Plant Relocation: When Is It A Viable Threat?

By Ron Edwards

An investigation, using research from the field of international business, into threats from multinational corporations to leave countries and how much substance such threats have.

Some multinationals have broad flexibility to relocate. Others do not. Customer expectations, transportation costs and organisational factors may limit their flexibility. The challenge for trade unions in high wage countries like Australia is to be able to assess these factors and judge whether threats to 'move to Asia' are viable.

(Journal of Industrial Relations; vol. 45, no. 1, March 2003)