Trade Unions in the Course of European Integration

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

Introduction to the Topic and the State of Research

2.1 International trade-union cooperation

2.2 Trade unions and European integration

2.3 European collective bargaining as a challenge and indicator of trade-union position formation

2.4 "Social Europe" as a concept and project

2.5 Assessing the potential of European trade unions: Optimists and skeptics

2.5.1 On the state of optimistic trade-union research

2.5.2 The pessimistic position

2.6 Summary and question: How did the common positions come about?

Chapter 3

Political Fields and the Framework for Their Conceptual Study

3.1 The freedom to provide services and the posting of workers

3.2 European minimum wage

3.3 Wage coordination

3.4 Three fields, three puzzles

3.5 Methodological operationalization and data acquisition

Chapter 4

Theoretical Approach

4.1 Justification of the action theoretical approach

4.2 Trade-union policy in the multilevel system of the EU from a Pragmatist perspective

4.3 From rational systems to discrepancy between talk and action

in organizations

4.4 Socialization in the multilevel system of the EU

4.5 "Imagining Social Europe": shared visions for the future as political frames of reference

4.6 International position formation among European trade unions: a synthetic approach

Chapter 5

European Collective Bargaining: Empirical Findings from the Core Areas

5.1 Profiles of the countries and trade-union organizations studied

5.2 The freedom to provide services and worker posting

5.2.1 The discussion surrounding the freedom to provide services

5.2.2 The discussion surrounding the Enforcement Directive

5.3 The discussion surrounding the European minimum wage

5.4 Wage coordination

5.5 Comparative summary of the findings

Chapter 6

Summary: The Social Construction of Organized Interests in the EU

Appendix:

A Interview partners

B Nominal unit labor-cost devdevelopment in the Eurozone