Western trade unions confronting multinational corporations (MNCs), international regulations and the defence of special interests (1970-95)

Since the early 1970s, multinationals have been at the centre of anxious debates and have had to contend with fierce hostility from individual and collective actors as diverse as Third World movements, left-wing parties, consumer associations, Protestant and Catholic churches, representatives of non-aligned governments and trade unions. Not all of them defended the same interests and, above all, they did not pursue the same objectives. In this vast nebula, the trade unions occupied a special position. As a contribution to this special issue ("Universalist and Particularist Economic Ideas and Practices in Europe since the 1970s"), this article examines the tension these trade unions faced between the defence of specific interests, organized nationally or territorially, and the need for global action to regulate the activities of multinationals and defend workers as a group (or class), or between particularism and universalism. These reflections are based on documents produced by various components of the trade union movement, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and employers' or religious organizations.