The Brave New World of European Labor

by Martin, Andrew; Ross, George; Bacaaro, Lucio; Daley, Anthony; Fraile, Lydia; Howell, Chris; Locke, Richard M.

• ISBN13: 9781571811684
• ISBN10: 1571811680
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

European union movements played a central role in promoting a "European model of society" -- a humane industrial relations system, high labor standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation -- which reached its pinnacle in the post-World Was II era. The recent shift to lower growth, rising unemployment, renewed European integration, neo-liberalism, and globalization has challenged this "European Model" and the unions' place in it. These essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, examine responses of six major European union movements to the dramatic changes in economic and political conditions in the last two decades. They are the result of a group research effort and are based on a common framework which lends it quite an exceptional coherence. Its value is enhanced by the editors' conclusion that reflects upon new union positions and their implications, in particular the most important question of what will happen to the 'European model of society' in consequence.

Author Biography

George Ross is Morris Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought at Brandeis University and Executive Director of the European Union Center at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Andrew Martin is a Research Affiliate of the Harvard Center for European Studies and currently Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vi
Preface	vii
List of Abbreviations	x
European Unions Face the Millennium	1	(25)
George Ross
Andrew Martin
Unforgiven: British Trade Unionism in Crisis	26	(49)
Chris Howell
Every Which Way But Loose: German Industrial Relations Since 1980	75	(50)
Stephen J. Silvia
``Yesterday's Modern Times Are No Longer Modern'': Swedish Unions Confront the Double Shift	125	(42)
Rianne Mahon
The Hollowing Out of French Unions: Politics and Industrial Relations After 1981	167	(50)
Anthony Daley
The Resurgence of Italian Unions?	217	(52)
Richard M. Locke
Lucio Baccaro
Tightrope: Spanish Unions and Labor Market Segmentation	269	(43)
Lydia Fraile
In the Line of Fire: The Europeanization of Labor Representation	312	(56)
Andrew Martin
George Ross
Through a Glass Darkly	368	(32)
George Ross
Andrew Martin
Index	400