CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Implementation and monitoring of cross-border agreements – Bercusson
Affairs on transnational collective agreements was presented only to be
harshly criticized by UNICE. The expert study proposing a directive was
brusquely buried. Instead, it was announced that no regulatory initiative
was in prospect and the Commission planned at most another communication
(see Bé, this volume).
Context: Collective action in the European
single market
The EU, a transnational European economy, as in the national
economies of the EU’s Member States, requires a balance of economic
power between employers and workers. In EU Member States, this balance
is achieved in part through the collective action of trade unions and
employers’ organizations. The social partners at EU level have not
achieved this balance.
EU law on free movement transforms the balance of economic
power in the EU; the freedom of enterprises to move throughout the
European single market has shifted the balance of economic power
towards employers. This is particularly evident in the overwhelming economic
power of MNEs, the magnitude of transnational capital movements,
the social dumping effects of global trade, delocalization, unemployment
and de-skilling.
The changing balance of economic power, together with competition
over labour standards, weakens European economic integration in
that national labour forces become opposed to economic integration. Of
course, the ability to relocate operations increases integration from the
perspective of big business. The dissatisfaction that results undermines
support for the European political project. There are ominous signs of
strain: rejection of the proposed Constitutional Treaty; disputes over the
Services Directive; and resistance to further enlargement for fear of
migration of labour from new Member States.
One response to the shift in the balance of economic power resulting
from the growth of the transnational economy remains the trade
unions’ traditional defence of collective industrial action. A crucial element
in maintaining a balance of economic power within Member States
is the legal right to take collective action. National labour laws include
the right to collective action: though legal systems differ, no Member
State outlaws it.
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