INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK AGREEMENTS AND THE FUTURE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN

This article emphasizes the contribution of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) to collective bargaining within multinational companies (MNC). For this purpose, we used various data, including content analysis of 42 IFAs and interviews with representatives of the five Global Union Federations (GUFs) involved in the negotiation of these IFAs, in order to assess the content and efficiency of these agreements. Our analysis reveals that IFAs usually include a commitment by the signatory MNC to conform to ILO’s core conventions in all its operations, and to inform its business partners of their obligations under the agreement. Regular meetings are held with unions’ representatives for the monitoring of these agreements to ensure their respect by the signatory multinational companies and their business partners. According to GUFs ’ representatives, the IFAs have been effective in protecting basic trade union rights covered by ILO conventions 87 and 98. In the last part, we emphasize the IFAs ’ contribution to collective bargaining within MNCs and discuss the prospects for future development of international collective bargaining, particularly in light of Levinson’s seminal work (1972) on this subject. conomic and political changes of the last two decades have radically modified the structures and practices of international trade union movement (Bourque 2008). The dismantling of communist regimes in Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union has helped to increase the membership of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), at the expense of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) which lost most of its European affiliates in the former USSR an