"U.S.-Based Multinationals, the International Organisation of Employers, and the Campaign in the 1980s to Limit Global Labor Rights"

In the 1980s, the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) served as an important platform through which US-based multinationals sought to fight attempts made by labor unions throughout the world to improve working conditions. It was the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) which represented American corporations in the IOE after the United States rejoined the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1980.
Based on archival documents from the USCIB and the IOE, this paper examines how and with what objectives the USCIB organized the drive to limit international campaigns for global labor rights during the two Reagan administrations. It focuses in particular on the coordination between leading US business associations—especially the USCIB, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and the United States Chamber of Commerce—in this attempt to limit the scope of the International Program for the Improvement of Working Conditions and Environment that the ILO had launched at the end of the 1970s.