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MULTINATIONAL GOVERNANCE
AND WORKER RIGHTS IN
THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Ed Broadbent
A critical aspect of corporate governance is the manner in which domestic and
multinational corporations treat their workers, from compensation and job safety to
issues such as child labour and the right of employees to organize unions. Former
NDP Leader Ed Broadbent, also a former president of the International Centre for
Human Rights and Democratic Development, examines globalization and
international trade from the perspective of worker rights and concludes there is
much to do in the developed world to improve the treatment and the simple
human dignity of workers in the developing world. And if exploiting a child, either
sexually or for labour, is unacceptable at home, it is no less unacceptable abroad.
L’un des aspects critiques de la gouvernance d’entreprise réside dans le traitement
réservé aux travailleurs des sociétés nationales et multinationales, tant au chapitre de
la rémunération et de la sécurité d’emploi que du travail des enfants et du droit à la
syndicalisation. Ed Broadbent, ancien chef du NPD et ancien président du Centre
international des droits de la personne et du développement démocratique, examine
la mondialisation et le commerce international sous l’angle des droits des travailleurs. Il
en conclut que les pays développés pourraient faire beaucoup plus pour améliorer le
traitement et la dignité humaine des travailleurs des pays en voie de développement.
Si l’exploitation des enfants en milieu de travail ou à des fins sexuelle est inadmissible
chez soi, par exemple, elle devrait l’être tout autant à l’étranger.
W
hen the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in Citizens in developed democracies support trade
1989, democratic leaders throughout the world because they believe it leads to more jobs. However, while
correctly proclaimed history had taken an they are self-interested, they are neither selfish nor cyni-
important shift. The first President Bush asserted we were cal. As François Mitterrand once observed, they do not
witnessing a new world order, which was widely taken to think their political leaders should see themselves merely
mean the world was now open to pluralist democracy and as travelling salesmen. Canadians want trade, but they also
capitalist economies. Throughout the democratic world believe in democracy and in the principles of the Universal
prime ministers and foreign ministers asserted the impor- Declaration of Human Rights. In short, as confirmed in a
tant role rights and trade would play in their foreign policy. large public opinion survey undertaken by the
For a brief period, the two seemed to receive equal Commission on Canadian Democracy and Corporate
emphasis. However, it soon became clear that democratic Accountability, they believe trade and rights should be
governments were more preoccupied with the spread of complementary aspects of our foreign policy. There is
market economies and the development of trade than with strong evidence that citizens in other North Atlantic
defending democracy and human rights. International democracies have similar views. Nonetheless, apart from a
financial institutions insisted that developing counties few consistent countries like Germany, Norway, Denmark,
adapt to the “new” economic order. When it came to pres- Sweden and Holland, most of their governments have
sure, trade rules were on the front burner and rights didn’t largely ignored the fact.
even make it to the stove. In 1995 the World Trade In this context I define globalization to mean the
Organization came into being, and since then, for the sup- process of consolidating the world into one big market econ-
porters and critics alike, it has been the principal focus of omy by the progressive elimination of barriers to interna-
international activism. tional trade and investment. Providing it’s fair as well as free,
POLICY OPTIONS 55
NOVEMBER 2003
Ed Broadbent
virtually all the governments repre- ty constitutes an increase in their de a straight-forward cause and effect
sented recently at Cancun would agree facto power, not only in terms of gov- relationship with democracy. This is,
that the global goal should be expand- ernments but also over individuals as of course, not true. Otherwise
ed trade in goods, services and capital. employees and as members of local, Germany, say in 1938, or Chile under
Trade between nations did expand national and international communi- Pinochet, would have been among the
greatly in the 1990s. According to data ties. The trade agreements bestowing world’s leading democracies. As would
recently cited by Bob Wolfe of Queen’s these new powers, including (within China today.
