Transfer stimulates dialogue between the European trade union movement and the academic and research community. It contributes research findings on issues of strategic relevance for trade unions, in particular with regard to developments at the European level. Transferpublishes original peer-reviewed research on issues such as new developments in industrial relations, social policy, and labour market developments.
Volume 19 Issue 2, May 2013
The current global economic and financial crisis that hit Europe in autumn 2008 and is currently bringing the euro area to the brink of collapse affected industrial relations in EU Member States in different ways. While in central western and northern Europe trade unions, employer organizations and the state played a crucial role in drafting and implementing measures to maintain and promote employment during the recession via collective bargaining and social dialogue, social partners in the central and eastern European (CEE) EU Member States (hereafter EU-10) were less able to mitigate the negative social consequences of the crisis. Thus, while in a number of western European countries the crisis resulted in a strengthening of collective bargaining and social partnership, in most of the EU-10 industrial relations – already decentralized, disorganized and fragmented – were further weakened.