The right to assembly is a fundamental right for all workers. Through the relevant international organisations, trade union bodies need to ensure that the right to assembly continues to be available to those workers who are physically separated and isolated from their colleagues. Electronic means of communication is one substitute for physical meetings. Trade unions should press for a right to use employer e-mail services. The use of hypertext links between trade union sites on the World Wide Web provides a way of demonstrating, in very practical form, the concept of trade union internationalism.
Teleworking offers new opportunities for the globalisation of the service sector.
It is more important than ever to develop effective international trade union structures. Unions in the developed world may wish to undertake solidarity work to assist less well-resourced unions in countries attracting offshore teleworking. Trade unions need to campaign to ensure that the benefits of an information society are available to all, and not only to those sections of the world community able to afford to pay for the advantages. Copyright is held by Andrew Bibby .Use for commercial purposes prohibited without prior written permission from the copyright holder. This text has been placed here as a facility for Internet users and downloading is permitted for the purposes of private, non-commercial research.