Description

Liberalisation of public services has been one of the major elements in the broader global process commonly known as globalisation. In Europe it has been driven forward not least by the European Union's market-opening agenda. Unions - for whom public services have increasingly become one of their most important membership sources - have reacted in different ways. Some have sought to manage the process, others have attempted to block it. The articles consider various aspects of this complex and heterogeneous process at both national and European level, focussing on the challenges it poses to workers and their unions, illustrating some of the ways in which unions have attempted to come to terms with it.

Coordinators

Table of contents

Editorial

Main articles

• Otto Jacobi and Wolfgang Kowalsky: Regulated and controlled liberalisation: a means to reconcile market efficiency and social cohesion?
• David Hall: EU competition policies and public services
• Pervenche Berès: What is the future for public service in the Community model?
• Wolfgang Kowalski: The ETUC policy on Services of General Interest (SGI)
• Dexter Whitfield: Impact of privatisation and commercialisation on municipal services in the UK
• Klaus-Dieter Streb: Risks and opportunities of energy-market liberalisation fora regional energy supply company
• Jerrold Oppenheim and Theo MacGregor: Democratic control of public enterprise in the United States: a history of regulation and liberalisation in the electricity sector
• Brendan Martin: Resistance to privatisation - social dialogue, US-style

News and background

• European Commission view on liberalisation of network industries
• CEEP-ETUC proposal for the structure of a framework directive establishing a legal framework for services of general interest in the European Union
  (Wolfgang Kowalsky)
• Commission evaluation of services of general economic interest
• ICFTU launches campaign to reveal the true face of 'modern' Korea
  (Duncan Pruett, James Lorenz)

Book reviews

• Review of recent publications on the topic of 'Liberalisation of the public sector'
  (Sanjiv Sachdev)
• Review of three recent publications on the topic of 'Liberalisation of the public sector'
  (Otto Jacobi)
• Review of recent German-language publications on the topic of 'Liberalisation of the public sector'
  (Otto Jacobi)
• Jordi Gual and Joan E. Ricart (eds)
  Strategy, organisation and the changing nature of work
  (Amparo Serrano Pascual)
• Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (eds.)
  Varieties of capitalism - the institutional foundations of comparative advantages
  (Jürgen Hoffmann)
• Ministry of Labour and Solidarity
  Portugal 1995-2000. Perspectivas da evolução social
  (Maria Luisa Cristovam)

Reports

• 'The European employment strategy after five years', joint ETUI, SALTSA and HBS Seminar, 13 May, 2002, Brussels
  (David Foden)
• Journées de l'Association française de Science économique, Economie des Ressources Humaines, 16-17 May 2002, Lyons
  (Emmanuel Mermet)
• Third international congress of the Work & Labour Network 'Labour, globalisation and the new economy', 22-25 May 2002, Osnabrück
  (György Széll)
• ETUC seminar 'European works councils and mergers', 27-28 May 2002,Brussels
  (Isabelle Schömann)
• 'Econometrics of wages', 79th international conference of the Applied Econometrics Association, 28/29 May 2002,Brussels
  (Salimata Sissoko)
• IG Metall conference 'Risking new ways', 13-15 June 2002, Leipzig
  (Otto Jacobi)