Abstract
This issue of the journal provides an excellent range of comparative studies of European industrial relations.
The first two articles examine changing patterns of union organization and collective bargaining in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): the ‘new’ member states of the EU, though it is now over a decade since the original group of accessions. Miroslav Stanojević addresses the contrasting dynamics and constraints of the ‘neoliberal turn’ in CEE. In Hungary, a divided labour movement lacked the capacity to resist rapid mass privatization and the associated influx of multinational capital. In Slovenia, by contrast, unions possessed far greater mobilization capacity and helped ensure the development of a ‘social market economy’. Since 2000, however, both trajectories have changed. In Hungary an authoritarian government has pursued contradictory policies of encouraging the growth of a domestic economic elite and populist concessions to the working class, while Slovenia has seen a drastic lurch towards neoliberalism.
Aleksandra Sznajder Lee and Vera Trappmann compare the evolution of industrial relations in the largest steelworks in three countries: Poland, Romania and Slovakia. All three countries pursued privatization, but more radically in Poland where Solidarność strongly supported a radical process of marketization on ideological grounds. In all cases, trade unions suffered ‘self-inflicted wounds’. The key role of foreign multinationals in the new economy further weakened worker influence, but internationalization also had potential ‘enabling effects’, allowing unions to learn strategically from contacts with their foreign counterparts, opening the possibility of overcoming the ‘legacies’ of the transition years.
Manuela Galetto, Paul Marginson and Catherine Spieser compare changes in workplace governance in hospitals in France, Italy and the UK. In all three countries, budgetary constraints and the recipes of the ‘new public management’ have inspired substantial restructuring. However, political contingencies and the different strategies and capacities of the actors have led to contrasting outcomes for industrial relations. In consequence, change has been most radical in the UK and most constrained in France.
Mike Rigby and Miguel Ángel Garcia Calavia offer a comparative perspective on new mechanisms of extra-judicial dispute resolution in Southern Europe, with a particular focus on Spanish experience. Here, since a peak-level agreement in 1996, there has been increasing resort to independent adjudication of collective disputes rather than to the courts. The authors suggest various reasons why the switch from reliance on judicial resolution of disputes has been more marked in Spain than in other countries with similar industrial relations and labour law backgrounds.
The article by Kea Tijdens, Maarten van Klaveren, Reinhard Bispinck, Heiner Dribbusch and Fikret Öz compares responses to the economic crisis in Germany and the Netherlands. They ask whether (as most economists would assume) there is a trade-off between wage reductions and job losses, and find little evidence for this. Employment in both countries suffered similarly from the initial impact of the crisis, but recovery was more rapid in Germany. One explanation is the far greater use there of short-time working schemes. Wage reductions were relatively uncommon in both countries. At company level, reductions in employment levels were widespread, but these were not closely correlated with the severity of economic disruption – suggesting that job cuts have become a ‘normal’ element in company strategy, regardless of economic conditions.
Finally, Raquel Rego, Paulo Marques Alves, Reinhard Naumann and Jorge Silva compare the use of internet technology by civil service trade unions in Portugal and the UK, asking how far the internet can facilitate union revitalization. They propose a typology for the analysis of web use, with three dimensions: content, interactivity and form. Their comparison reveals major differences between the two countries.