Industrial relations issues have recently become critical to the survival of airlines and the structure of the industry in Europe. The author analyses the impact of deregulation and deep economic recession on the traditionally stable industrial relations in European flag-carrier airlines. Moves towards a single European aviation market might imply convergence in industrial relations practices; the article assesses how far this has occurred, and suggests that airline managements across Europe have tended to adopt similar new practices. It is concluded that airlines are, to an extent, converging on HRM techniques in response to common environmental pressures; but industrial relations procedures remain nationally quite distinctive.
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