University, it grew annually by 6 per- NAFTA) the right to sue governments,
cent, double the rate for the GDP. While
some developing countries, notably
China and India, have had high levels
have not been balanced by additional
provisions entailing new obligations
pertinent to either human rights or
G lobalization is resulting in the
trade agreements and commercial
rights that are necessary for a market
of growth and significant reductions in environmental concerns. economy. As I have noted, it has also
poverty, negative or no
growth has characterized I define globalization to mean the process of consolidating
many more. While there the world into one big market economy by the progressive
have been some general elimination of barriers to international trade and investment.
benefits from this globaliza-
tion, notably lower inflation
Providing it’s fair as well as free, virtually all the governments
rates around the world, represented recently at Cancun would agree that the global
there can be no doubt about goal should be expanded trade in goods, services and capital.
who has benefited most.
Between 1990 and 2002 the number of What I find bizarre is the almost led to significantly reduced poverty in
transnational corporations grew by 86 universal failure of today’s economists some developing countries. However,
percent, growing from 35,000 to 65,000 and liberal democratic theorists to to pick up on a phrase once used by
[UNCTAD World Investment Report]. respond to this phenomenon. There is Klaus Schwab, head of the World
Increasingly liberated from national good reason to believe that John Locke Economic Forum, when it comes to
borders of any kind, they roam at will and Adam Smith, the founders of lib- human rights, and in particular those
throughout the globe, spreading invest- eral political and economic thought, rights essential for workers — the
ment in developed and developing would be astonished by the modern majority in any society — the gulf
countries alike. As well, in virtually corporation’s accumulation of power between the promise and the reality of
every OECD country, the tax share paid internationally. expanding trade is wide and deep.
by corporations has been significantly Smith and Locke were concerned Human rights are not abstrac-
reduced. At the beginning of the 1990s about concentrations of power and tions. Many of those demonstrating in
the large majority of funds passing from notably how it could be abused. For Seattle, Quebec City and most recently
North to South came through the Smith, competitive markets comple- Cancun are well aware of this. More
hands of democratic governments. mented by strong, regulating govern- than many of those representing gov-
Now over 80 percent of such invest- ments enforcing the rule of law should ernments at the negotiating tables,
ment passes through the hands of help ensure the majority of individuals they understand that the UN system of
North-based corporations. For many would benefit from a capitalist econo- civil, political, economic and social
governments in the developing world, my without suffering from what he rights refer to the real life experience
the most important northern relation- saw as the avaricious and power- of men, women and children. As the
ship is no longer with democratically seeking drives of the business class. For UN rights covenants appropriately
elected governments but with transna- Locke, writing earlier, it was the pro- assert, these rights refer to entitle-
tional corporations accountable only to tection of individual rights from the ments base on our inherent claim as
their shareholders. power of the quasi-feudal state and human beings to a life of dignity.
church that liberal political institu- Let me give you some examples of
W hile global and regional trade
agreements alone (initiated by
the developed democracies) cannot be
tions derived their justification. There
is thus reason to believe that neither
Smith nor Locke would be as passive
the precarious state of workers rights
in particular. A few years ago I visited
three developing nations whose GDPs
said to have produced the statistical about today’s global reality as are most had been growing and whose rights
pattern noted above, they certainly of their liberal democratic successors. remain threatened or denied outright:
have been a major contributor. These Many politicians have espoused China, Thailand and Indonesia.
international legal instruments have the view, which some actually believe, Market-based economic reforms
given corporations more freedom of that the presence of a market economy were introduced in China in the 1980s.
action. The expansion in their mobili- combined with economic growth have One of the results was increased pressure
56 OPTIONS POLITIQUES
NOVEMBRE 2003
Multinational governance and worker rights in the global village
survived the fire that killed 188 in a fac-
tory making Cabbage Patch dolls, in spite
of being locked in, by jumping from the
fourth story and landing upon the bodies
of friends. Moving from factory to facto-
ry, she now works as an organizer to
inform workers of their completely unen-
forced health and safety rights. Following
this tragedy, other toy factories in two of
China’s export zones had identical fires.
