The struggle for a social Europe. Trade unions and EMU in times of global restructuring

This book provides a detailed investigation and comparison of the trade unions of five EU member states: Austria, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, and their positions on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Several European level trade union organisations are also examined. The focus of this project, however, is not limited to EMU as a case study. Rather, EMU is regarded as a vehicle to assess trade unions’ options and possibilities to respond to global structural change in general and to participate in the formation of the future economic-political system of the EU in particular.

Two principal hypotheses are investigated. Firstly, that a labour movement’s position on EMU depends crucially on its length and degree of exposure to the competitive pressures of globalisation. Unions, which represent workers in transnational production sectors, are more likely to support EMU, because they may support their companies – on which their own well-being depends – which benefit from a stable monetary environment and institutionalised free trade within the EU. National production sector unions, on the other hand, are likely to oppose EMU, since it undermines national policy autonomy and, thus, the support, on which they depend. Relying on the state, they may also be less concerned about European co-operation. Secondly, that those trade unions, which lose influence within the domestic institutional set-up, are most in favour of the establishment of an industrial relations system and social regulation at the European level to counter global pressures. By contrast, unions which continue to enjoy a strong position at the national level, are less likely to engage in European co-operation.

Andreas Bieler is Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.