Jelle Visser

Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends

Can the recent decline in union density in Europe be attributed to specific economic, social or institutional causes? Can unions influence these causes and reverse decline? Using two data sources — a representative survey of Dutch employees and a data set for European countries between 1950 and 1997 — the author examines the determinants of union decline. The theoretical model is based on a social custom approach to unionization, integrating rational choice and social network theory. The empirical results show improbable small margins of union resurgence, that is, if institutional support for union representation can be maintained or regained within and beyond workplaces.

Two Cheers for Corporatism, One for the Market: Industrial Relations, Wage Moderation and Job Growth in the Netherlands

The success of economic policies in the Netherlands with regard to enhancing job growth and bringing down unemployment has attracted international attention, especially against the background of persistent high unemployment in many continental European countries. The paper considers the role of Dutch industrial relations, and in particular trade unions, in the turnaround from the ‘Dutch disease’ to the current ‘employment miracle’. It is argued that Dutch unions, weakened by the severe jobs and membership crisis of the early 1980s but assured of continued institutional support, have chosen a public-regarding ‘jobs before wages’ strategy. The two main features are continued wage moderation and negotiated flexibility of working hours, particularly part-time jobs. The paper stresses the importance of co-ordination within the unions as well as between unions and employers, and compares the contents, causes and consequences of the two central accords of 1982 and 1993. Finally, it considers the renewal of Dutch corporatism in an environment of increased market pressure.

Free Movement, Equal Treatment and Workers' Rights: Can the European Union Solve its Trilemma of Fundamental Principles?

This article analyses the trilemma the EU is facing concerning three fundamental principles on which the Community rests: free movement of services and labour; non-discrimination and equal treatment, and the rights of association and industrial action. With rising cross-border flows of services and (posted) labour after the Eastward enlargement, the conflict between these rights has triggered industrial disputes and judicial strife. In the view of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), highlighted in the Laval Quartet, some principles are more fundamental than others. Tracing the ‘dual track’ along which European integration has evolved, whereby supranational market integration has been combined with national semi-sovereignty in industrial relations and social policies, our claim is that the supremacy of free movement over basic social rights implied by the ECJ judgments is leading Europe in a politically and socially unsustainable direction. To prevent erosion of the European Social Models and of popular support for European integration, the politicians have to reinsert themselves into the governance of the European project. A pertinent start would be to ensure that the rising mass of cross-border service workers in Europe become subject to the same rights and standards as their fellow workers in the emerging pan-European labour market.

Introduction: Causes, consequences and cures of union decline

In 2000 the political leaders of the European Union declared that strong economic growth and advance towards a knowledge society, together with a high degree of social cohesion, would be the pre-eminent goals for the subsequent decade. A question never asked was what would happen, and what remedial action would be taken, should the conditions conducive to growth and the knowledge economy conflict with the political and institutional underpinnings of social cohesion. What if strong employment growth turned out to be founded on the destabilization of the standard employment contract, or if the advance towards a knowledge economy brought about a sharp rise in social inequality and polarization between skilled and unskilled workers and between those with and without stable jobs? Would trade unions be willing and able to counteract or attenuate such trends and bridge the differences between the new haves and have-nots? Or would they be marginalized, slowly but irreversibly, together with the stable employment relationships that characterized the mid-20th century? In this special issue we consider the evidence on the causes, consequences and cures of union decline. The contributions stem from an open call for papers from the EQUALSOC network of excellence (economic growth, quality of life and social cohesion), funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme. With financial assistance from the EU, the papers were discussed at two workshops at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim and the

The Rise of the Conglomerate Union

This article discusses two cases, Germany and The Netherlands, whose systems of trade unionism have historically shared a number of characteristics, in particular a commitment to industrial unionism. In both countries a profound transformation of union organization is under way, affecting in particular the demarcation of union domains; the relationships between unions with respect to their division of representational territory and organizational jurisdiction; and the relationship between unions and their peak associations. It does not appear that this parallel transformation of union systems is a consequence of the growing interdependence between industrial nations. To the extent that we observe identical developments in different countries, they seem to be caused by identical endogenous factors resulting in convergence but in the absence of diffusion or other forms of mutual causation.

