Good for Steelworkers president Leo Gerard–from today’s Wall Street Journal–

Unions in the U.S. and abroad have been slow to follow
companies as they extend their overseas reach. The United Steelworkers
and two of Britain’s largest unions are considering a daring move to
catch up.

The Steelworkers union is expected to sign an
agreement tomorrow with Amicus and the Transport and General Workers’
Union to explore a merger, the biggest step to date by a U.S. union
toward creating a significant global union. Amicus and the United
Kingdom transport-workers union, known as T&G, are finalizing a
separate merger and will soon represent a total of 2.1 million members
in a range of industrial and service sectors in the U.K. The
Steelworkers union represents 850,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and
the Caribbean, in steel, aluminum, paper, tire and rubber and health
care, among others industries.

The clout of a new global union is far from certain,
given the waning power of organized labor in the U.S. and abroad. A
merged union’s effectiveness will depend largely on how it is
structured, who leads it and how well it can marshal resources against
common employers. Structuring the combined organization will be
complicated, which is why the unions plan to give themselves 12 months
to work out legal, constitutional and structural differences between
the unions.

Such a merger comes at a time when unions around the
world struggle to respond to globalization, which is pushing down wages
and benefits for workers in many Western countries, labor experts say.
They note union density has declined throughout much of the
industrialized world and unions have been largely ineffective in
maintaining wages and benefits when employers open new operations in
different parts of the world. Talks between the unions were reported by
the Times of London earlier this month.

The rest of the story for subscribers only is here. How you deal with marauding transnational corporations is a tough question, and the answers are no less easy. But, at least, this acknowledges the challenge and may even provide some new leverage. At least Leo is trying.