MULTINATIONAL GOVERNANCE AND WORKER RIGHTS IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE Ed Broadbent A critical aspect of corporate governance is the manner in which domestic and multinational corporations treat their workers, from compensation and job safety to issues such as child labour and the right of employees to organize unions. Former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent, also a former president of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, examines globalization and international trade from the perspective of worker rights and concludes there is much to do in the developed world to improve the treatment and the simple human dignity of workers in the developing world. And if exploiting a child, either sexually or for labour, is unacceptable at home, it is no less unacceptable abroad. L’un des aspects critiques de la gouvernance d’entreprise réside dans le traitement réservé aux travailleurs des sociétés nationales et multinationales, tant au chapitre de la rémunération et de la sécurité d’emploi que du travail des enfants et du droit à la syndicalisation. Ed Broadbent, ancien chef du NPD et ancien président du Centre international des droits de la personne et du développement démocratique, examine la mondialisation et le commerce international sous l’angle des droits des travailleurs. Il en conclut que les pays développés pourraient faire beaucoup plus pour améliorer le traitement et la dignité humaine des travailleurs des pays en voie de développement. Si l’exploitation des enfants en milieu de travail ou à des fins sexuelle est inadmissible chez soi, par exemple, elle devrait l’être tout autant à l’étranger. hen the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in Citizens in developed democracies support trade 1989, democratic leaders throughout the world because they believe it leads to more jobs. However, while W correctly proclaimed history had taken an they are self-interested, they are neither selfish nor cyni- important shift. The first President Bush asserted we were cal. As François Mitterrand once observed, they do not witnessing a new world order, which was widely taken to think their political leaders should see themselves merely mean the world was now open to pluralist democracy and as travelling salesmen. Canadians want trade, but they also capitalist economies. Throughout the democratic world believe in democracy and in the principles of the Universal prime ministers and foreign ministers asserted the impor- Declaration of Human Rights. In short, as confirmed in a tant role rights and trade would play in their foreign policy. large public opinion survey undertaken by the For a brief period, the two seemed to receive equal Commission on Canadian Democracy and Corporate emphasis. However, it soon became clear that democratic Accountability, they believe trade and rights should be governments were more preoccupied with the spread of complementary aspects of our foreign policy. There is market economies and the development of trade than with strong evidence that citizens in other North Atlantic defending democracy and human rights. International democracies have similar views. Nonetheless, apart from a financial institutions insisted that developing counties few consistent countries like Germany, Norway, Denmark, adapt to the “new” economic order. When it came to pres- Sweden and Holland, most of their governments have sure, trade rules were on the front burner and rights didn’t largely ignored the fact. even make it to the stove. In 1995 the World Trade In this context I define globalization to mean the Organization came into being, and since then, for the sup- process of consolidating the world into one big market econ- porters and critics alike, it has been the principal focus of omy by the progressive elimination of barriers to interna- international activism. tional trade and investment. Providing it’s fair as well as free, POLICY OPTIONS 55 NOVEMBER 2003 Ed Broadbent virtually all the governments repre- ty constitutes an increase in their de a straight-forward cause and effect sented recently at Cancun would agree facto power, not only in terms of gov- relationship with democracy. This is, that the global goal should be expand- ernments but also over individuals as of course, not true. Otherwise ed trade in goods, services and capital. employees and as members of local, Germany, say in 1938, or Chile under Trade between nations did expand national and international communi- Pinochet, would have been among the greatly in the 1990s. According to data ties. The trade agreements bestowing world’s leading democracies. As would recently cited by Bob Wolfe of Queen’s these new powers, including (within China today. University, it grew annually by 6 per- NAFTA) the right to sue governments, cent, double the rate for the GDP. While have not been balanced by additional lobalization is resulting in the some developing countries, notably provisions entailing new obligations G trade agreements and commercial China and India, have had high levels pertinent to either human rights or rights that are necessary for a market of growth and significant reductions in environmental concerns. economy. As I have noted, it has also poverty, negative or no growth has characterized I define globalization to mean the process of consolidating many more. While there the world into one big market economy by the progressive have been some general elimination of barriers to international trade and investment. benefits from this globaliza- tion, notably lower inflation Providing it’s fair as well as free, virtually all the governments rates around the world, represented recently at Cancun would agree that the global there can be no doubt about goal should be expanded trade in goods, services and capital. who has benefited most. Between 1990 and 2002 the number of What I find bizarre is the almost led to significantly reduced poverty in transnational corporations grew by 86 universal failure of today’s economists some developing countries. However, percent, growing from 35,000 to 65,000 and liberal democratic theorists to to pick up on a phrase once used by [UNCTAD World Investment Report]. respond to this phenomenon. There is Klaus Schwab, head of the World Increasingly liberated from national good reason to believe that John Locke Economic Forum, when it comes to borders of any kind, they roam at will and Adam Smith, the founders of lib- human rights, and in particular those throughout the globe, spreading invest- eral political and economic thought, rights essential for workers — the ment in developed and developing would be astonished by the modern majority in any society — the gulf countries alike. As well, in virtually corporation’s accumulation of power between the promise and the reality of every OECD country, the tax share paid internationally. expanding trade is wide and deep. by corporations has been significantly Smith and Locke were concerned Human rights are not abstrac- reduced. At the beginning of the 1990s about concentrations of power and tions. Many of those demonstrating in the large majority of funds passing from notably how it could be abused. For Seattle, Quebec City and most recently North to South came through the Smith, competitive markets comple- Cancun are well aware of this. More hands of democratic governments. mented by strong, regulating govern- than many of those representing gov- Now over 80 percent of such invest- ments enforcing the rule of law should ernments at the negotiating tables, ment passes through the hands of help ensure the majority of individuals they understand that the UN system of North-based corporations. For many would benefit from a capitalist econo- civil, political, economic and social governments in the developing world, my without suffering from what he rights refer to the real life experience the most important northern relation- saw as the avaricious and power- of men, women and children. As the ship is no longer with democratically seeking drives of the business class. For UN rights covenants appropriately elected governments but with transna- Locke, writing earlier, it was the pro- assert, these rights refer to entitle- tional corporations accountable only to tection of individual rights from the ments base on our inherent claim as their shareholders. power of the quasi-feudal state and human beings to a life of dignity. church that liberal political institu- Let me give you some examples of hile global and regional trade tions derived their justification. There the precarious state of workers rights W agreements alone (initiated by is thus reason to believe that neither in particular. A few years ago I visited the developed democracies) cannot be Smith nor Locke would be as passive three developing nations whose GDPs said to have produced the statistical about today’s global reality as are most had been growing and whose rights pattern noted above, they certainly of their liberal democratic successors. remain threatened or denied outright: have been a major contributor. These Many politicians have espoused China, Thailand and Indonesia. international legal instruments have the view, which some actually believe, Market-based economic reforms given corporations more freedom of that the presence of a market economy were introduced in China in the 1980s. action. The expansion in their mobili- combined with economic growth have One of the results was increased pressure 56 OPTIONS POLITIQUES NOVEMBRE 2003 Multinational governance and worker rights in the global village survived the fire that killed 188 in a fac- tory making Cabbage Patch dolls, in spite of being locked in, by jumping from the fourth story and landing upon the bodies of friends. Moving from factory to facto- ry, she now works as an organizer to inform workers of their completely unen- forced health and safety rights. Following this tragedy, other toy factories in two of China’s export zones had identical fires. In one of these, 87 lost their lives.