Perspective: The mirage of Europeanising industrial relations. What possibilities for East-West trade union cooperation?

Abstract

This article outlines possibilities for deepening relationships between trade unions from the so-called old EU Member States and those from Central and Eastern Europe. We set out the possibilities for what we describe as enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation. By this we mean multilateral rather than bilateral cooperation that is deep enough to include the joint definition of goals and strategies, and willingness to build a transnational dimension to industrial relations, including, ultimately, conducting collective bargaining on some topics. A critical analysis of the so-called Europeanisation of industrial relations is the background to our discussion. We find the participation of trade unions in this process to be limited to responses to external impulses which results in the degree of enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation in areas of core trade union activity being low. We present the thesis that in-depth cooperation may be possible in relation to new challenges for the world of work, where the transnational dimension is of key importance and where trade unions are less bound by their own national traditions and industrial relations practices.