European trade unions. Change and response

Abstract:

Volume eight in the series Routledge Studies in the European Economy, this book considers the increasingly hostile environment that trade unions in the European Union have encountered in the last two decades. It discusses what responses the unions have been developing to this problem and the additional factors of growing globalisation and structural changes in the contemporary European economies. Data is presented on trade union responses in five countries: Denmark, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK. Chapter one summarises the discussion in current academic literature, examining the convergence in union responses and relating it to the cultural and economic environment in which they are operating. Chapter two reviews the academic literature in relation to the strategic nature of union responses and the degree to which they concur with the models put forward by other writers. In Chapters four to seven the trade union responses in four sectors are examined: banking, central government administration, electronics and food manufacturing. The empirical data on trade union responses was largely derived from a series of semi-structured interviews carried out with trade union representatives in each of the countries and sectors included in the study. A final chapter develops conclusions which relate to the debates on the convergence/ divergence and the strategic nature of trade union responses.

Mike Rigby is Principal Lecturer in Human Resource and Roger Smith is Principal Lecturer in Employment Relations, both at South Bank University. Teresa Lawlor is Head of the School of Languages, Kingston University.