Abstract
This issue of the journal covers a wide range of themes. Ian Greer, Zinovijus Ciupijus and Nathan Lillie explore the effort to create a transnational trade union for migrant workers in the construction sector. Though this attempt to transcend the organizational limits of national trade unionism was unsuccessful, the authors find some positive outcomes in terms of collective support for highly mobile and potentially vulnerable workers within a regime of ‘free movement’ across national boundaries.
Adrien Thomas examines organizational changes in trade unions within two very different national contexts, France and Germany. In both countries, there have been interesting parallels in the adoption of structures and practices more common in business organizations. The result has been significant tension between protagonists of the new approach and those committed to a traditional democratic representative model.
Christine Trampusch compares company-level collective agreements on occupational pensions in three Nordic countries, exploring very different employer preferences. In Sweden, employers promoted such agreements; in Denmark, they initially resisted but then embraced these systems; in Norway they have remained opposed. These differences are explained in terms of distinctive configurations of labour markets, public policies and financial markets.
Tapio Bergholm and Andreas Bieler compare the withdrawal of Swedish employers from peak-level bargaining in the 1990s with the similar but more recent process in Finland. The differences in the timing and the radicalism of employers’ break from the postwar industrial relations framework is analysed in terms of contrasts in union cohesion, the structural power of capital, the political conjuncture and the degree of exposure to international competition.
Jason Heyes compares responses to economic crisis in Ireland, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. Despite some similarities, there are marked differences in the extent to which these responses have been negotiated and have been directed to cushioning adverse labour market effects: a reflection of contrasts in union strength and in the institutional frameworks of industrial relations. Overall, the experience questions the credibility of the European Commission’s enthusiasm for ‘flexicurity’.