Trade unions in crisis - a European renaissance ?

Abstract

Do the national trade unions have a European future? Observers and protagonists concur in identifying three decisive obstacles on the road to Europeanisation of the trade union movement. Established positions in the national arenas are showing cracks; the structures for supranational action fall short of requirements; the convergence required for harmonisation of national systems is barely perceptible. However, the attempt to think through the question of Europeanisation of the trade unions would not be complete if it failed to incorporate an additional area of data concerned with the internal springs of trade union action. How do the trade unions gain their status as actors on the national and European stage? From where do they derive their capacity for action and adaptation? The article focuses upon the "representative capacity" of the trade unions and shows that their strategic capacity is tied up with the requirement that they be representative of their membership. While representativeness remains a perennial objective of which the trade unions cannot afford to lose sight, it flows into different and deeply ingrained channels in different countries. It is also important to stress the dialectical nature of the construction of representative capacity. The conquest of representativeness depends perhaps less on the determination to reconcile the different and sometimes contradictory interests expressed by workers than on the trade unions' capacity to forge and confirm new collective identities.