Global Labor Organizing in Theory and Practice

Abstract

Although the need to organize workers at the global level has become widely accepted, there are to date few concrete studies of global organizing campaigns. Four staff members from the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) analyze the IUF's Nestlé/Coca-Cola Global Organizing Project in the light of the emerging literature on this topic. The IUF launched this ambitious organizing campaign in response to institutional demands and opportunities. Resources were identified to hire organizers working in the Global South to coordinate and support unions organizing at major global companies. Several case studies illustrate how a complex multilayered strategic organizing approach has succeeded in making headway against fierce antiunion resistance in some developing countries. The analysis also suggests that long-term sustainability of strategic global organizing efforts requires their successful application to organizing workers at global companies in industrialized countries as well as in the Global South.