In many countries, a decline in trade union "control" over the national environment – a measure of which has been the increase in outsourcing, offshoring, flexibilization, and casualization of work – has been one of the marks of economic globalization...[B]eyond ...individual instances, unions are also in the process of developing a potentially long-term strategy as a structural answer to the dilemma they face, namely, how to bring the power of unions as locally or nationally organized entities to bear on the transnational regulation gap with regard to labor relations. One important tool they have devised for this task is the International Framework Agreement (IFA)...IFAs represent a contractual relationship between TNCs and Global Union Federations (GUFs) which afford mutual recognition of the parties to the agreement...[refers to Lafarge, Daimler, Mercedes (part of Daimler), G4S, Chiquita, Telefonica, Securitas]