Cross-Border Organizing in the Apparel Industry: Lessons from Central America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Successful cross-border organizing in developing nations demands that transnational corporate campaigns operate in tandem with local drives for a union contract. On-site organizing drives are most effective via quiet leadership development and house visits, which prepare sufficient participants to request negotiations. Only at this point are widespread in-plant publicity and international attention beneficial. In the export apparel sector's historical context, specific organizing drives in the Do minican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras validate such an approach. They also verify the primacy of local participation and close union com munication with outside monitors in the functioning of transnational cam paigns.