Industrial Democracy and Industrial Relations

Some of the changes which are transforming Western European industrial relations systems under the banner of industrial democracy are in reality serving to ex pand the scope of collective bargaining and to extend it struc turally downward to include the level of the individual enter prise. Through employee representation on corporate boards of directors and enlarged rights of works councils, many issues formerly the exclusive prerogative of the employer are becoming subject to joint decision making. As a general rule, the new rights are being obtained almost entirely through legislation rather than collective agreements. They include, among others, a right to information about vital affairs of the enterprise which management is obliged to provide to employee representatives. Since the scope of col lective bargaining in the United States has always been wider than in Western Europe and the individual enter prise is central to the North American bargaining structure, it is not readily apparent how worker participation in management would contribute to improved labor-manage ment relations in the United States.