It would appear to be self-evident that if business and capital go global, then government and labor should follow suit. However, the seductive short-term benefits promised by competition hamper such a process. Trade unions, like nation-states, may be reluctant to cooperate. Despite their professed ideals and internationalist traditions, they tend to vie with each other in the worldwide bid for scarce resources such as technology and capital. Unlike states, however, such behavior jeopardizes the very existence of unions. Thus, the imperative of global unionism follows from the rationale of unionism itself. Since global unionism per se apparently does not yet exist, the following discussion has to resort to some speculation, though consistent and logical conclusions may be inferred from an analysis of the present. Global unionism is not an end in itself, but a means of resolving problems that arise in the world economy. First, unions could be instrumental in spurring governments to cooperate with each other. Second, they may reproduce their national function at the worldwide level by instigating tripartite agreements between global labor, global business and the international community of states.
