This study uses data from a continuous employee web-survey to investigate the trade-off between wage and workforce adjustments and the role of industrial relations in firm-level responses to the economic crisis in Germany and the Netherlands. Workforce adjustments seemed to be a continuous organizational strategy, but wage adjustments were less often reported. We found no large-scale evidence of wage concessions being traded-off for job protection in the two countries. Collective bargaining ensured that wage-setting was more robust than employment protection: employees covered by collective agreements reported workforce adjustments more often than wage adjustments. Low-educated and low-wage employees reported basic wage reductions more often: the economic crisis increased wage inequality. Labour hoarding was reported predominantly by young, male employees with a permanent, full-time contract.

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The 2011 ETUC Congress in Athens adopted a proposal by two Spanish trade union confederations that called on the ETUC to examine the possibility of undertaking coordinated European strikes, including a European general strike. These strikes never materialized and the ETUC's European Day of Action on 14 November 2012 was less a powerful expression of panEuropean solidarity than a reflection of precisely the social division that it was mounted to combat. This article explores some major determinants of solidarity. It then identifies major constraints on building international solidarity. This is followed by a brief outline of the preconditions of collective action. The transnational campaign of dockworkers against the so-called Port Packages in 2003 and 2006 and the mobilization against the Bolkestein Directive in 2006 are chosen as examples of successful transnational action that illustrate both the challenges met by unions and the factors that favour success. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the more difficult conditions and prospects for transnational action against the current European austerity measures. Ré suméLe congrès 2011 de la CES à Athènes a adopté une proposition présentée par deux confédérations syndicales espagnoles appelant la CES à étudier la possibilité d'entreprendre des grèves européennes coordonnées, y compris une grève générale européenne. Ces grèves ne se sont jamais concrétisées et la journée européenne d'action de la CES le 14 novembre 2012 était moins l'expression puissante d'une solidarité paneuropéenne que le reflet de la division sociale qu'une telle journée était préc-isément supposée combattre. L'article examine certains déterminants majeurs de la solidarité. Il identifie également trois contraintes majeures pesant sur la solidarité internationale. Il présente ensuite un bref aperçu des déterminants de l'action collective. La campagne transnationale des dockers contre ce que l'on a appelé les « paquets portuaires » en 2003 et 2006 et la mobilisation contre la directive Bolkestein en 2006 sont prises comme exemple d'actions

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