The rise of MNCs has been well documented in both the popular media and scholarly articles over the last 20 years. From global standouts such as Sony, Samsung, and Toyota to emerging companies in Southeast Asia and — especially – the People’s Republic of China, it seems as though nothing is stopping MNCs from expanding its reach to more customers and greater markets.
However, as much of the industrialized world recognized in painful economic slowdowns, the dizzying heights of economic prosperity can suddenly and without advance warning come to a crashing halt due to economic and geopolitical forces, leaving millions of workers, communities, and government treasuries in dire straits.
As we conclude our discussions in this course, can you speculate on parts of the global economy that stand out both positively and negatively? What are the greatest threats to the global worker? How can – or should – organized labor collaborate across borders to address those threats? How can organized labor seek to work with developing nations in growing their economies and expanding the reach of prosperity to millions of citizens while protecting the basic human rights of workers?
