This article applies sociological neo-institutionalism to help understand transnational trade union wage policy. We review existing approaches to the role of trade unions as organizational actors in wage bargaining coordination and contrast these with the concepts of organizational fields and institutional work. Besides structural and associational power, transnational institutions are also able to increase the ability and willingness of unions to act transnationally. We draw empirical evidences from existing studies on European wage bargaining coordination in metalworking.
AlesEDufresneA (2012) Transnational collective bargaining: Another (problematic) fragment of the European multi-level industrial relations system. European Journal of Industrial Relations18(2): 95–105.
2.
AltvaterEMahnkopfB (1996) Grenzen der Globalisierung: Ökonomie, Ökologie und Politik in der Weltgesellschaft. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.
3.
AndersenSK (2006) Nordic metal trade unions on the move: Responses to globalization and Europeanization. European Journal of Industrial Relations12(1): 29–47.
4.
AnnerMGreerIHauptmeierMLillieNWinchesterN (2006) The industrial determinants of transnational solidarity: Global interunion politics in three sectors. European Journal of Industrial Relations12(1): 7–27.
5.
BeckertJ (1999) Agency, entrepreneurs and institutional change: The role of strategic choice and institutionalized practices in organisations. Organisation Studies20: 777–799.
6.
BrinkmannUChoiH-LDetjeRDörreKHolstHKarakayaliSSchmalenstiegC (2008) Strategic Unionism – Aus der Krise zur Erneuerung der Gewerkschaften. Umrisse eines Forschungsprogramms. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
7.
BrintSKarabelJ (1991) Institutional origins and transformations: The case of American community colleges. In: PowellWDiMaggioP (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 337–360.
8.
CleggHA (1976) Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining. Oxford: Blackwell.
9.
DiMaggioP (1988) Interest and agency in institutional theory. In: ZuckerL (ed.) Institutional Patterns and Organizations. Culture and Environment. Cambridge: Ballinger, pp. 3–22.
10.
DiMaggioPPowellW (1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review48(2): 147–160.
11.
DunlopJT (1958) Industrial Relations Systems. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
12.
EbbinghausB (2006) Qualitativer oder quantitativer Vergleich? Herausforderungen für die sozialwissenschaftliche Europaforschung. Zeitschrift für Staats- und Europawissenschaften4(3): 388–404.
13.
ErneR (2008) European Unions. Labor’s Quest for a Transnational Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
14.
EMF (1993) Collective Bargaining Policy in a Changing Europe. Statement of principle on Collective Bargaining, adopted at the 1st EMF Collective Bargaining Conference, Luxembourg, March.
15.
European Commission (2009) Industrial Relations in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
16.
FernerAHymanR (eds) (1998) Changing Industrial Relations in Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.
17.
FregeCKellyJ (2003) Introduction: Union revitalization strategies in comparative perspective. European Journal of Industrial Relations9(1): 7–24.
18.
FriedlandRAlfordRR (1991) Bringing society back. Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In: PowellWDiMaggioP (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 232–263.
19.
GajewskaK (2008) The emergence of a European labour protest movement?European Journal of Industrial Relations14(1): 104–121.
20.
GajewskaK (2009) Transnational Labour Solidarity: Mechanisms of Commitment to Cooperation within the European Trade Union Movement. London: Routledge.
21.
GlassnerV (2009) Transnational collective bargaining coordination at the European sector level. International Journal of Labour Research1(2): 114–129.
22.
GollbachJSchultenT (2000) Cross-border collective bargaining networks in Europe. European Journal of Industrial Relations6(2): 161–179.
23.
HaipeterTLehndorffS (2009) Collective bargaining on employment. Working Paper 3, Industrial and Employment Relations Department, ILO, Geneva.
24.
HeidenreichMDelheyJLahusenCGerhardsJMauSMünchRPernickaS (2012) Europäische Vergesellschaftungsprozesse: Horizontale Europäisierung zwischen nationalstaatlicher und globaler Vergesellschaftung. DFG Research Unit ‘Horizontal Europeanization’, Oldenburg, Working Paper 1.
25.
HijzenAVennD (2011) The role of short-time work schemes during the 2008–09 recession. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 115, OECD, Paris.
26.
HoffmanJ (1999) Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the US chemical industry. Academy of Management Journal42(4): 351–371.
27.
HoffmannJ (2002) Beyond the myth: ‘International solidarity’ as a challenge to trade unions in the age of globalisation and Europeanisation. In: HoffmannJ (ed.) The Solidarity Dilemma: Globalisation, Europeanisation and the Trade Unions. Brussels: ETUI, pp. 119–144.
