4.3. Obstacles to transnational trade union networking within Nestlé The central corporate management‘s current position of principle, i.e. that- apart from one-off, informal participation at network meetings ­it will not support the IUF trade union network, blocks off a road which could have led to the establishment of regional Nestlé Councils or even a global Nestlé Council along the lines of the European (Works) Council for Information and Consultation, with all the attendant contractual and institutional guarantees. Thus there will be no option in future but to continue on the same path as before, namely that of autonomous, transnational trade union networking and co-operation. Given the IUF’s financial circumstances and the lack of external sources of funding, however, it is unrealistic to plan ahead on the assumption that networking will be based first and foremost on network meetings organised by the IUF. The IUF secretariat itself does not have the wherewithal to maintain its input at the present level and to keep on organising network meetings. Nor has participant-driven networking developed any social momen­tum until now. Even though the majority of network members appreciate the usefulness of transnational trade union networking within the Nestlé corporation, very few are willing and able to take active steps to further it. The activities of most members are confined to attending the meetings themselves. Information exchanges, co­ordination and co-operation have so far gone no further than the network meetings organised centrally and at great expense. One reason for this is no doubt the fact that some of the trade union delegations(and in some regions of the world even most of them) have little tradition or experience of trade union activity and are only just getting off the ground both locally and nationally. These colleagues are on the one hand especially dependent on learning and exchanging experiences but, on the other, simply not capable of running the network in their own right. Many trade unions and local union delegates lack the time, organisational and technical facilities to 43