Ulrich Mückenberger

The challenge of modernisation: towards a new paradigm for trade unions in Europe?

The European trade union movement is in the throes of major upheaval as a result of changes in technology, the economy, and the socio-cultural environment. The authors argue that it is high time the trade unions moved on to enter a next phase of modernity. The modernisation required entails the combined operation of rationalisation, domestication, individualisation and differentiation . These four concepts are used not just to describe the processes underway ; it is argued that they can also, if the opportunities contained in them are identified and harnessed, constitute guides to action. An analysis of these four concepts, applied to the situation of the trade unions, can thus assist in the search for ways out of the crisis that is currently affecting the unions in their orientations, organisation and policies.

Time Abstraction, Temporal Policy and the Right to One’s Own Time*

Abstract Democratic time policies—policies intended to coordinate working times, public and private service times, and urban time schedules, to the needs of human beings, individuals, families, communities—have to be founded and justified on concepts of abstract time and the right to time as preconditions of self-determined concrete individual and collective time. The right to time—in favor of which the Council of Europe recently declared itself—contains the right of individuals and groups to demand that their temporal requirements become the subject of protective and co-ordinating measures. And it requires appropriate social rules and provisions enabling the effective social co-ordination of times. The right to time foreshadows a welfare-society that deals not only with the redistribution of money but also simultaneously with the temporal conditions of its citizens’ quality of everyday life.

Dimensionen des Wandels im deutschen Arbeitssystem angesichts Postfordismus und Globalisierung

Wie in anderen westlichen Gesellschaften sind in Deutschland die Arbeitsbeziehungen in gravierender Weise durch gesellschaftliche Umbruche herausgefordert: Die informationsgesellschaftliche Rationalisierung und der Wandel zur Dienstleistungsgesellschaft haben die Arbeitsprozesse revolutioniert (s. Transfer 2011), die Segmentierung der Arbeitsmarkte vertieft (s. Vaughan-Whitehead 2011) und (auch wenn Deutschland die Finanzmarktkrise relativ gut uberstanden hat – Ubersicht bei Maul-Sartori et al. 2012) Arbeitslosigkeit angehoben. Auf europaischer Ebene zwingt die Wirtschafts- und Wahrungsunion die Mitgliedsstaaten dazu, sowohl die Inflation als auch das Haushaltsdefizit durch rigide Einschnitte in den offentlichen Ausgaben zu bekampfen. Ungeachtet der Erfahrung aus der Finanzmarktkrise, dass Regellosigkeit katastrophale Folgen hat, haben wirtschaftsliberale Interpretationen Europas als „nur-marktwirtschaftlich“ an Boden gewonnen und etwa die Sozialrechtsprechung des EuGH fur sich in Beschlag genommen (dazu Muckenberger 2011a; Deakin und Morris 2012).

Do Urban Time Policies Have a Real Impact on Quality of Life? And Which Methods Are Apt to Evaluate Them?

Time-policy measures, under current ‘industrial relations’, regularly focus on the workplace-limited time interests of employees. In service societies, however, these time interests frequently conflict with time interests of other stakeholders – e.g. of users, of services and of citizens. The contribution discusses, both theoretically and empirically, how such ‘time conflicts’ can be solved, and are actually solved, in a fair manner. Case studies of time measures in childcare and other service institutions investigate three issues: Do these time measures take into account the ‘time stakes’ of both users and providers of services? Do they have a real impact on quality of life of both groups? Do gains in quality of life of users go at the cost of quality of life of employees (or vice versa)? This chapter concludes that mindful time policies lead to gains in quality of life and ‘win-win constellations’ between users and providers of services. It underlines the conditions of fair solutions of time conflicts. It thus outlines ‘work relations’ (as opposed to ‘industrial relations’) which are adequate to service societies.

A Manifesto for Social Europe 2000

After the Treaty of Amsterdam, and on the eve of the new millennium, the European Union remains paralysed. Nationalism is reinforced by a static and rigid interpretation of subsidiarity. Monetarist economism blocks democratic control over the European Central Bank and creates obstacles against effective implementation of the new Employment Title of the EC Treaty. Protectionist self-interest prevents Europe taking a lead in reform of the global trading system.

