The literature on corporatism sees exogenous threats as opportunities for establishing interclass alliances. This article asks if this has been the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at whether social dialogue practices and functions have changed in the three largest EU countries compared with the ‘crisis corporatism’ and ‘austerity corporatism’ that accompanied the Great Financial Crisis of 2008–2009 and the eurozone crisis of 2010–2012. It concludes that continuity prevails in terms of the forms and limitations of concerted solutions, which remain country-specific. However, a crisis focused on health issues has entailed a shift in the agenda from labour costs to production issues, providing trade unions with discursive resources opening up opportunities to move from the concession bargaining of previous decades to more assertive roles.
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