Managing membership decline in an hostile environment: The case of the print union in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary

This article examines printing trade unions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Since 1990 they have been under major pressure from financial difficulties resulting from a dramatic fall in membership. This, in turn, stemmed from the hostile environment of privatization, corporate mergers and acquisitions, technological change and anti-trade union policies on the part of some employers. To reduce costs and ensure institutional survival, and potentially revival, the leaderships of the three unions have implemented strategies to redefine union objectives, the means of their achievement and the procedures of union democracy. Modernization is, however, constrained by their unions' decision-making structures, cultures, resources and their own ideologies

Contesting the development of European Works Councils in the chemicals sector

International audienceThe Directive on European Works Councils (EWCs) introduced areas in which management and employee representatives could contest the development of the institution. This article reviews the outcome of this contestation within the chemicals sector, examining the agenda, the ‘Europeanization' of representatives, company transparency and integration of EWCs into wider industrial relations networks. It shows that neither the expectations of critics of the Directive nor of those who emphasized its potential have been realized