framework Agreements: Opportunities and Challenges for Global Unionism DIMITRIS STEVIS ANO TERRY BOSWELL tO. Beyond Workers' Rights: Transnational Corporations, Human Rights Abuse, and Violent Conflict in the Global South DARRYN SNELL Conclusion KATEBRONFENBRENNER References List of Contributors Index This book and the conference dedication and assistance from c and academia from around the g many hands involved for me to i uted. Thus I will focus on those \ success, recognizing that the succ on the full participation and supi First and foremost I thank th Trumka from the AFL-CIO and their initial inspiration and onj would never have come to fruit offered a steady voice of encou storm, even when the going got mountable throughout the enti unions, universities, and NGOs so made this book possible by p Global South and the research c particular I want to thank the in mittee who helped solicit, reviev the conference, from which I ul up this book. These individuals Ron Blackwell, AFL-CIO; Meg State; Ginny Coughlin, UNITE Cardiff University; Paula Finn, J INTRODUCTION KATE BRONFENBRENNER On February 9, 2006, more than 560 representatives from unions, union federations, academia, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in New York City for the "Global Companies-Global Unions-Global Research-Global Campaigns" conference. The overall goal of the conference was to strengthen labor's capac ity to conduct more effective strategic corporate research and run more effec tive comprehensive cross-border campaigns against the world's largest trans national firms. Yet perhaps the theme of the conference was best summed up by AFL-CIO secretary treasurer Richard Trumka in his remarks in the opening plenary: Brothers and Sisters, I like the theme of this conference because it lays out the challenges before us in almost biblical terms—global companies begat global problems for workers—global problems begat the need for global unions—and if global unions want to truly match the might and power of global corporations we have to undertake global research and global campaigns. (Trumka 2006) Unions around the world continue to operate in an ever-more complex and rapidly changing corporate environment. Increasingly the employers they face across the bargaining table or in organizing campaigns are part of dif fuse transnational companies that have minimal loyalty to any single indus try, product, or country. At the same time, never before have the ties between governments and supragovernmental institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union (EU), or the World Bank been 2 KATE BRONFENBRENNER more closely integrated with the interests of the world's largest transnational pressure from the United Nations' corporations than they are now. In today's environment, large sectors of the oil to South Africa, but also becaust public have come to believe that Wal-Mart is unstoppable in leading the pur safety violations and antiunion ac suit of a worldwide race to the bottom. On this issue there is little difference Africa (Multinational Monitor 19i between workers in North Carolina who watch their jobs move to Mexico and coal subsidiaries, Shell SAs Reitspi those in Ireland who watch their jobs go to India or in China who lose their been involved in two brutal strikes jobs to Vietnam {Bronfenbrenner and Luce 2004). They only need look at additional grounds for making She Oscar-nominated films such as Syriana or The Constant Gardener to find out The global campaign against SI what happens to those who dare to challenge capital when it is in cahoots with and most effective example of cro the highest levels of government, in history. Unions, antiapartheid g: However, this is just one piece of the story. In the real world not every effort and social justice NGOs from aroi to fight back against the forces of global capital ends in devastating defeat. The cause not out of their own self-inte: more than 560 people gathered in New York in February demonstrated that transnational firms that they were there is a strategic front uniting against the combined power of the neoliberal with South Africa prohibitive and state and transnational corporations. The labor movement and its allies have government even greater. Profits ' done battle with some of the most powerful transnational firms and govern corporations, such as Mobil Oil, | ments and won. They can do it again, but only if they understand the power endured great costs but never left. structure and vulnerabilities of these new kinds of corporations, the extent could no longer withstand the corr of their operations, and the relationships they have with their stakeholders. ing action by the black majority ii Equally important, they will succeed only if they build a global labor move even more remarkable was that it c ment based on equality and respect through cross-border campaigns. It will the world's labor movement was i be critical to involve unions and NGOs locally, nationally, and internationally. Despite the close ties between the The Global Unions Conference and this book, which came out of the confer (COSATU), the African National G ence, address these challenges. not only unions such as the UMW the American Federation of Sta (AFSCME)—allied with TransAfrica < A Historic Perspective Federation of Labor and Congress c dorsed the Shell boycott as well (Kn In 1986, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), under the leadership The boycott was active in mon of its new young president, Richard Trumka, joined with the National Union Royal Dutch/Shell's home countris of Mineworkers (NUM), other South African unions, the Free South Africa unions in Europe were not enthus Movement (FSAM), and the rest of the U.S. labor movement to unleash ported antiapartheid sanctions, incl a worldwide campaign against oil companies operating in South Africa, nascent trade union movement in < with Royal Dutch/Shell as the first target of a global boycott (Walker 1986; countries, for example, provided cri Multinational Monitor 1986). ing to track and to expose the glob; Shell was not chosen randomly as the target by either the South African and Norwegian labor movements ; or the U.S. unions. Oil companies were the focus of the boycott because oil to impose bans on oil transports an was critical to the South African economy; the military and the police, for Rodenburg 1995). example, depended on oil to break strikes and crush demonstrations. Hav There were unionized workers a ing