International Labor Relations

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International Labor Relations
C H A P T E R
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Table of Contents

• Chapter Vignette
• Locus of Control in International Workplace
• Host Government Involvement
• International Labor Organizations
• Diversity in International Labor Relations

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Chapter Vignette

• A Dilemma
• Hyster Company
• HQ in Portland, Oregon
• Factories in Scotland and Holland
• Scotland Workers asked to take a pay raise or
  lose their jobs
• No unionization
• Holland two production lines closed, workforce
  reduced

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Locus of Control in the International Workplace

• H.Q.-Subsidiary Relationships
• MNCs treat each subsidiary as a separate entity
• Each subsidiary has its own labor relations
  practices and negotiates its own labor contracts
• Need for uniformity, integration and control
• Maintain overall control
• Keep various labor relations programs in line
  with corporate policies

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Locus of Control in the International Workplace

• National Unions Quandary
• MNCs resources offers them flexibility and power
  in negotiation with national unions.
• Can shift production across national boarders
  and play one national union against the other.
• Production and manufacturing facilities are
  opened or closed at the discretion of the
  Headquarters.
• Pursuit of corporate goals
• Allocate resources to each subsidiary according
  to corporate strategies

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Locus of Control in the International Workplace

• Cross Border Labor Tactics
• Sharing information with and providing financial
  assistance to each other.
• Coordinating and Synchronizing activities
• Persuading and pressuring the MNCs into
  cooperation.
• Employing this tactics, national unions use
• Organization for Economic Cooperation
• International Labor Organizations

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Host Government Involvement

• International Industrial Relations
• Made more complex by host government
• By the use of regulations legislation
• e.g. JC Penneys failure to expand in the
  European market
• MNC workplace relations can be
• Direct and Formal Obligation to Comply with
  Certain Laws and Follow Certain Procedures
• Indirect and Informal Host Governments Demands
  and pressures where there is no legal basis or
  precedence

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International Labor Organizations

• International Affiliations of Labor Unions
• Concerned with improving the wages and working
  conditions for their members
• Independent of the national governments and other
  non-labor institutions.
• ICTFU (International confederation of free trade
  unions)
• WFTU (The world federation of trade unions)
• WCL (The world confederation of labor)

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Diversity in International Labor Relations

• International Labor Relations practices
• Labor Unions, organizations and collective
  bargaining practices are as varied as the
  diversity of the nations.
• Industrial Relations in the U.S.
• National Labor-Management Relations act (1935)
• Labor-Management Relations Act (1947)
• European Industrial Democracy
• Formal legal approach of workers representation
• Industrial Democracy in Germany
• Hierarchy
• Institutional, Middle Management, Technical
  Workers.

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Diversity in International Labor Relations

• Labor Unions in Germany
• Two closely related, but separated institutions
• Labor Unions -gt Industry-wide contract
  negotiations
• German labor laws impose restrictions and
  limitations on labor strikes and plant lockouts.
• Codetermination
• French Labor Unions
• Value rationality and order -gt Rules from top
• View authority as absolute -gt Threatening, avoid
  it
• Unions have a society changing agenda -gt political

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Diversity in International Labor Relations

• Labor Unions in Britain
• Formal Informal Systems coexisting
• Relatively no legal restrictions and structure
• Japanese enterprise Unions
• Unique set of relationships among labor and
  management in Japan
• Enterprise unions cover blue color and white
  color employees
• Management practices -gt Life-time employment