International Labour Solidarity
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) states that:
"Perhaps the best-known part of international solidarity is the co-ordination of protest or solidarity messages, but it is much more than that. It involves other activities, including participating in international campaigns, establishing contacts or organising meetings between those trade unions which represent the workers employed in the countries where a multinational company operates. It may also mean co-ordinating publicity, exchanging experiences, intervening with inter-governmental and other organisations, or participating in world or regional company councils and other formal and informal networks of trade unions organised around specific multinational companies."
The ICFTU identifies four different kinds of
international trade union campaigns:
- Trade union rights campaigns – This is the most common international trade union campaign. It often reaches the international level when a request for help is received from a national trade union organisation about a trade union rights violation that has occurred. Most campaigns are directed at encouraging specific governments to respect or protect the very basic trade union rights of its citizens in a specific situation. International campaigns have addressed interference with the right of workers to organise, including the dismissal or imprisonment of activists and trade union organisers, limits or bans on trade unions, for example through excessive registration requirements or other restrictions, and the suppression of strikes.
- Company campaigns - Even in countries where trade union rights are not systematically violated, international campaigns can assist a trade union in carrying out some of its basic functions. Most often, these campaigns concern disputes between a trade union and an employer. These disputes may arise over trade union recognition or difficulties in obtaining a collective bargaining agreement. Unlike the trade union rights campaigns, which mainly target governments, these campaigns are directed at a specific employer. However, company campaigns do not always have to be responses to requests for help. They can instead be part of a union-initiated plan to achieve a strategic objective.
- Organising campaign – This type of campaign is organised to fulfil the basic trade union mission of recruiting new members and organising workers into trade unions. There have been several international organising campaigns to assist trade unions in their effort to organise workers employed by specific companies in specific countries.
- General campaigns - Most international trade union campaigns are directed at individual governments, and/or companies, concerning specific situations. However, international trade union organisations are also involved in campaigns of a more general nature. More often than not, these campaigns are initiated by the international trade union organisations themselves. They tend to address broad concerns, have long time frames – reflecting a long-term strategy - and relate to international policy or internal policies and priorities of trade unions around the world.
(International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU),
A Trade Union Guide to Globalisation, visited 2011-06-12)
New Campaign Strategies
"Given these developments in trade and production patterns, there is a growing perception that labor will have to develop new strategies, including strategies that complement local organizing with international campaigns (Tilly 1995; Gordon and Turner 2000). But it is less clear what sorts of international campaigns will be the most effective. Several new strategies are emerging or evolving from old strategies. Targeting multinational corporations (MNCs) is an old strategy but it may be taking on new forms, particularly when combined with consumer activism (Anner 2001)."
(Anner, M.,
"The Paradox of Labor Transnationalism: Northern and Southern Trade Unions and the Campaigns for Labor Standards in the WTO", visited 2011-04-13)
