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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine European Union (EU) industrial relations in their development over time. It describes and analyzes their main constituent parts, which are deployed along four interlinked institutional dimensions: tripartite concertation; cross-industry social dialogue; sectoral social dialogue; and employee representation and negotiation at the transnational company level. The focus lies strictly on the emerging EU layer of industrial relations, which is common to the different Member States and not on comparative European industrial relations. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual in nature. It considers the differences and mutually interdependent legal and political processes, policies and institutions between EU industrial relations and national industrial relations. Findings The findings substantiate that EU industrial relations constitute an incomplete but perfectly traceable transnational reality distinct from industrial relations in the Member States. EU industrial relations are not to supersede but to supplement national industrial relations. Neither the EU institutional framework nor the European social partners have the mandate, legitimation or desire to perform a more ambitious role. Research limitations/implications More empirically oriented research would further support the findings in the paper. Originality/value The paper presents a conceptual review based on a comprehensive and critical reading of the literature on EU industrial relations. It also puts labor strategies at the forefront of the analysis in corporate relocation.

In large, highly internationalized companies, local sites of production have to contribute to the competitiveness of the corporation while decision-making is directed ever further away from their influence. The article examines how inter-plant competition, called management whipsawing, has changed at the transnational steel company ArcelorMittal over twelve years. We take an explicitly Gramscian perspective, as we study the role of coercion and consent in the staging of inter-plant competition. We base our analysis on forty-five qualitative interviews with company managers and employee representatives in Spain, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, carried out in two phases, from 2004 to 2006 and 2014 to 2016. We aim to understand how management can integrate central arenas for employee involvement into their strategies with regard to inter-plant competition. A central finding of our longitudinal case study is that the European Works Council (EWC) is essential in the construction of employee consent to labour competition.

El artículo examina la dimensión europea de relaciones laborales. Se reconstruye el proceso político iniciado en la década de los 1950 por las autoridades públicas comunitarias y las organizaciones representativas del empresariado y del trabajo, que ha dado lugar al actual entramado institucional de las relaciones laborales europeas. El artículo utiliza los principales enfoques teóricos de Economía Política sobre europeización con el objeto de revisar los efectos convergentes, de coordinación multi-nivel o disruptivos de las relaciones laborales europeas sobre los sistemas nacionales de relaciones laborales. Se describe la coherencia, funcionalidad e interconexión de las principales piezas institucionales de las relaciones laborales europeas: concertación tripartita; diálogo social interprofesional; diálogo social sectorial; y representación laboral en empresas de dimensión comunitaria. Las conclusiones del artículo sustancian que las relaciones laborales europeas constituyen un estrato de regulación incompleto, que ofrece resultados complejos de armonización de las condiciones de trabajo y empleo en Europa.

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