Foundations and Perspectives of Trade Union Wage Policy in Europe

Considering the degree of political and economic integration in Europe, trade unions can no longer stick to purely national strategies. Since the 1980s the key political projects of European integration have played a major role to force the neoliberal reorganisation of European capitalism (Bieling and Steinhilber 2000). Especially the introduction of the European Monetary Union has turned out to be an important political catalyst, which put the need for a Europeanisation of wage policy and collective bargaining on the trade unions? agenda. A number of trade union initiatives have meanwhile developed, aiming at European coordination of wage policy. The first goal of these initiatives is to lay down a set of shared ground rules and objectives for national wage policy, which are supposed to prevent competitive underbidding of labour costs and wage dumping. Although the majority of these initiatives are still on their initial stages one can already identify several points of contention and impediments to full success, which might obstruct effective collective bargaining coordination. The experience hitherto indicates that it will not be enough to establish collective bargaining coordination as a mere technocratic procedure. The trade unions need an overarching political project instead, which will amount to nothing less than striving for a reconstruction of solidaristic wage policy in Europe. --

Europeanisation of collective bargaining: An overview on trade union initiatives for a transnational coordination of collective bargaining policy

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Trade union responses to precarious employment in Germany

Since the mid-1980s Germany saw a continuing increase of precarious employment which now amounts to about one third of the total labour force. Considering the negative social side-effects of this development, the voices which call for a re-regulation of the labour market have become more prominent in recent years. The study analyses strategic responses of German trade unions to the increase of precarious employment. Hereby, it distinguishes between four different approaches: First, unions can demand and lobby for changes in legislation in order to limit, prevent or even forbid certain forms of precarious employment. Secondly, the unions can conclude collective agreements to improve the conditions of precarious employment and to limit its use at sectoral or company level. Thirdly, union can develop practical help and assistance to precarious workers and recruit them as union members. Finally, the unions can promote their own vision of good work as a counter model against precarious employment.After a general overview on the different union strategies the study presents details in four case-studies of how the unions act in the following areas: - low wages - temporary agency work - dependent self-employed workers - apprentices - The study is part of a European project Bargaining for Social Rights (BARSORI) which is financed by the European Commission (Agreement Ref. VS/2010/0811). -- Seit Mitte der 1980er Jahr hat er Anteil prekärere Beschäftigung in Deutschland kontinuierlich zugenommen und umfasst mittlerweile etwas ein Drittel aller Beschäftigungsverhältnisse. Angesichts der negativen sozialen und ökonomischen Folgen werden die Stimmen immer lauter, die für eine Re-Regulierung des Arbeitsmarktes eintreten.Die Studie analysiert die gewerkschaftlichen Antworten der Gewerkschaften gegenüber der zunehmenden Bedeutung prekärer Beschäftigung: dabei werden vier strategische Ansätze unterschieden: 1. Gesetzliche Änderungen, um bestimmte Formen prekärer Beschäftigung zu verhindern, zu begrenzen oder zu verbieten 2. Tarifverträge zur Begrenzung prekärer Beschäftigung und zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsbedingungen von prekär Beschäftigten 3. Organisierung von prekär Beschäftigten und die Entwicklung praktischer Hilfs- und Unterstützungsangebote 4. Die Entwicklung eines gewerkschaftlichen Leitbildes von Guter Arbeit als Gegenmodell zu prekärer BeschäftigungNach einem allgemeinen Überblick über die verschiedenen gewerkschaftlichen Strategien, enthält das Papier vier Fallstudien in den folgenden Bereichen: - Niedriglöhne - Leiharbeit - Abhängige Selbstständige - Auszubildende - Die Studie ist Teil eines europäischen Projektes Bargaining for Social Rights (BARSORI), das von der Europäischen Kommission finanziert wird (Ref. VS/2010/0811).

