39 research outputs found
Trade unions and the politics of the European social model
There is a consensus among European trade unions that economic integration should be complemented by a strong âsocial dimensionâ. What is far less clearly agreed is what âSocial Europeâ means, and how it should be defended against the challenges inherent in a neoliberal approach to economic integration, the dominant logic of âcompetitivenessâ, and the pressures for âmodernizationâ of social welfare. Unionsâ ability to resist these challenges is weakened by their integration into an elitist system of EU governance in which mobilization and contention are inhibited. The article concludes that a new mode of trade union action is required if the âsocial modelâ is to be sustained