Beneath the Surface of Stability: New and Old Modes of Governance in European Industrial Relations

Despite surface stability, there are significant changes in the modes of governance regulating the relationship between law and collective bargaining as a source of labour rights, and between norms defined at EU, national, sectoral and company level. This article focuses on the European integration process as a key source of change, first outlining the weaknesses of informal coordination of wage bargaining within and across countries, then discussing the tensions for trade unions created by Economic and Monetary Union. It concludes by examining the diffusion of ‘opening clauses’ in sectoral agreements, the displacement of collective by individual rights promoted by EU law and the reduction in statutory standards of welfare and social rights.

'From Keynesianism to the Third Way: Labour relations and social policy in post-war Western Europe'

This article attempts to highlight the interaction of developments in European social and employment policy-making with the changing conditions and patterns in national political economies, labour markets and labour relations. It argues that a shift is taking place from traditional social policy, aiming at equality of outcomes, to an activating employment policy, directed towards achieving equality of opportunity. This shift is analysed against the background of the demise of the Fordist model, the Keynesian compromise of the mixed economy, the increase in product market competition and internationalization of the European economy, the externalization of social policy from large firms, the rise in unemployment, Europes continued high-cost welfare states and the decline of organized labour.

Inequality and Union Membership: The Influence of Relative Earnings and Inequality Attitudes

Using surveys from the International Social Survey Programme covering the period 1985–2002 for seven European countries (West and East Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain), we examine the effect of relative earnings on union membership and show that union density is higher among workers in the intermediate earnings group than among low or high earners. Next, we examine the association of inequality attitudes with union membership and demonstrate that union membership is not only motivated by instrumental considerations related to relative earnings, but also by normative concerns about inequality. We interpret our findings suggesting that rising earnings inequality is in itself a source of union decline.

Industrial relations in Europe 2008

Industrial relations and the Lisbon reform agenda are interwoven. The Lisbon Strategy has entered the agenda of the social partners at all levels: European, national, in sectors and in companies. The use of instruments — law, collective agreements with and without binding effects, guidelines and benchmarking — varies and generally there is a tendency to combine hard and soft instruments, and less binding regulation, allowing more flexibility in implementation under diverse conditions. Differences in industrial relation regimes across Member States are visible in employment outcomes, the capacities of industrial relations actors and the contribution of the social dialogue process. In addition to differences in capacities, however, the willingness of unions and employers’ association to ‘buy into’ the dialogue process and the Lisbon agenda may be the overriding factor explaining a successful contribution.From a global perspective, the European Union is a forerunner in combining a market- building agenda with a social agenda which includes emerging European industrial relations. In other global regions this process has barely begun and the EU is sometimes seen as a model for the development of a regional social dialogue. While industrial relations arrangements in EU Member States continue to differ in traditions and practices, a limited convergence between them can be observed and is partly related to the EU as a regulatory space. The emergence of EU-level industrial relations is evidenced by a growing number of mutually reinforcing institutions, policies and processes at EU level and focusing on the social dimension of the market.This report - the fifth edition in a well-established series - aims to increase the visibility of European social dialogue, describe and raise awareness of developments in European industrial relations, and initiate related discussion through its analytical chapters. The 2008 report addresses the main trends in industrial relations in the European Union, European social dialogue and EU labour law as well as the contribution of quality industrial relations to the Lisbon Strategy and wage setting and minimum wages in the European Monetary Union.

Der Wandel der Arbeitsbeziehungen in Westeuropaischen Vergleich

Die durch den Nachkriegskonsens gepragten Arbeitsbeziehungen stehen heute vor globalen Herausforderungen und erfahren einen grundlegenden Wandel. Der Klassenkonflikt wurde in den Zeiten des Wirtschaftsaufschwungs von sozialpartnerschaftlichen Institutionen und einem Kollektivvertragswesen auf freiwilliger Basis gepragt. Diese sozialen Institutionen der Regulierung des Verhaltnisses von Kapital und Arbeit sind zwar fest in den westeuropaischen Gesellschaften verankert, erweisen sich aber nun zunehmend ungeeignet, der neuen gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Situation gerecht zu werden.