The Evolution of Collective Bargaining and its Actors in Six European Countries

How has the status and practice of collective bargaining evolved since the end of the 1970s? What changes are noticeable in the behaviour of actors? The six countries included in this study - Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden - have original industrial relations systems. Economic and social disruption is driving changes, at the same time that Europe is under construction. The difficulties arising from the prolonged economic crisis neither deconstructs these systems, nor eliminates their diversity. The actors are adaptable and play on a historically based social acceptance to maintain their influence. They invest in new areas and new spaces for exchange (European Works Councils, social pacts). Indeed, in an apparently rational and effective response to the crisis, collective bargaining sees its status somewhat enhanced and its remit intensified - in the Continental European countries. Great Britain is the exception; the head-on challenge to the collective bargaining system and union power is in contrast to the common trend in the other countries. Progressively, collective bargaining is regarded as being at the core of industrial relations; collective actors identify with their role as negotiators. The dissolution of old alliances between unions and parties has started a movement which is little discussed; the depoliticization of the union project and a recentring within the industrial relations space. With the 21(st) century, contradictions emerge. The actors, both employer and union, lose their power of representation and integrative capacity. Negotiating systems lose their effectiveness; states bypass them as well as their actors in order to bring about social changes. More than a system crisis, we are dealing with a crisis of actors. For the unions, it raises the question of revitalizing their ties with their members, through such means as building new alliances.