The globalization of trade unionism

By Brian Micklethwait | 7 September 2005

Classical liberals have always been ambivalent about trade unions. Cobden opposed them, because, then as now, trade unions often opposed free trade. Yet the right to form a trade union in the first place is liberty. Consider, in recent decades, the case of Poland.

The impact of globalization on Western labour movements is well explained by this article entitled "China, India and the Doubling of the Global Labor Force". Trade unions are responding by globalizing themselves:

Union leaders said they hope to bring collective bargaining or other improvements to the estimated 1.6 million Wal-Mart employees around the world - possibly even in countries such as China, where western-style unions are non-existent.

Globalized trade unions won't stop at economic pressure. Such campaigns are bound to involve calls for political interferences in free trade. Yet what classical liberal could object to trade unionists supporting their otherwise politically defenceless brethren in China? Even if they only focus on Wal-Mart, much light will surely be shed on other workplaces.

"'Workers of world, unite' is, at last, more than slogan" says this article, about a trade union globalization gathering in Chicago.

In a sense, we've seen this once before. At the conclusion of the Civil War, the United States began to evolve from locally-based economies to a national economy. The first entities to go national were corporations, in railroads, meatpacking, oil and steel. At the beginning of the 20th century, professionals developed such national protective organizations as the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association.

It took until the 1930s, for workers to build effective national organizations, with the coming of industrial unions that won national contracts with companies such as General Motors.

Corporations have been going global for several decades, but not until last week have we seen workers effectively lay claim to their place in the global economy. In a world where globalization has been designed and practiced almost solely for the benefit of corporations and their shareholders, the formation in Chicago has come not a moment too soon.

The anti-capitalist animus in that last sentence is obvious. Yet the impact of such campaigning worldwide will bolster many freedoms even as it threatens others.