11.6 International labour relations
International labour relations is a vast topic of considerable complexity and the existence of optional titles for the topic - industrial relations, employer-employee relations, workplace relations - is indicative of difference perspectives. Labour relations by whatever name is commonly the domain of the HRM function, but some organisations manage their labour relations through a department which is separate from the HRM department. An MNE must manage its relations with labour in its own country and in other countries where subsidiaries are located, and they will all be different.
You will probably know from your reading of newspapers and magazines, and from your own experience, that labour relations is a subject with political, sociological and emotional overtones. Your textbook seems to suggest that labour unions are the enemy of MNEs. This may be so in some cases, but it need not be. For example, in the 1970s, Capricorn Coal Company, a consortium of four MNEs based in Britain , Germany and the Netherlands , began the development of an open cut coal mine at German Creek in the Bowen Basin of Central Queensland. One of Capricorn Coal's first acts was to include the four unions involved in the company's planning process. The harmony which ensued is illustrated by the fact that in the first ten years of the mine's existence, the only time the unions went on strike was at the request of the company. There was an Australia-wide strike by coal miners and the company did not wish to incur the wrath of the Australian Miners Federation by allowing its employees to continue working during the national strike. The story behind this tale is that the CEO of Capricorn Coal had begun life as a miner in Wales and had subsequently been a union official. He understood miners!
That is a rather long-winded introduction to international labour relations, but it says something about the options which international managers have in their conduct of relations with their employees. From here to the end of this chapter we will focus on the three topics used by Hill (2005) in your textbook.
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