Global unions, local power: Labor transnationalism from North America to the global south

This paper assesses the ways that workers cooperate across borders in transnational campaigns. The central findings reveal a paradox. Though global unionism is typically concerned with creating parity and universal standards across borders, I show that the local context can either undermine or empower the intentions of global actors, creating varied and uneven results. The question posed here is simple: How can global unions build local power?

This research compares three international framework agreements (IFAs) in different national-industrial contexts: private security in South Africa, contract cleaning in India, and telecommunications in Brazil. Although IFAs are regularly viewed as static contracts with universal applicability, this study views them as instruments that local workers and unions can use in different ways depending on the local circumstances. In so doing, unlike the recent surge of interest in IFAs as a transnational mechanism, I focus here on the local as a bellwether for evaluating global unionism.  It compares outcomes of implementation among the different unions to understand how different local contexts effect the ability of global union federations to implement IFAs.  

The process of implementation promotes grassroots mobilization in South Africa; legal changes in India; socio-cultural transformations within the union in Brazil. The point is to re-direct our attention to the local arena of transnational unionism, still the place it matters most.