Trade Unions in Western Europe Hard Times, Hard Choices

The book examines trade unions in ten west European countries: Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy. It describes how they have evolved historically and the main challenges which they currently face. It examines how they have responded to membership loss and (in many countries) to a weakening of collective bargaining, as well as a decline in political influence. Is there a general move towards union'revitalization'? The book shows that there is indeed evidence of this, but the process is uneven; unions in some countries have not yet experienced sufficient challenges to their established position,others seem to lack the capacity to respond strategically.