An emerging island? ETUC, social dialogue and the Europeanisation of the trade unions in the 1990s

An emerging island? ETUC, social dialogue and the europeanisation of the trade unions in the 1990's

This book is one of four publications issued by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) to mark the 25th anniversary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in 1998.

Predominantly unnoticed by public opinion in the European Union Member States, a form of co-operation has been developing between trade unions and employers at European level which could, in the long term, turn into a fully-fledged industrial relations system. Jon Erik Dølvik of the Institute for Applied Social Sciences in Oslo (FAFO) describes in his book the history of this relationship, the main protagonists of which are, on the trade union side, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and, on the employers' side, the European umbrella organisations UNICE and CEEP.

The author, who spent a period working in the ETUI in Brussels, was able to observe at close quarters the development of this burgeoning European-level relationship, his main focus of interest being the ETUC. In his book he also describes the European political background and circumstances without which these developments could scarcely have taken place.

The book consists of nine chapters. After an introductory chapter, chapter two provides a brief outline of the political background to recent developments in European integration and the pattern of Community decision-making and interest representation. In chapter three, the evolution of trade union structures at the European level and the founding of the ETUC are described. Chapter four looks at the main features of the centrepiece of European integration since the mid-1980s - the Single Market - and the challenges it has posed to trade unions, while the evolution of the EC social policy regime is examined in chapter five. The revitalisation of ETUC co-operation from the mid 1980s, leading to the reforms at the 1991 Congress, is analysed in chapter six, and the main European employers' associations are briefly described in chapter seven. The process leading to the Maastricht social policy compromise and its expected implications are reviewed in chapter eight, while chapter nine concludes with a brief summary of more recent developments.