THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL: GERMANY AND SWEDEN

1
(No Transcript)
2
EUROPEAN TRADE UNIONS AND PRECARIOUS WORKERS
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormickand Richard Hyman
3
OVERVIEW

• background 10-country project
• varieties of atypical and precarious
  employment
• trade unions challenges and responses
• concluding remarks

4
(No Transcript)
5
BACKGROUND 10-COUNTRY PROJECT

• 3-year grant from Danish Social Science Research
  Council
• 10 west European countries, 4 varieties of
  capitalism
• focus on trade union strategic responses to
  globalisation and other challenges
• major theme emerging from interviews decline of
  normal worker with permanent full-time
  employment contract

6
(No Transcript)
7
VARIETIES OF ATYPICAL AND PRECARIOUS
EMPLOYMENT

• part-time
• precarious ??
• temporary
• but what is permanent ?
• agency (TAW)
• subcontracting / outsourcing
• dependent self-employment
• EU enlargement avoids transitional restrictions
• posted workers
• enlargement and ECJ rulings
• cross-national variation in regulation and
  deregulation
• employer strategic choice

8
(No Transcript)
9
TRADE UNIONS CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

• threat and/or opportunity ?
• social dumping and divide-and-rule
• almost universally low unionisation rate
• UK permanent 28, temporary 17
• women F-T 33, P-T 24 (men 27 / 13)
• why ? workers, unions, or both ?
• key strategic choice resist or include ?
• recruitment, representation, mobilisation
• but will industrial model work ?
• campaigns and alliances
• political pressure for regulation
• EU and global dimension

10
(No Transcript)
11
CONCLUDING REMARKS

• complex picture variations across contract types
  and countries
• parallels / interaction with age, gender,
  ethnicity
• union responses resist, control, include
• insider / outsider conflicts ?
• organising will, capacity and resource
  allocation
• tensions and constraints in organising model
• but some success stories !

12
(No Transcript)