Guglielmo Meardi

More Voice After More Exit? Unstable Industrial Relations in Central Eastern Europe

The article examines the industrial relations developments in the post-communist countries that entered the EU in 2004. Rather than introducing the European Social Model, EU accession has led to some social tensions, in spite of relatively strong economic growth, because of deregulation, European Monetary Union conditions and the enduring need to compete for foreign investment. EU institutional promotion of social dialog through the Directive on Information and Consultation of Workers, sector social dialog committees and the European Employment Strategy has only had limited effects in increasing the voice of employees in employment relations. National-level social dialog has produced poor results and has even been weakened in Slovenia (where it was originally strong) and, initially, in Slovakia. The lack of voice for employees has led to increased exit through political populism/abstention and migration. A double paradox emerges. Pro-labor policies are being developed not by the EU, but rather by its opposite, Euro-skeptical governments (in Poland and Slovakia), while in the workplaces, employers are forced to concessions not by their employees, but by those who leave and cause labor shortages. However, there is also some evidence of a resurgent voice from below, through strikes, organizing campaigns, informal collective protests and collective bargaining innovations. Drawing on both theory and history of industrial relations, it is concluded that some preconditions for more stable social compromises including more voice are emerging.

Sectors or countries? Typologies and levels of analysis in comparative industrial relations

This article presents a critique of the ‘methodological nationalism’ of traditional comparative industrial relations. It investigates nine different sectors across the 27 EU member states on the basis of seven empirical indicators. It is found that industrial relations vary across sectors as deeply as they do across countries, and that a cluster analysis of sectoral industrial relations produces very different results from one at national aggregate level. The concept of ‘national model’ of industrial relations, implying coherence and homogeneity within countries, and geographical typologies of industrial relations ‘types’, are therefore put in question. The article concludes by pointing at the theoretical and methodological implications of a focus on the sector as an important level of analysis.

Constructing Uncertainty: Unions and Migrant Labour in Construction in Spain and the UK

The article provides a conceptualization of the link between recent migration flows and labour market uncertainty through the analysis of a critical example, the construction sector (characterized by economic volatility, worker mobility, employment insecurity, safety risk) in the UK and Spain (countries with large immigration, flexible labour markets and volatile construction sectors). Transnational labour mobility can be seen as a structural response to recent European dilemmas over how to combine flexibility and security, through the creation of a hyper-flexible buffer of migrant workers who, being disposable in case of downturn, can carry most of the uncertainty burden without causing political problems. This raises two issues: the social sustainability of such segmentation, in particular with regard to occupational health and safety; and the role organized labour can have, in particular in organizing such workers. The issues are analysed through labour market statistics and interviews with unionists, migrant organization representatives, employers and employment policy officers in both countries.

Union Immobility? Trade Unions and the Freedoms of Movement in the Enlarged EU

East–West union co-operation in Europe is discussed as the most serious test to cross-border union solidarity, in the light of new frameworks capable to make sense of transnational trade union activity and alternative to theoretical nationalism. The empirical assessment of trade union chances reviews the activities of trade unions in the UK, Germany, Austria and Poland on foreign investment, migration and movement of services. Secondary evidence and case studies show that the strength of transnational union action does not depend on the country, but rather on its form. ‘Structural’ Europeanization remains weak (e.g. in most European Works Councils), while network-based action is displaying strong developments, especially on migration, but least on the movement of services.

Short Circuits in Multinational Companies: The Extension of European Works Councils to Poland

The extension of European Works Councils to central and eastern Europe is a rare attempt to create transnational employee representation covering both low- and high-wage areas. Research carried out in Poland in 2001 provides a quantitative estimate of such enlargement and a qualitative assessment of its effects. The evidence undermines fears of ‘social dumping’ and reveals indirect effects definable as ‘short circuits’.

Who is Hybridizing What? Insights on MNCs’ Employment Practices in Central Europe

Within an enlarged and more diverse EU, the opportunities have increased for international reorganization of production and, with this, for ‘coercive comparisons’ and efficiency-oriented transfers of practices. This chapter discusses the dynamics of transfer through longitudinal case studies of two foreign investors active in the region since the beginning of the economic transformation in Central Europe (CE). The two cases represent contrasting situations: a greenfield investment in a non-union site by a medium-sized German company, compared with a large Italian multinational company (MNC) investing in strongly unionized brownfield sites.

The Complexity of Relocation and the Diversity of Trade Union Responses: Efficiency-oriented Foreign Direct Investment in Central Europe

Relocations within an enlarged Europe are often portrayed as an unavoidable destiny or irresistible threat for workers. The article outlines a number of contingent factors which determine how serious are the threats and how feasible is an effective union response. Such factors are then tested through in-depth case studies of 12 plants in the automotive components sector (where cross-border competition is particularly strong), showing how varied can be the scenarios for industrial relations in multinational companies.

European Union enlargement and the foreign direct investment channel of industrial relations transfer

Inward investment by multinational companies represents a vital channel for entrenching the company-level industrial relations dimension of Europes social model in the post-socialist New Member States. Surveying a wide range of existing analysis and evidence, this article concludes that the prospects for diffusion through inward investment are highly contingent. The motive for inward investment, factor composition, host country institutions and the existence of transnational industrial relations structures are all found to be influential contingencies, but not country-of-origin or mode of entry.

Multinationals in the New EU Member States and the Revitalisation of Trade Unions

Fears of social dumping in the enlarged EU have raised the question of who can defend employees in the new member states. This article addresses the issue through case study research on US and German-based multinationals operating in the automotive sector in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. The evidence shows how trade unions and industrial relations institutions affect investors in different ways country-by-country, with some unexpected effects on the implementation of flexible employment practices by the investors. Foreign-owned enterprises witness cases of union revitalisation, breaking the “path-dependency” of post-communist unions, in spite of frequent employer hostility. Bottom-up factors such as production changes and local labour market trends are frequently found behind revitalisation, although foreign factors such as home-country models or international union solidarity occasionally also play a role. Such revitalisation, however, being company-based, raises issues on the capacity of trade unions to combine core worker representation with the defence of workers in the society as a whole.

Multinationals' heaven? Uncovering and understanding worker responses to multinational companies in post-communist Central Europe

The article critically discusses the view that the new EU member states, due to their weakly organized industrial relations, provide a permissive environment allowing multinational companies to unilaterally implement their human resource management strategies. After describing the labour cost motivations of foreign investors and the weakness of organized labour in the region, the paper presents empirical evidence from case studies in the automotive sector in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. All case studies confirm the existence of nationally specific, mostly informal forms of employee resistance limiting employer freedom, as well as some appearance of cross-border forms of resistance. Conclusions are drawn with regard to current debates on social dumping and Europeanization of industrial relations, stressing the value of bottom-up, shopfloor-sensitive approaches.