Reference no: EM132223871

MNCs and transnational collective bargaining are becoming increasingly important topics of labor relations. Although MNCs continue to grow in sales volume, capital investments, and economic influence, they have also aroused trade unions in various countries to combine their energies, skills, and power in an effort to negotiate on an equal footing. Thus far, little success has been achieved because of legal, political, social, economic, and organizational obstacles. However, it is obvious that transnational collective bargaining could have a tremendous impact on the world’s economy if the obstacles can be eliminated. Time will tell whether unions will be able to overcome the obstacles. With the growing interdependency among nations, it is imperative that students who study labor relations learn more about labor relations systems throughout the world. This chapter highlights the main features of the labor relations systems of the major trading partners of the United States. Unions in Canada have expressed concern over the United States’s economically dominant role in North America and its influence on the internal affairs of that country. Canada’s system features two major linguistic and cultural groups and highly decentralized collective bargaining activities that are governed by provincial law. Mexico, the other partner with Canada and the United States in the NAFTA, has fairly well developed labor laws but has major deficiencies in their administration and enforcement. The effects of NAFTA on jobs and trade unions were discussed. Cuba, the largest Caribbean island, has a labor relations system that has suffered under the Castro regime but is showing signs of change. Labor relations vary widely among the countries in Central and South America, but they have one common feature: a close connection between trade unions and political parties. Unionization in most of Western Europe is significantly greater than in the United States, and there is wide implementation of codetermination and employee participation policies. By 2007, 28 countries in Europe with a market of 507 million consumers had joined together to form the European Union, which provides for greater deregulation and a decrease in trade and travel barriers between member countries. The formation of the EU increases the need to learn more about the labor relations system in each of these countries and will probably bring these countries closer together. In the past, the labor movements in many Eastern European countries were dominated by the Soviet Union. The countries of the former Soviet bloc are now trying to adjust to a market economy.

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Question: Although multinational corporations seem to be growing in size and influence, what must occur before transnational collective bargaining can be effectively carried out?