Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights

Preface

Richard Howitt MEP

Suddenly everyone is talking about corporate social responsibility.

This was true back in the 1970s when corporate America's role in the overthrow of Allende in Chile concentrated public concern on the increasingly unaccountable power of multinational companies (MNCs). Both the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed voluntary principles and guidelines, respectively, and the United Nations (UN) was charged with responsibility for developing an international code of conduct to govern MNC behaviour. But the oil price rises of the 1970s, global recession and the imposition of Reaganomics on both sides of the Atlantic altered the political focus. ...