National and international unions have trumpeted the UN's Global Compact, though it was clearly intended to charm TNCs into behaving nicely and is dominated by personalities from corporations and state politics. This new report does not directly address union participation but does raise the question of what on earth unions are doing there.

Whose partnership for whose development? - Corporate accountability in the UN system beyond the Global Compact

One day before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon chaired the second "Global Compact Leaders Summit" in Geneva, a group of NGOs sponsored a hearing to assess the UN corporate initiative. Speakers addressed the failure of the Global Compact to hold its signatories accountable for basic human rights, as well as environmental and labor standards. The speakers also discussed how many translational corporations exploit their Global Compact memberships to advance their public relations, and oppose initiatives calling for binding international regulation and "effective independent monitoring and auditing" of corporate activity.

Source: Global Policy Forum Europe

http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/business/2007/0801whosepartnership.pdf

More information in "Corporate accountability":
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1294.html