The Changing Balance between Sector and Company Bargaining: Two Sectors Compared

Chapter 6 established that the sector-level collective bargaining arrangements, which constitute a cornerstone of the industrial relations systems of most west European countries, find themselves under increasing pressure. Of the challenges identified, that posed by the rise of company-level collective bargaining activity is foremost. In the face of growing international competition, there has been a widespread trend towards more decentralized bargaining arrangements giving management greater scope to negotiate working and employment practices appropriate to the circumstances of the company or its constituent units. The process of EMU has served both to unleash extensive restructuring and rationalization and to extend and intensify competition across borders. As Chapter 6 argued, under a context of restructuring pressure for further decentralization is reinforced as the bargaining agenda becomes increasingly oriented towards addressing questions of competitiveness, adaptability and employment. Internationalization of production and market servicing on a pan-European basis makes multi-employer bargaining at national sector level appear increasingly anomalous: in many sectors it can no longer take wages and conditions out of competition within the new spatial boundaries of the relevant product market.