The trade unions and the Social Responsibility of the Transnational Corporations in the context of the economic globalization

Abstract

This article is based on two research projects conducted in the European Union and Spain in order to study the different positions and strategies of public institutions, companies and their associations and trade unions in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility nowadays. The article analyses Corporate Social Responsibility as a field in which we can find relations of force and negotiations among different institutions and actors, trade unions are one of them, that have adopted different strategies in order to play a relevant role in the definition and establishment of the new responsibilities of transnational corporations in the context of economic globalization. In this area, Corporate Social Responsibility is an extremely useful tool for supranational and national public institutions, as well as for companies and their associations, in order to build a neoliberal global economy. Nevertheless, trade unions propose that the actual accomplishment of the commitments voluntarily made by companies should be demanded and externally verified, and also that Corporate Social Responsibility Policies turn into a matter of national and transnational collective bargaining. Therefore, trade unions are laying the foundations of an international regulation of the global labour market nowadays.