Unemployment, Wages and Collective Bargaining in the European Union

The paper questions the predominant view on unemployment and wages in the European Union according to which high unemployment is primarily caused by labour market rigidities, i.e. social institutions and regulations which prevent ?market-clearing? real wage levels and structures. It is shown that the foundations of that view coming either from neo-classical or new-Keynesian theory are not convincing, neither theoretically nor empirically. Analysing the developments in the EU during the last four decades, no strictly inverse relationship between real wage growth and unemployment can be found. On the contrary, persistently high unemployment has had strong adverse effects on nominal wage growth and on the labour income share. Weakened labour union bargaining power and changing collective bargaining strategies have contributed to this result. It is therefore concluded that the current EU economic and employment policies aiming at further wage restraint, wage differentiation and decentralisation of collective bargaining are deeply misguided and have to be replaced by an alternative wage policy in Europe as part of a growth and employment oriented coordination of macroeconomic policies. --European employment policy,wage theory,wage trends,collective bargaining

Alliance for jobs: Is Germany following in the path of competitive corporatism? By Reinhard Bispinck and Thorsten Schulten

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Guter Lohn für gute Rente

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German collective bargaining in a European perspective: Continuous erosion or re-stabilisation of multi-employer agreements?

Since the mid-1990s the German system of collective bargaining with its traditional dominance of sector-level agreements has been faced by a process of creeping erosion. While the bargaining coverage has shown a steady decline, a far-reaching decentralisation has increasingly undermined the system of multi-employer bargaining. Compared with other European countries, the development in Germany seems to be rather ex-ceptional, as many countries were able to continue with a rather stable collective bargaining system and a relatively high bargaining coverage. This holds true also for countries where - as in Germany - the unions were faced by a significant decline of organisational power. The latter indicates that there are other political factors which seem to compensate for the decline of unions' organisational power and keep their institutional power basis relatively stable. In discussing German collective bargaining in a European perspective it is the aim of this paper to identify the factors which support a stable and encompassing collective bargaining system. Our arguments are developed in three steps: First, we describe the recent developments in German collective bargaining and the accompanying changes in the organisational and structural power of German trade unions. Secondly, we compare the German situation with the development in other European countries and analyses the factors which are conducive for a stable bargaining sys-tem. Considering the different experiences in Europe, we thirdly discuss the possibilities for a restabilisation of German collective bargaining. --

Wage trends and deflation risks in Germany and Europe

Based on a post-Keynesian model of the relationship between wages, prices and employment, this paper begins by studying the extent to which unit labour cost trends have been responsible for disinflation and deflationary tendencies in Germany and Europe. Thereafter, the reasons for the deflationary development of unit labour costs in recent years, in particular in Germany, are analysed. Finally, the impact of deflationary wage policies on German and European stagnation are discussed and it is concluded that the excessive wage restraint in Germany not only exacerbates stagnation and deflationary tendencies in Germany but might also have a deflationary impact on the other EMU countries.Wage trends, deflation, collective bargaining

Varieties of decentralisation in German collective bargaining – experiences from metal industry and retail trade. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 137/2017

Germany is well to the fore in terms of collective bargaining decentralisation in Europe (Keune 2011). In the international literature it is often regarded as a standard case of ‘organised’ or ‘controlled decentralisation’, within the framework of which the bargaining parties at sectoral level define the scope for derogations at company level via socalled opening clauses (Visser 2016; OECD 2017). In many European countries German experiences have served as an important reference point for reform of national collective bargaining systems. The international perception of the German variant of decentralisation, however, is often rather one-sided and does not reflect German collective bargaining in all its diversity. There are at least two fundamental problems. First, its development is very much viewed through the lenses of major manufacturing industries, such as chemicals or metalworking, which industrial relations regimes differ very much from those in other sectors, such as private services (Dribbusch et al. 2017). In addition to a general overview of German collective bargaining and its decentralising tendencies, in this chapter we provide two in-depth case studies – one on the metal industry and one on retail trade – which provides a comprehensive picture of the differentiated world of collective bargaining in Germany. Secondly, the concept of ‘organised decentralisation’ often takes too rosy a view and underestimates the level of conflict. As German experiences show clearly, collective bargaining decentralisation is not about a more or less ‘intelligent’ mode of regulation, but about different interests and power relations. It deals with the fundamental conflict between setting up a level playing-field for all companies and recognising the specific interests and circumstances of individual firms. The trend towards decentralisation has fundamentally changed the German collective bargaining system. Organised and non-organised forms of decentralisation exist side by side, together with an overall trend toward the erosion of collective bargaining in some parts of the economy. While decentralisation often goes together with a shift in power from labour to capital, it sometimes creates new opportunities for revitalising union power