How U.S. Multinational Corporations, Unions, and Government View Each other and the Direction of U.S. Policies
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University of Pennsylvania BERNARD MENNIS*
TempleUniversity Abstract. This article reports on the findings of field interviewswith officials of MNCs,unions, and the U.S. government.The findings delineate perceptualgaps among the three groupsthat, in particular,thwart any meaningfulunion/MNCand union/governmentdialogues. * By multiplying and intensifying transnational linkages in production, employment, technology and income, the multinational corporation (MNC) continues to operate as the principal agent in building a global industrial system that is replacing the traditional international trading system. In so doing, the MNC is also disrupting in the United States and other industrial countries the traditional relations between business, government and unions that have been largely confined in the past to a single national domain. These traditional relations are now in disequilibrium: the multinational domain of the MNC is not matched by governments and unions. This disparity in domain has created power and other imbalances among the three actors, and because the behavior of each actor is influenced by that of the other two, and the actors make claims on each other (which may or may not be seen as legitimate), these imbalances generate tensions and conflicts among them. In theory, equilibrium might be restored or newly created in two broad ways: (1) forcing MNCs back to national domains that would match the domains of governments and unions, or (2) transforming in some way the national domains of governments and unions into multinational domains to match the MNC domain. It is against this background of tension and conflict that we have investigated the relations between MNCs, government, and unions in the United States. Specifically, we wanted to know how U.S. government and union officials perceive the identity and performance of U.S.-based MNCs, how MNCs perceive the other two actors, and how all three actors view present and anticipated U.S. policies in international trade and investment. We believe that a necessary condition for the creation of a new equilibrium in their mutual relations is the removal of perceptual gaps that engender confrontation rather than accommodation. Our empirical findings are based on extended interviews in late 1972, 1973, and early 1974 with 188 top executives in 46 U.S.-based corporations (of which 42 are listed in the Fortune 500) in 16 industry groups (two digit SIC numbers), senior officials in 15 U.S. Government agencies (excluding Congress), and officials in 10 U.S. labor unions plus AFL-CIO headquarters. The Administration sample was chosen through a systematic search of the Executive Branch to identify all Departments, agencies, and "staffs" participating in international trade and investment policy. Most of the 15 organizations thus identified are also involved in other policy areas; for example, the bulk of the activities of the Department of Commerce is directed toward domestic, not international, concerns and while State's orientation is almost exclusively international,
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