Global unions and transnational labor movement

Abstract

The chapter summarizes an approach to three dimensions of the transnational labor movement: its organizational architecture, the demands it pursues, and the political programs it mobilizes. It argues for an understanding of these issues in connection with the uneven mutations and transformations of the working classes. The paper is organized as follows: the first section describes the shifts that international unionism has experienced since the late 1960s, to understand current political programs and organizational structures targeting multinational firms. The second section discusses the strategies to face the hegemonic/counter-hegemonic globalization process. It focuses on the making of networks and alliances to confront or to influence the free trade policies. The third section presents the contemporary dynamics of the transnational labor movement focusing on three issues: the new agenda topics; the renewed transnational actors and labor struggles; and the strategies to influence global governance and support local processes. Finally, the conclusions discuss and analyze the manifold role played by the transnational labor movement in a multi-scalar field of power relationships.