The Brave New World of European Labor

"Delivers many a valuable insight. Indispensable reading for everybody interested in the recent history of European labor." . Labor History "Anyone looking for an in-depth, up-to-date and balanced account of trade unions in Europe, covering the last two decades of the 20th century, need look no further . . . a definitive text on contemporary European trade unionism." . Industrial Relations/Relations Industrielles European union movements played a central role in promoting a "Europeanmodel of society," a humane industrial relations system, high labor standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation which reached its pinnacle in the post-World War II era. The recent shift to lower growth, rising unemployment, renewed European integration, neo-liberalism, and globalization has challenged this "European Model" and the unions' place in it. These essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, examine responses of six major European union movements to the dramatic changes in economic and political conditions in the last two decades. They are the result of a group research effort and are based on a common framework which lends it quite an exceptional coherence. Andrew Martin is Research Affiliate of the Harvard Center for European Studies. His research has focused on labor movements in Western Europe and North America. ?George Ross is Morris Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought at Brandeis University and Senior Associate of the Mindade Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is also editor of French Politics and Society, and Chair of the West European Politics and Society section of the American Political Science Association