International Trade Union Cooperation BRIEFING PAPERS N° 8/ 2008 responsible: rudolf traub-merz Global Trade Union Program www.fes.de/gewerkschaften International Framework Agreements – Opportunities and Limitations of a New Tool of Global Trade Union Policy by Torsten Müller, Hans-Wolfgang Platzer, Stefan Rüb 1. Framework conditions of the development of international framework agreements The Global Unions 1 broke new ground when they developed the international framework agreements(IFAs) which they have concluded with transnational companies since the mid-1990s as an innovative tool of global trade union policy. This new policy approach had become feasible and necessary under a certain constellation of economic, political, and societal development tendencies. In the view of the trade unions, the need to develop this tool arose in direct connection with the neoliberal globalisation process which led to the transnationa­lisation of financial, product, and labour markets as well as corporate structures and strategies while en­deavours to design and regulate the social and labour aspects of these processes at the international political level stagnated and lagged behind. Just to outline the problem, this asymmetry manifests itself in the con­trast between the international political and legal power of the ‚market-creating‘ institutions and codes (world trade regime, Washington Consensus) on the one hand and a comparatively weak regulatory ca­pacity(‚soft law‘) and the limited global controlling capacity of ‚market-correcting‘ institutions(Inter­national Labour Organisation/ILO) and social codes (core labour standards, OECD guidelines) on the other hand. Thus, it was and still is impossible to secure the uni­versal incorporation of social standards in interna­tional trade agreements, which the unions have been demanding for decades. 2 As social regulation remains limited at the international political and govern­mental level, it is inevitable that societal ‚self-regula­tion‘ should gain in importance, including the unions‘ attempt to negotiate framework agreements with companies on a voluntary basis. As the ILO project of creating a ‚social dimension‘ to globalisation has remained largely unsuccessful so far, international framework agreements, although a ‚second-best strategy‘ for the trade unions(Mund/ Priegnitz 2007: 671ff.), represent an indispensable tool as well as a blueprint for more far-ranging global initiatives such as the creation of transnational net­works of lay and full-time union officials. 1 Global Unions is a collective term for the ITUC, the ten global union federations, and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD(TUAC). The Global Unions operate a common website(www.global-unions.org). 2 For an overview of the current status of the implementation of social standards in bilateral trade agreements, see Peter Bakvis and Molly McCoy, 2008.