In one of these, 87 lost their lives. In
every case the barbarous excuse was the
same. Management claimed it was neces-
sary to lock workers in to stop them from
stealing and to prevent them from leav-
ing work early.
In Indonesia, I met with labour and
other human rights activists outside
Jakarta. The meeting had been called to
talk about the impact of globalization
and the need for rights (assembly, associ-
ation, speech). That gathering, however,
was held in secret because any meeting
over five people in Indonesia needed
government approval. Among other
matters discussed was the recent tragedy
of “Marsinah,” a young woman who had
attempted to exercise her right of associ-
ation by organizing an independent
union. One weekend she was taken in by
the security forces, tortured, raped and
AP Photo murdered. Her body was dumped on the
A typical working environment in a sweatshop in the developing world. Multinationals, writes
streets of Jakarta as a warning to others.
Ed Broadbent, need to recognize the rights of workers abroad. At the time in Indonesia another coura-
geous trade union activist (Muchtar
Pakpahan) had been arrested and
for democracy that came from the new While all major civil and political charged with “criminal” behaviour for
urban workers and intellectuals. rights were and remain repressed in advocating doubling the minimum wage
However, politics matters. Instead of China, the government has been espe- from two dollars to four dollars a day.
responding positively to demands for cially harsh when it comes to trade union The point is that these stories from
more rights, the autocratic communist rights. According to the internationally my personal visit to three Asian countries
government (still in the hands of a credible Asia Watch, following the mas- are not isolated incidents. Globalization
Leninist party) ordered the tanks onto sacre at Tiananmen Square no student or has simply not delivered the rights prom-
Tiananmen Square, and the world wit- intellectual was sentenced to death. But ised by so many politicians and corporate
nessed a bloody massacre followed by 45 workers were. And among those active executives. According to the most recent
arrests. Among others arrested was a rail- in the democratic movement, more information [ICFTU Annual Report on
way worker, Han Dongfang, who was workers than other demonstrators also Violation of Trade Union Rights, 2003]
imprisoned without charge. He was tor- disappeared into labour camps. And a China and Indonesia, as well as Mexico,
tured and subsequently released. When I higher percentage of workers were tried Haiti and Brazil (I have visited them all)
visited China he had fled the country. and received higher sentences when con- were singled out as examples of
His only “crime” had been demanding victed than did academics and students. government-led repression of rights.
the right of freedom of association, the According to the ICFTU’s well-doc-
right to an independent union; inde-
pendent, that is, from control by the
Communist Party.
I n Thailand, I met with young workers
one night after their shift in factories
outside Bangkok. A worker told me she
umented official figures, last year
30,000 people were fired, 1,000 organ-
izers were attacked and beaten, 89 were
POLICY OPTIONS 57
NOVEMBER 2003
Ed Broadbent
sent to prison and 213 trade unionists some property against those who have heart of such a clause would be free-
were murdered (mostly in Columbia) — none at all.” dom of association, and specifically the
all for attempting to exercise their right right to establish independent trade
to form an independent union.
W e should begin practising what
we preached when the Berlin
unions. [The right to an independent
union is the only right found in both
H ave we learned anything from our
own history? The development of
democracy took place after or during
Wall came down. For starters, we
should see that the voluntary code of
conduct applied to corporations in the
the Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (article 22) and the Covenant on
Economics, Social and Cultural Rights
the industrial revolution in most North United Nations Global Compact is (article 9)]. The other three core labour
Atlantic democracies. The demand for totally insufficient. We don’t say rights found in the Iinternational
specific workers’ rights and other demo- implementation of other rights will be Labour Organization’s 1998 Declaration
cratic rights was part and parcel of the voluntary. Why should those of work- on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
same historical process. In Europe, in ers? Existing trade agreements must be Work should also be included: a ban on
particular, workers used their civil rights seen for what they are, namely, legally child and forced labour and the right of
to found the trade union movement binding commitments that affect not equal treatment or nondiscrimination.
