In recent years European trade unions have launched various initiatives for closer European coordination of collective bargaining, in order to prevent downward competition on wages and working conditions within the new macroeconomic framework of European Monetary Union (EMU). This article gives an overview of strategies and experiences to date within the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF). The main focus of the analysis is on the attempt to establish interregional cross-border collective bargaining networks between national or regional organizations of EMF affiliates. The article concludes that this new structure has the potential to create a new institutional and political basis for a `Europeanization' of day-to-day collective bargaining at local level.

This article compares trade union strategies towards migrant workers from the ‘new Europe’. The analysis focuses on three sectors in the UK, Norway and Germany. We conclude that trade union responses to these migrant workers are shaped by the complex interplay of national industrial relations systems, sectoral dynamics, EU regulation and the agency of individual trade unions.

The notion of Social Europe is usually taken to entail the payment of fair wages, defined as at least a minimum sufficient for a decent standard of living. In all European countries there is some regulation of minimum wages, either by law or by collective agreements. However, the value of minimum wages in Europe differs significantly both in absolute level and relative to average or median national wages. Moreover, some national systems of wage regulation have proved ineffectual in preventing the growth of employment paying below the minimum. Against this background there is an ongoing debate on the possibility and desirability of a European minimum wage policy. This article gives an overview of national minimum wage regulation and discusses the opportunity for and resistance to the introduction of a coordinated minimum wage policy at European level.

This article argues that liberalisation and privatisation of public services in Europe have had a significant impact on employment and working conditions. Our basic hypothesis is that companies affected by growing competitive pressures increase efforts to reduce labour costs. The consequences are, on the one hand, the reduction of public sector employment and, on the other, a transformation of the traditional public sector labour relations regime (LRR). While employees were previously treated as a relatively homogenous workforce, liberalisation and privatisation have fuelled divisions, fragmentation and individualisation. In some sectors and countries this has led not only to a substantial deterioration of employment and working conditions but also to the emergence of a two-tier workforce. From this perspective liberalisation and privatisation represent a considerable threat to workers and therefore the trade unions, which have at their disposal a number of strategies to respond to the new challenges, including fighting privatisation, demanding strong sector-wide regulations and campaigning to strengthen the public sector.

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