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Pathways to global worker representation: Three case studies in the metalworking sector

Anastasia Alexeeva,Michael Gold,Chris Rees

Published 2026 in Economic and Industrial Democracy

ABSTRACT

Forms of labour representation have emerged over recent years that help constrain the global mobility of capital and the strategies of multinational companies (MNCs). This article focuses on one set of developments at company level: forms of voluntary regulation which we refer to as global worker bodies . It analyses the steps taken within three MNCs to establish their global worker bodies: a World Union Council, a Global Union Network and a World Works Council. We apply a regulatory space framework to explore how each MNC set up its global body and followed a distinct pathway that was determined by a unique configuration of factors at different levels. These involved the role of legislation, mandated negotiation, voluntarist negotiation and voluntarism in ‘domains’ at each level. Our research contributes to the literature on global regulatory space by providing a more nuanced understanding of the role of global worker bodies in this context.

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