28.
HürtgenS (2011) Europäische Interessenvertretung – Eine Frage der nationalen Kultur?Industrielle Beziehungen18(4): 315–335.
29.
HymanR (2002) Where does solidarity end? Eurozine, 17September.
30.
HymanR (2007) How can trade unions act strategically?Transfer13(2): 193–210.
31.
KellerBPlatzerH-W (eds) (2003) Industrial Relations and European Integration: Trans- and Supranational Developments and Prospects. Aldershot: Ashgate.
32.
KellyJ (1998) Rethinking Industrial Relations. Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves. London: Routledge.
33.
KochanTAKatzHCMcKersieRB (1986) The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. New York: Basic Books.
34.
KlemmMKraetschCWeyandJ (2011) Bei ihnen ist das Umfeld völlig anders’. Kulturelle Grundlagen der europäischen betrieblichen Mitbestimmung. Berlin: edition sigma.
35.
LawrenceTBSuddabyR (2006) Institutions and institutional work. In: CleggSStewardCHLawrenceTBNordRW (eds) Handbook of Organization Studies, 2nd.edn. London: SAGE, pp. 215–254.
36.
LawrenceTBSuddabyRLecaB (eds) (2009) Institutional Work. Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organisations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
37.
MarginsonPSissonK (2006) European Integration and Industrial Relations. Multi-level Governance in the Making. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
38.
MarginsonP (2009) The transnational dimension to collective bargaining in a European context. International Journal of Labour Research1(2): 61–74.
39.
MarginsonPMeardiG (2010) Multinational companies: Transforming national industrial relations? In: CollingTTerryM (eds) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 207–230.
40.
MartinARossG (1999) The Brave New World of European Labour: European Trade Unions at the Millenium. New York: Berghahn.
41.
McAdamDTarrowSTillyC (2001) Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42.
MeardiG (2011) Understanding trade union cultures. Industrielle Beziehungen18(4): 336–345.
43.
OlsonM (1965) The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
PasturePVerberckmoesJ (1998) Working-Class Internationalism and the Appeal of National Identity: Historical Debates and Current Perspectives. Oxford: Berg.
45.
SchultenT (1998) Collective bargaining in the metal industry under the condition of the European Monetary Union. In: KauppinenT (ed.) The Impact of EMU on Industrial Relations in European Union. Helsinki: Finnish Labour Association, pp. 207–224.
46.
SchultenT (2003) Europeanization of collective bargaining. In: KellerBPlatzerH-W (eds) Industrial Relations and European Integration: Trans- and Supranational Developments and Prospects. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 112–136.
47.
ScottWR (2008) Institutions and Organizations: Ideas and Interests, 3rd edn.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
48.
SilverB (2003) Forces of Labour. Workers’ Movements and Globalisation since 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
49.
StreeckW (1998) The internationalization of industrial relations in Europe: Prospects and problems. Politics and Society26(4): 429–459.
50.
StreeckWSchmitterP (1991) From national corporatism to transnational pluralism. Organized interests in the single European market. Politics and Society19: 133–164.
51.
Sznajder LeeATrappmannV (2014) Overcoming post-communist labour weakness: Attritional and enabling effects of multinationals in Central and Eastern Europe. European Journal of Industrial Relations19(2).
52.
TraxlerFBrandlB (2009) Towards Europeanization of wage policy: Germany and the Nordic countries. European Union Politics10(2): 177–201.
53.
TraxlerFBlaschkeSKittelB (2001) National Labour Relations in Internationalized Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
54.
TraxlerFBrandlBGlassnerV (2008) Pattern bargaining: An investigation into its agency, context and evidence. British Journal of Industrial Relations46(1): 33–58.
55.
TurnerL (1996) The Europeanization of labour: Structure before action. European Journal of Industrial Relations2(3): 325–344.
56.
VisserJEbbinghausB (1992) Making the most of diversity? European integration and transnational organisation of labour. In: GreenwoodJGroteJRRonitK (eds) Organized Interests and the European Community. London: SAGE, pp. 206–237.
57.
VossKShermanR (2000) Breaking the iron law of oligarchy: Union revitalization in the American labor movement. American Journal of Sociology106(2): 303–349.
58.
WattA (2006) The coordination of economic policy in EMU. What contribution can macroeconomic dialogue make to higher growth and employment? In: WattAJanssenR (eds) Delivering the Lisbon Goals: The Role of Macro-economic Policy. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute, pp. 199–229.
