Description

Job creation is high on the agenda of EU governments and - through the Lisbon strategy - of the EU as a whole. Trade unions for their part have always demanded full employment, but how far do they actually act in the interest of the unemployed? Do trade unions, as often claimed, act in the interest of 'insiders' who have jobs at the expense of 'outsiders' without jobs?

This issue of Transfer publishes recent research into unions' behaviour towards the unemployed. Articles address issues such as:

• should unions concur with strategies to create jobs, even when the jobs created are low-paid, dead-end jobs that exacerbate social exclusion;
• should trade unions set conditions for their participation in job-creation and activation schemes;
• should unions embrace more radical ideas, such as basic income, as a way to achieve economic security and redistribution?

The need for unions to address such issues is all the more urgent in the current context of rapid globalisation, the changing nature of work and an emphasis at EU level on policies aimed at growth and employment. Articles also critically assess the EU's current neoliberal economic and employment policies and propose alternatives.

The extent to which trade unions keep their members during periods of unemploy­ment is examined in the light of new research into union membership among the unemployed in the so-called Ghent system countries. It is possible that the involve­ment of trade unions in the administration of unemployment insurance in these countries could represent a way forward for both the trade unions and the unemployed at a time when trade union power and influence are declining.

This issue of Transfer will be of interest to policy-makers, unionists and academics.

Coordinators

Table of contents

Editorial

Note to Readers

Main articles

• Eckhard Hein and Thorsten Schulten: Unemployment, wages and collective bargaining in the European Union
• Eves', lyne Leonard and Pierre Reman: 'Jobs, jobs, jobambivalence of concerted change for employment in Europe
• Helge Albrechtsen: The broken link - do trade unions represent the interests of the unemployed? Evidence from the UK, Germany and Denmark within the framework of the European Employment Strategy
• Ben Valkenburg: Activation and trade unions: confronting the dilemma
• Guy Standing: Income security: why unions should campaign for a basic income

News and background

• The restructuring of the Ghent model in Denmark and consequences for the trade unions
  (Jens Lind)
• Pathways to Europe. Future of the European social model
  (Wolfgang Weinz)
• Economic security and employment: trade-off or synergy?
  (Andrew Watt)

Book reviews

An extended book review and analysis of the policy conclusions of:

• Thorsten Schulten
  Solidarische Lohnpolitik in Europa. Zur politischen Ökonomie der Gewerkschaften
  [Solidaristic wage policy in Europe. On the political economy of trade unions]
  (Andrew Watt)
• Jean-Michel Servais
  Normes internationales du travail
  (Gerard Fonteneau)
• Deborah Foster and Peter Scott (eds.)
  Trade Unions in Europe. Meeting the Challenge
  (Otto Jacobi)
• Emer O'Hagen
  Employee relations in the periphery of Europe - The unfolding story of the European social model
  (Aurora Trif)
• Gabriel Fagan, Francesco Paolo Mongelli and Julian Morgan (eds.)
  Institutions and Wage Formation in the New Europe
  (Emmanuel Mermet and Ronald Janssen)

Reports

• Are European Works Councils necessary and welcome in the new EU Member States? Report from National Hearing in Warsaw (Poland) in the context of the international ViVe Project, 30 September and 1 October 2004
  (Romuald Jagodziñski)
• Trade unions, European integration and democracy. Conference on 'Organised Labour - An Agent of European Democracy? Trade Union Strategies and the EU Integration Process', Dublin, 30 October 2004
  (Maarten Keune)