Description

The publication of this 'open' issue marks a new departure for Transfer. From 2006, one or two issues per year of the journal will be open issues, publishing peer-reviewed articles on a wide range of themes of interest to the world of industrial relations. Submissions of articles whose subject matter falls within the aims and scope of Transfer are welcome.

The articles selected for publication in this issue address matters that are the focus of current attention in Europe and beyond. Articles in this issue analyse:

• cost competition and innovation competition in the context of globalisation, focusing on the case of the location of a new BMW plant in Leipzig;
  

• the decline of corporatism in Austria and the effects this has had on the labour market participation of women in Austria;
  

• gender mainstreaming, which has as one its aims to allow both men and women to reconcile paid work with care responsibilities. The article reports on a 2004 study that analysed gender mainstreaming in collective bargaining in 18 countries;

• the specific characteristics of the Danish 'flexicurity model', the current challenges facing this model as well the lessons that this model might hold for other countries;

• the erosion of the Ghent system of unemployment insurance in Finland and Sweden and the implications for the trade unions in these countries.
  

Coordinators

Collaborators

Table of contents

Editorial

Main articles

• Ludger Pries: Cost competition or innovation competition? Lessons from the case of the BMW plant location in Leipzig, Germany

• Clara Fritsch: Business as usual? Employees' organisations' strategies in welfare legislation in Austria

• Marianne Grünell: Mainstreaming gender at the social partner negotiating table in Europe

• Thomas Bredgaard, Flemming Larsen and Per Kongshøj Madsen: Opportunities and challenges for flexicurity - The Danish example

News and background

Special focus on the Ghent system

• Trade union density and unemployment insurance in Finland
  (Pertti Jokivuori)
  

• The Swedish unemployment insurance - will the Ghent system survive?
  (Anders Kjellberg)
  

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• European Companies (SEs) - 16 months after their introduction: more interesting than many had predicted
  (Norbert Kluge)
  

• A hard climb towards company democracy in Europe. Implementation of the EU framework Directive 2002/14/EC on information and consultation at national level
  (Isabelle Schömann)
  

Book reviews

• Francesco Garibaldo and Volker Telljohann (eds.)
  Globalisation, Company Strategies and Quality of Working Life in Europe
  (Hans Pruijt)
  

• Klaus Dörre and Bernd Röttger (eds.)
  Die erschöpfte Region[The Exhausted Region]
  (Holm-Detlev Köhler)
  

• Carola M. Frege and John Kelly (eds.)
  Varieties of Unionism. Strategies for Union Revitalization in a Globalizing Economy
  (Mirella Baglioni)
  

• Jeremy Waddington, Marcus Kahmann and Jürgen Hoffmann
  A Comparison of the Trade Union Merger Process in Britain and Germany: Joining Forces?
  and
  

• Jeremy Waddington (ed.)
  Restructuring Representation: The Merger Process and Trade Union Structural Development in Ten Countries
  (Richard Hyman)
  

Reports

• European Panel 2006 European companies in transformation - trade unions on the defensive?, Berlin, 7-8 February 2006
  (Otto Jacobi)
  

Obituary

• Rudolf Meidner - trade union expert and democratic socialist
  (Lars Ekdahl)
  

Reviews