Labor Confers to Fight Big Companies

Four hundred trade unionists from around the world gathered in New York on June 19 and 20 to attend a conference entitled "International Trade Union Unity vs. Multinational Corporations."

"Many American unionists are not aware that wage-cutting, union-busting and shut-downs are hurting workers in every country where the giant multinational corporations have a presence, from England to Japan to South Africa to Brazil," said Joe Harris, director of the New York-based Labor Research Association, in his opening address at the conference. "We often see ourselves in competition with foreign workers, yet leading trade unionists from many countries are seeking our cooperation to develop joint efforts against the multinationals."

The unionists heard reports from workers in Canada, Japan, Australia, France, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, and Guyana, and then attended workshops on "strategies to fight the multinationals" and "methods of developing international trade union cooperation."

Participants of the conference discussed some of the problems obstructing international labor unity, such as ideological splits within the union movement, restrictive laws prohibiting secondary boycotts in developed countries, suppression of unions under authoritarian regimes, and the flight of jobs from the developed to the developing countries.

Recognizing that such problems do exist, the unionists nevertheless stressed the importance of achieving cooperation. "International trade union solidarity is required if workers are to protect themselves from the high degree of power of multinational corporations," said James Pinto, director of coordinated bargaining for the International Association of Machinists.

The conference was "very successful," says Kate Abell, associate director of Labor Research Association, which sponsored the gathering. "It was the first time that the American trade union movement has held a conference confronting multinational corporations" Abell predicts that labor will increasingly organize on an international basis, expanding beyond its current national or regional boundaries. This shift, she says, "will be similar to the change from craft unionism to industrial unionism" which occurred in the early twentieth century, significantly altering the character and improving the strength of organized labor.

This article was based on a report by Ken Kilimnik, a lawyer and freelance writer based in Washington, DC, who attended the conference for Multinational Monitor.