and went on to acquire suffrage and to only the commercial interests of cor- I should add that many countries
build strong democracies. This struggle, porations but also, inescapably, the already have fine labour laws on the
in broad terms, is now underway in men and women who work for these books and many have ratified the neces-
many developing countries. Empirical corporations. By improving the posi- sary ILO conventions. Very often the
studies have shown that there has been tion of corporations in international problem is not with the written docu-
a positive correlation between the pres- trade agreements, we increase their ments, which look wonderful, but
ence of strong independent rather with the total absence of
unions and democracy. And We should begin practising what we enforcement. Compliance with
globally, today, as the American preached when the Berlin Wall came ILO conventions is not required
scholar Virginia Leary has writ-
ten, the rights of workers in a
down. For starters, we should see that by law. It is have been extraor-
governments
voluntary. Many
given country are probably the the voluntary code of conduct applied dinarily creative when it comes
bellwether for the status of to corporations in the United Nations to finding new ways to limit
rights in general. Global Compact is totally insufficient. freedom of association. Tactics
At the very time govern-
ments from all parts of the
We don’t say implementation of other range from torture and impris-
onment of union leaders, to
world are making it easier rights will be voluntary. Why should actively buying of activists, to
through trade agreements for those of workers? passively allowing companies to
business to trade and invest, get away with illegal practices, to
build alliances and associations so that mobility. Without related action on elaborate legislative means, which make
they can profit, many governments in behalf of working people, we thus it impossible for workers in a given sec-
developing countries reduce, hold back intensify the competitive economic tor to unionize to defend their rights.
or totally violate the freedom of work- struggle on the side of corporations. During a two-year period in the mid-
ing people to build alliances and associ- Trade agreements, in short, are not 1990s (1992-94) the number of legal
ations so they can survive. Rather than neutral in their effects. It’s for this rea- barriers used to effectively deny workers
furthering the democratic process, glob- son that all trade agreements should their rights increased from 70 to 250.
alization in these circumstances is include clauses protecting these basic Such a rights clause would not, of
resulting in the opposite. And most human rights most pertinent to eco- course, regulate wages. International
governments in the developed democ- nomic life. In this respect, at least, wage regulation would unfairly dis-
racies, who have benefited most from NAFTA was a start. NAFTA has side criminate against poorer countries. A
globalization, remain indifferent. The agreements on basic workers rights. rights clause would regulate process,
spread of international law should While the side agreement is weak in not guarantee monetary outcomes. It
entail protection of the human rights of substance, it did establish the impor- would significantly strengthen the
workers as well as the commercial rights tant precedent of linking trade and ability of ordinary people to use inter-
of companies. Otherwise, as Adam human rights. nationally recognized rights to
Smith pointed out in Wealth of Nations, A worker human rights clause in improve their conditions of life.
the rule of law “so far as it is instituted trade agreements would help ensure The most effective location of such a
for the security of property, is in reality that working men and women would clause would be in the WTO agreement.
instituted for the defence of the right not be forced to work in conditions Why there? For the very good reason that
against the poor, of those who have where their rights are denied. At the governments do take the WTO seriously.
58 OPTIONS POLITIQUES
NOVEMBRE 2003
Multinational governance and worker rights in the global village
As Michael Hart, one of Canada’s leading in its operations in the host country. In safety and rights of their Canadian
experts on trade has written, “the terms of direct financial participation workers. Most Canadian companies,
WTO…provides the most advanced set (loans and equity), Canada should join whether at home or abroad, do not
of rules capable of being enforced among the US, Germany, the UK, Netherlands, violate workers rights. But some do.
the community of nations.” Bob Wolfe, Denmark, Norway and South Africa in My point is obvious.
in his Queen’s University report on the linking such participation by the govern- Surely, if we can prohibit Canadians
recent WTO meeting in Cancun, ment with the company complying with in our Criminal Code from violating the
observed that the WTO constitutes “part core labour rights in its operations in the rights of children abroad, we can also
of a constitution for the world.” host countries. All of these governments prohibit Canadian corporations from
WTO article XVI:4 compels all sig- have assumed a greater level of responsi- violating the rights of their parents. The
natory governments to comply with bility for ensuring their companies meas- Westray bill should be amended to take
the agreement. It does so by obliging ure up to rights standards. Canada would this into account.
