All roads lead to decentralization? Collective bargaining trends and prospects in Central and Eastern Europe

Bernaciak, Magdalena

doi:10.1177/1024258915585947

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As a consequence, by the end of the decade the institutions of collective bargaining resemble a devastated landscape. The most spectacular negative developments have been the rapid demise of social partnership institutions in Romania, and their gradual but steady erosion in Slovenia and Hungary (Trif, 2013; Stanojevic and Klaric, 2013; Bernaciak, 2015). The driving forces of backsliding differed in the three cases.…”

Section: Industrial Democracy: Hollowing and Backslidingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All three developments contributed to a decline in the diversity of Central and Eastern European industrial relations systems, giving way to decentralization and fragmentation in the majority of cases. The remaining instances of collective bargaining tend to share a defensive character in that the dominant deal appears to be keeping core workers in employment at the price of wage freezes or cuts and worsening work conditions, while the precariat must face the threat of lay-off (Bernaciak, 2015).…”

Section: Industrial Democracy: Hollowing and Backslidingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ten years of enlargement and the forces of labour in Central and Eastern Europe

Greskovits

2015

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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This article introduces the individual contributions to this issue, which takes stock of the results of the first decade of eastern enlargement of the EU. Combining the insights of the study of industrial relations and social movement theory, the analysis focuses on what Central and Eastern European trade unions have done to benefit from new opportunities and mitigate new risks in good times and bad. The article proposes that while during the first decade after enlargement the hollowing and backsliding of industrial democracy made it difficult for organized workers to make their voices heard via collective bargaining, there have been tectonic shifts in labour’s typical voices of discontent. Aggrieved employees have protested less through strikes at the workplace in their capacity as workers empowered by labour’s collective rights and in alliance with fellow workers. Instead, the repertoire of contention has been dominated by demonstrations in the public space by public sector employees, who have relied on their citizenship rights shared with fellow citizens and have sought the support of civil society organizations.

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Section: Industrial Democracy: Hollowing and Backslidingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Industrial Democracy: Hollowing and Backslidingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten years of enlargement and the forces of labour in Central and Eastern Europe

Greskovits

2015

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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“…While such episodes of contention rarely lead to larger-scale union mobilisation, they still call for a more nuanced analysis of labour strength and signal that local and plant levels are a crucial arena for labour agency. The ongoing decentralisation and hollowing out of industrial relations institutions make plant bargaining even more important in determining employment relations and working conditions (Adăscăliţei and Guga, 2017; Bernaciak, 2015; Bohle and Greskovits, 2006; Drahokoupil et al, 2015; Glassner, 2013; Meardi, 2002; Varga, 2013). By focusing primarily on labour weakness at national level, indeed, we conflate workers and trade unions and risk inferring a generalised workers’ acquiescence from unions’ marginality at the national level.…”

Section: Post-socialist Labour: Between National Weakness and Local Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-socialist labour and the dual logic of collective action: workers’ unrest and trade union strategy in Fiat Automobiles Serbia

Bagnardi

Petrović

2019

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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In this article we examine the episode of labour discontent that occurred at the Fiat-Chrysler assembly plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, in the summer of 2017. The article traces the process through which the two main trade unions organised and channelled labour unrest at the plant level. Drawing on Offe and Wiesenthal’s conceptualisation of workers’ collective action dilemma, the case highlights the trade-off between on the one hand the need for institutional legitimation and on the other hand responsiveness to workers’ demands. We attempt to show that unions still have space in which to represent workers’ interests effectively when disputes emerge, regardless of unfavourable structural constraints and legacies. The article shows that not even traditionally non-conflictual and legacy unions can be fully sheltered from democratic pressures from workers and competitor organisations. Therefore, the ability to mediate between democratic and bureaucratic logics of action and legitimation remains crucial for any union and determines unions’ ability to represent effectively the interests of labour.

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“…While in Western Europe manufacturing industries have historically provided fertile grounds for the rise of industrial unions and employers' associations that would support centralized and/or coordinated collective bargaining (Thelen, ), the FDI‐led reindustrialization of CEE economies did not stimulate the development of similar organized interests and did not stop trade union density from declining dramatically in the 2000s. With “corporatist” Slovenia constituting an exception, collective bargaining—that can be instrumental in the expansion of OPs—is largely decentralized and uncoordinated in the “neo‐liberal” Baltic and south‐eastern European states and in the “embedded neoliberal” Visegràd countries (Bernaciak, ; Bohle & Greskovits, ).…”

Section: Organized Interests and The Political Economy Of Pension Primentioning

confidence: 99%

When finance captures labor's capital: Dominant personal pensions, resurgent occupational provision in Central and Eastern Europe

Naczyk

2018

Soc Policy Adm

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While in Western Europe occupational plans dominate private pension provision, coverage of such plans is marginal in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Previous literature has shown the World Bank's instrumental role in persuading CEE countries to divert part of their social security contributions towards mandatory personal pensions. The dominance of the Bank's model of pension privatization from the mid‐1990s largely explains the marginalization of occupational plans. However, as this model has been challenged since the late 2000s, occupational pensions (OPs) have re‐appeared on the agenda. To shed light on the changing politics of OPs, this article focuses on the role of organized interests—namely employers' associations, trade unions, and financial groups—that are key players in Western Europe, but whose role has been understudied in CEE. The article follows these actors' activities in the last three decades of pension politics in Poland, i.e., one of the few CEE countries to have promoted occupational provision. It shows that, although organized interests had limited policy expertise and mainly mobilized social consent for—or opposition to—reform in the early phases of post‐communist pension reform, the growing organizational resources of business groups—in contrast with unions—make them increasingly influential actors in reshaping the contours of CEE private pension provision.

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All roads lead to decentralization? Collective bargaining trends and prospects in Central and Eastern Europe

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Ten years of enlargement and the forces of labour in Central and Eastern Europe

Ten years of enlargement and the forces of labour in Central and Eastern Europe

Post-socialist labour and the dual logic of collective action: workers’ unrest and trade union strategy in Fiat Automobiles Serbia

When finance captures labor's capital: Dominant personal pensions, resurgent occupational provision in Central and Eastern Europe

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