From social conflict to social dialogue: Counter-mobilization on the European waterfront

Abstract

Can trade unions organize internationally and ensure common standards of employment to prevent capital flight, social dumping and an international ‘race-to-the-bottom’? The experience of European dockworkers suggests that trade unions need to frame domestic conflicts in a global context and respond to foreign or international pressures within domestic politics before they can shift the scale of contention from the national to the European level. The campaigns against proposed Port Services Directives demonstrate that if social actors can project their domestic claims vertically onto international institutions and/or foreign actors they can divert the course of EU policy-making. In particular, if they can co-operate with other social actors through horizontal networks across different countries with similar claims, they can use both conflict and dialogue to protect their interests.