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As part of the post-tsunami reconstruction effort in Aceh, international labour movement organizations 'jumped scale' in an attempt to revitalize a moribund local labour movement. This article provides a close analysis of the four internationally sponsored trade union building projects undertaken as part of that process. This unique intervention sheds light on the crucial role of local context and the extent to which the principles of international solidarity and the pragmatics of trade union diplomacy are mediated through money, institutions, individuals and day-to-day activities. The Aceh case underscores the importance of contingency and the agency of individuals in shaping an international intervention of this kind. In doing so it demonstrates how circuits of labour activism can be affected by constraints and opportunities unrelated to trade union politics or the relations of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East-West union co-operation in Europe is discussed as the most serious test to cross-border union solidarity, in the light of new frameworks capable to make sense of transnational trade union activity and alternative to theoretical nationalism. The empirical assessment of trade union chances reviews the activities of trade unions in the UK, Germany, Austria and Poland on foreign investment, migration and movement of services. Secondary evidence and case studies show that the strength of transnational union action does not depend on the country, but rather on its form. 'Structural' Europeanization remains weak (e.g. in most European Works Councils), while network-based action is displaying strong developments, especially on migration, but least on the movement of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades labor unions at the national, regional, and global levels have developed environmental agendas that add to their long-standing and well-justified concerns with occupational safety and health. Yet, it is also fair to say that the internalization of environmental priorities by the broader labor movement remains tentative and contested. The goal of this article is to address three challenges encountered on the road to global union environmentalism, in each case highlighting some promising initiatives undertaken by unions in response. These are the challenges of forming a global labor agenda on the environment, of strengthening the links and deliberations among unions, particularly those in the reconfigured core of the world political economy, and of moving away from business environmentalism and in the direction of social environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the relations of labor unions in North America and the global South, the transition from apartheid to neoliberalism, and the defense of immigrant laborers.

La negociación colectiva intersectorial, sectorial y de empresa viene adquiriendo una dimensión transnacional europea desde mediados de los años noventa. Fomentadas al principio por las instituciones de la Unión Europea, estas variantes de la negociación colectiva se han desarrollado después de manera autónoma. Es difícil saber al día de hoy qué efectos concretos va a tener dicho proceso, si es que los tiene, en las condiciones de trabajo individuales. Fundándose en un informe presentado a la Comisión Europea en 2005, el autor defiende que el asunto sea objeto de una norma comunitaria - un reglamento del Consejo con arreglo a los títulos del Tratado de la Unión Europea dedicados a la política social y la cohesión socioeconómica - para dotar así a la negociación colectiva transnacional de un marco optativo de desenvolvimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has precipitated a major restructuring of the world's ports and brought in its wake a marked deterioration in dock workers’ terms and conditions of employment. Many trade unions have found it difficult to protect their members’ interests against this international “race to the bottom,” most notably in those countries where dock labor has been historically poorly organized but also where industrial restructuring has been used as a vehicle to de-unionize the industry. Other unions have been more successful, either by working in concert with private employers and public port authorities or by mobilizing their membership to contest and contain the process of industrial restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines public opinion about the political involvement of trade unions in the UK and Denmark. Both are systems in which trade unions are linked to a political party and both have high rates of union density. However, whereas British unions have contested governments of both parties and opposed regulation of industrial relations, Danish unions have a tradition of cooperation with government and are entangled in a web of institutionalized industrial relations. Results, however, are amazingly similar. Both the public at large and union members accept unions in general and also their political involvement, but oppose contestation of political authority. Irrespective of union behaviour, beliefs in the supremacy of parliament seems to be firmly rooted in public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]