governments to ensure that domestic now be playing catch-up in these areas of The cliché is true: We are no longer
law is consistent with WTO “laws regu- conditionality and worker rights. simply citizens of our cities, provinces,
lations and administrative procedures.” However, the world requires lead- and countries. We Canadians are now
Most governments of the world have ership. It needs a good example of a citizens of the world whose daily lives
signed on to the WTO and its obliga- democratic government prepared to are being shaped by the new trade rules
tions and all members states of the say its companies simply cannot do in of globalization. But so are the working
United Nations are obligated to imple- poorer countries what they can no men and women I met on a human
ment the rights found in the Universal longer do at home. rights trip to Thailand, Indonesia and
Declaration, including the rights of In a document outlining the key China — as well as those in El Salvador,
workers. A majority, including China, principles of our foreign policy, the gov- Bangladesh, Kenya, Guatemala, Brazil
have other specific legal obligations ernment acknowledges its responsibility and Mexico I met on other such occa-
because they have signed onto the for ensuring proper behaviour by our sions. As global citizens, we must make
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. corporations in their overseas opera- sure that the governments we elect and
tions. Specifically, it is asserted that gov- the corporations we buy from live up to
I mplementation of such a rights clause
must be impartial. It could be done in
the following way: When an alleged vio-
ernance and accountability is said to be
“concerned with fostering improved
accountability of the public and private
basic democratic requirements. When it
comes to rights, a young woman in
Beijing deserves no less than her sister
lation of the core rights is cited by a sector in terms of establishing norms of in Toronto. And when it comes to dem-
member country, a committee estab- democracy and human rights.” ocratic governments, they should stop
lished by the ILO and WTO would inves- making trade agreements with only
tigate and make a report. If a violation is
confirmed, they could recommend tech-
nical assistance to a government of good
T he Canadian Democracy and Cor-
porate Accountability Commission
recommended that Canada should work
commercial rights. They should stop
the complicit reinforcement of the
inequality suffered by the millions
faith. If such help is refused, then an for three years to obtain multilateral whose labour is the essential founda-
instruction to clean up their act over a agreement for the inclusion of a core tion for all such trade in the first place.
specified period of time could be issued. worker rights and environmental protec- When it comes to trade, the world is
Failure to comply with this last step tion clause in the WTO. After this period, indeed becoming one big economy with-
should result in multilaterally imposed we said Canada should take unilateral out borders. As we did years ago within
commercial sanctions. The fundamental action on the issue of rights. There is a democratic states, it’s time to ensure that
objective of this process, as with the law precedent involving the rights of a child. human rights have the same global reach
in any country, is to ensure compliance The vast majority of Canadian as the rights of property. Until this hap-
by the vast majority — not to punish, ex men holidaying abroad do not sexual- pens, there can be no global democracy.
post facto, the violators. ly abuse children. But some do.
There is another step that Canada Parliament therefore decided to make Ed Broadbent, former leader of the New
can and should take to foster a global such action a criminal offence. A Democratic Party, is a Fellow at the
rights environment for workers. It should Canadian cannot abuse a child in such School of Policy Studies, Queen’s
begin to cause Canadian firms to behave a way in Toronto or in Bangkok or he University, and Co-Chair of the Canadian
properly. The Export Development will be punished by the law. Democracy and Corporate Accountability
Corporation should offer investment Parliament currently has before it Commission. This article is adapted from
insurance and other assistance for a the so-called “Westray” bill, passed at a presentation delivered at the
Canadian firm’s overseas operations only the first reading stage. When this bill is “Globalization and the Future of Labour
on the condition that the company com- adopted, corporate managers will be Law Conference” at the University of
plies with the four core labour standards criminally responsible for ensuring the Western Ontario in October 2003.
POLICY OPTIONS 59
NOVEMBER 2003
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