The paper elaborates on the challenge for trade unions - locally or nationally organised entites - to respond to the transnational regulation gap in labour relations. It analyses the development and relevance of Global Framework Agreements (GFAs) as well as Global Union Federations (GUFs) which are important tools and policy instruments building a transnational arena for global labour relations. On the basis of a comparitive analysis the paper figures out that the joint implementation of GFAs by unions and management is crucial for being successful.