Opportunities and Traps for Trade Unions in European Employment Policy Initiatives
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Guglielmo Meardi
Guglielmo Meardi is Professor of Economic Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy, as well as the Editor of theEuropean Journal of Industrial Relations .Luigi Burroni is Professor of Economic Sociology and Comparative Political Economy at the University of Florence. His research interests concern regional development, varieties of capitalism and public policies for innovationMaarten Keune is Professor of Social Security and Labour Relations at AIAS-HSI, University of Amsterdam. His research interests concern work, labour relations and social policy, especially in the EU.Andrea Bellini is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Economic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. His research interests include trade union strategies and practices.Manuela Galetto is Associate Professor of Employment Relations at the Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick. Her research focuses on European Sectoral Social Dialogue and on gender equality.Anna Mori is Assistant Professor in Economic Sociology at the University of Milan. Her research interests include self-employment as well as employment relations in the public sector.Noëlle Payton is Policy Advisor Education and Labour Market at the Foundation for Cooperation on Vocational Education, Training and Labour Market, the Netherlands.Gemma Scalise is Assistant Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. Her research interests include welfare and labour market regulation and the role of ideas in policy development.
Abstract
After some promise in the 1990s, European unions have grown increasingly disillusioned with regard to the results of EU social policy and EU social dialogue. The paper analyses the extent and reasons of this disillusion by looking at the impact on social dialogue of the Active Inclusion Recommendation launched by the European Commission at the outset of the economic crisis in 2008. The Recommendation led to a tripartite framework agreement at the EU level in 2010 (the only such agreement in a decade), which was then to be implemented at national and regional levels. With a multilevel governance approach, the paper looks at the extent to which social dialogue on Active Inclusion at the EU level, in six EU countries (France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) and six regions (Rhône-Alpes, Lombardy, Lower Silesia, Catalonia, West Sweden and Greater Manchester) within those countries was somehow revitalised. The analysis, looking at both top-down and bottom-up processes and based on documentary analysis and interviews, shows that the initiative displays ambiguities similar to those of typical composite EU principles, such as famously the case of ‘flexicurity’. The multilevel governance of the EU, including the interaction between ‘soft’ employment policies and evolving ‘hard’ Eurogovernance tools, and with poor horizontal and vertical coordination, resulted in multiple distortions of the principle and, over time, to frustration. Unions’ engagement varies by level, country and region, reflecting both traditional national approaches and the local perception of ‘active inclusion’ as an opportunity. Although trade unions were more welcoming of ‘active inclusion’ than they had been for flexicurity, similar related threats and opportunities led to modest achievements and a gradual fading of the idea at the European and national levels, with some more opportunities however at the regional level. The paper concludes that, if trade unions want to engage with the idea of a European Social Model and with Eurogovernance, they could develop stronger networks among regional organisations.
About the authors
Guglielmo Meardi is Professor of Economic Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy, as well as the Editor of the European Journal of Industrial Relations.
Luigi Burroni is Professor of Economic Sociology and Comparative Political Economy at the University of Florence. His research interests concern regional development, varieties of capitalism and public policies for innovation
Maarten Keune is Professor of Social Security and Labour Relations at AIAS-HSI, University of Amsterdam. His research interests concern work, labour relations and social policy, especially in the EU.
Andrea Bellini is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Economic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. His research interests include trade union strategies and practices.
Manuela Galetto is Associate Professor of Employment Relations at the Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick. Her research focuses on European Sectoral Social Dialogue and on gender equality.
Anna Mori is Assistant Professor in Economic Sociology at the University of Milan. Her research interests include self-employment as well as employment relations in the public sector.
Noëlle Payton is Policy Advisor Education and Labour Market at the Foundation for Cooperation on Vocational Education, Training and Labour Market, the Netherlands.
Gemma Scalise is Assistant Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. Her research interests include welfare and labour market regulation and the role of ideas in policy development.
Acknowledgments
The research was funded by a grant (DGVS/2014/0546) from the Directorate-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission (AIRMULP project) and benefited from important contributions from Antonio Martin, Oscar Molina and Alejandro Godino of Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Editorial: Trade Unions and Social Policy in the Process of European Integration
- Opportunities and Traps for Trade Unions in European Employment Policy Initiatives
- Defending institutional power? Unions’ positions towards the extension of collective agreements in Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands
- From ‘Protecting Indigenous Workers’ towards Protecting Labour Standards?
- Competitive Europeanisation, Transnational Production and a Multiscalar Perspective on Social Policy in Europe
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Editorial: Trade Unions and Social Policy in the Process of European Integration
- Opportunities and Traps for Trade Unions in European Employment Policy Initiatives
- Defending institutional power? Unions’ positions towards the extension of collective agreements in Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands
- From ‘Protecting Indigenous Workers’ towards Protecting Labour Standards?
- Competitive Europeanisation, Transnational Production and a Multiscalar Perspective on Social Policy in Europe