Citizenship at work. A guiding principle for social and trade union policy

In the fraught relationship between capitalist economy and political democracy, the latter often comes off second best. Have we come to accept that democracy ends at the factory gates? This article argues the contrary – that there are reasons enough today to establish and enforce the status of citizenship for employees at work. Today’s working people have such diverse personal circumstances and working conditions that only their status as ‘citizens’ gives them a common social bond that fosters solidarity. The demand for ‘reconciliation’ of work and life outside of work is now being formulated more radically: namely that people should not remain objects of economic authority, but instead that labour relations should be remodelled according to human needs. Citizenship at work is a step towards the democratic humanization of working life. Individual citizen rights are not a substitute for collective employee participation, but give it an indispensable foundation. This article traces the development of the concept of citizenship at work and outlines its prospects of becoming a reality. It draws on progressive democratic and republican values and impulses for change and sets them against a still often autocratic corporate culture.

Book Review: Alain Supiot L’esprit de Philadelphie. La justice sociale face au marché total, Éditions du Seuil: Paris, 2010; 179 pp.: 9782020991032

of authors; their different professional backgrounds; their relatively varied geographical origins (some Australians; some western Europeans; one American; but the majority Belgian like the editor). This diversity, if it adds to the heterogeneity of the contributions, pays a price to coherence: each chapter is a world apart. There is not any longa manus responsible for providing an homogenous structure to the array of ‘comparative studies’ and ‘international developments’ presented. Not only is this coherence lacking in the table of contents, but it is also lacking in the structure of the chapters, making each of them an island, lacking bridges to build connections, i.e. cross references. Moreover, the different professional backgrounds of the authors, composed of a mix of ILO officers and academic scholars, leads to two different kinds of contributions: those by ILO staff members, more attentive to the international perspective and the ILO mandate as well as to providing evidence from a variety of concrete country experiences they were confronted with during their job; and those by professors, more theoretically grounded and conceptually elaborated, in the typical academic style (with some particularly effective in combining all aspects). This twofold nature contributes on the one hand to make this book rather unique in the panorama of labour law publications, being so wide in scope and in authorship; but at the same time calls for Professor Blanpain to restructure his creature and to identify which chapters need to be substantially revised (with some possibly eliminated). Indeed, this is a fundamental publication that most certainly contributed (and still contributes) to opening up labour law studies to comparative and international approaches. The suggested revisions to bring about a muchneeded homogeneity of style, content and approach would further strengthen this work for a hoped-for further 10 editions in the years and decades to come.

Maarten van Kempen, Lisa Patmore, Michael Ryle and Robert von Steinau-Steinruck (eds.) Redundancy Law in Europe: Kluwer Law International, 2008, 278 pages

In addition, the common challenges of demographic ageing may make recommendations from EU bodies more palatable to national policy-makers. The joint commitment to the Stability and Growth Pact may pressure Member States to consider EU views on their reform policies. As the economic sustainability and stability of Member States increasingly depend on rising pension and health care expenditure, there will be stronger EU economic pressures on national social policy planning, though at present different EU bodies deal separately with the economic and social fields. In sum, The Europeanisation of social protection is also a useful book for decision makers, social actors and academics concerned by the current economic and social challenges facing Europe.

A democratic deficit -one of the EU's strengths? The German Constitutional Court's judgment on the Lisbon Treaty

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Towards institutionalising urban time policy

Urban time policies have to be regarded and embarked upon as a democratic and cross-sectional process. For such policies to become institutionalised requires citizens forums, model experiments and surveys within the community as well as interdisciplinary cooperation between the various branches of the local authority administration. The trend towards a disappearance of the cities poses new problems. It leads to a decentering of the cities: decentralisation (into smaller parts of the cities, neighbourhoods), but also supra-city connections (territorial networks). It leads also, due to the increasing number of immigrants, tourists, commuters, and city users, in the direction of a split between a citys citizens and its population. The author suggests some ways of coping with these new challenges.