1st Edition

Trade Unions and Global Governance The Debate on a Social Clause

By Gerda van Roozendaal Copyright 2003
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    As the world economy is liberalized, and national economies become more intertwined, the national decision making of states is also increasingly interdependent, and it has become vital for non-governmental organizations to create an international agenda. This title is an important study of what makes such organizations successful on an international level. The focus is on trade unions, as a key international group of NGOs. It asks whether a global system can be designed to stimulate countries to observe a set of minimum or core standards. It explores three important questions: how have unions attempted to influence the debate on the inclusion of minumum labour standards in the WTO agreement?; what accounts for their success or lack of success?; and what conclusions, with respect to the effective behaviour of trade unions in the construction of international policy, can be drawn from these experiences? In exploring these questions the text looks at social clause debates within a number of international bodies: the ILO, OECD and the EU, and within two countries: the USA and India.

    List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 Trade Unions, Labour Standards and Global Governance: An Introduction -- 2 Trade Unions and Global Governance -- 3 Claiming Positions: Debates on Labour Standards -- 4 The Fair Trade Discourse on International Labour Standards: The Case of the United States -- 5 The Neo-liberal Discourse on International Labour Standards: The Case of India -- 6 The OECD Study on Trade and Labour Standards -- 7 Adjusting the ILO to Global Challenges: The Modest Result of the Laborious Debate on the Strengthening of the ILO -- 8 Trade Unions and Global Governance: Summary and Conclusions -- Appendix: ILO Core Conventions and Their Rate of Ratification -- Bibliography -- Index.

    Biography

    Gerda van Roozendaal,