Transnational Labour Solidarity: Mechanisms of Commitment to Cooperation within the European Trade Union Movement

摘要

This ambitious book is timely and contests the hypothesis that solidarity among European workers is challenged by contradictory national interests of richer and poorer European Union countries. The author highlights the current limitations of present European theories in explaining positive outcomes and conceptualises worker solidarity. The arguments that European trade unions in rich and poorer EU countries have competing and contradictory interests that prevent cooperation are evaluated, and solutions for common interests are considered to foster future changes towards EU solidarity. Using examples the author challenges these assumptions of institutional or national interests preventing union cooperation. The book evaluates if the existing structures and interactions foster European solidarity of workers, examining the vertical division within European trade union structures that prevent cooperation between unions from other countries. The author re-examines European trade unions' roles in organising and mobilising on European issues, highlighting the limitations of national unions and the lack of articulation of pan-European issues at the local level. There is, the author argues, potential coordination of solidarity by the European Trade Union Confederation, national sectoral level in European Industry Federations and plant level.