Interest Representation on National and Transnational Levels of Action: Restructuring of Companies and the Problem of Articulation

在跨国公司中，员工的利益代表发生在多种行动层面上，从地方工会开始，最后是国际利益代表机构，如欧洲工会。事实上，有大量关于地方劳资委员会和欧洲劳资委员会的文献。然而，很少有研究关注像公司或团体工会这样的中介机构。此外，不同层次的利益代表之间的相互作用，其中也包括监事会和工会的共同决定，在很大程度上被忽视了，它们的相互作用模式还没有被概念化和系统地分析。有两项研究是基于这一事实的。首先，对集体利益的构建、协调和调停没有充分把握。其次，由于跨国界代表机构与当地行为者之间的体制距离，跨国界代表机构可能会对不同国家和地点的雇员表现出合法性问题，这些问题被忽视了。因此，该项目通过分析国际公司不同机构和行为者之间的相互作用和协调过程，即衔接过程，扩展了分析的视角。该项目的重点是地方、国家和超国家层面的整个利益监管体系。我们的研究兴趣是分析理论上扎根的实证案例研究中表征层面之间的协调过程。这样做，该项目寻求增加关于国际公司利益管制实践的科学知识，并促进工作和组织社会学以及劳资关系的理论发展。实证部分由三个不同行业的九家公司的案例研究组成。案例研究的重点是重组案例，这些案例伴随着关于外包、解雇或降低劳工标准的谈判。一方面，重组直接影响到员工的地方利益。另一方面，同时，对各级利益进行协调的必要性尤其高。案例研究涵盖了各自国际公司在三个国家的办事处。与不同级别的雇员代表(例如，劳资理事会、公司和团体工会、EWCs和世界工会理事会)、工会和管理层代表进行专家访谈。这项研究试图确定各级之间的经验互动模式，使用一种理想的跨国倡导类型，并参照各种影响因素对其进行解释。

In multinational companies, interest representation of employees takes place on a multitude of levels of action, starting with local works councils and ending with international bodies of interest representation like European works councils. Indeed there is a huge body of literature dealing with local works councils and European works councils. However, only little research has focused on intermediary bodies like company or groups works councils. Moreover, the interplay between the different levels of interest representation, among them also codetermination on supervisory boards and unions, has been largely neglected in research, and their modes of interaction have not been conceptualized and analyzed systematically yet. There are two research desiderata that stem from this fact. Firstly, the construction, coordination and intermediation of collective interests was not captured adequately. Secondly, problems of legitimacy, which cross-border representation bodies might show towards employees of different countries and locations because of their institutional distance to local actors, were neglected. Therefore, the project extends the analytical perspective by analyzing the interplay and coordination processes, the processes of articulation, between different institutions and actors at different levels of an international corporation. The focus of the project is on the entire system of interest regulation at local, national, and supra-national level. Our research interest is to analyze the coordination processes between the representation levels in theoretically grounded empirical case studies. Doing this, the project seeks to increase scientific knowledge about interest regulation practice in international corporations and to contribute to theory development within the sociology of work and organizations as well as industrial relations. The empirical part is composed of case studies in nine companies of three different industries. The focus of the case studies is on examples of restructuring cases which are accompanied by negotiations about outsourcing, dismissals or the reduction of labour standards. On the one hand, restructuring starkly affects employees local interests. On the other hand and at the same time, the need for a coordination of interests across the levels is particularly high. The case studies cover locations in three countries of the respective international company. Expert interviews are conducted with employee representatives at different levels (e.g. works councils, company and group works councils, EWCs and world works councils), trade union and management representatives. The study seeks to identify empirical interaction patterns between the levels, using an ideal type of transnational advocacy and explaining them with reference to various influence factors.