New tools for the (transnational) trade union movement : A study of legal mobilization of mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence legislation by trade unions across global value chains

Sammanfattning

There has been a recent move from voluntary principles on how companies relate to human rights in their own operations and supply chains to mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence laws emerging. The latest addition is the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. As one step towards understanding the effectiveness of these laws I aim to investigate in what ways this family of laws can be used proactively by trade unions in global value chains to claim their rights, in light of the constraints on the power of unions due to globalisation. I argue, in line with legal mobilization theorists, that law can be used in more ways than by going to court. I therefore, in this descriptive case study, analyse both the legal opportunities of the law and the different tactics employed by trade unions for legal mobilization of these laws, through interviews with unions and reviewing union documents. I find that there are ways for unions to use these laws proactively, mainly by enabling sharing information with another company in the supply chain, often through transnational collaboration between unions. This can be useful when collective bargaining is limited with the supplier, creating a so-called boomerang pattern where the union turns to the buyer for them to exert pressure from another side. I however also find many barriers that challenge this potential. Effective legal mobilization seems limited to situations where the enforcement of the law is strong enough and where the union is both found in a supply chain of a company covered by the law and connected to other unions transnationally.