Trade union development in the CEECs

Kari Tapiola
Additional contact information
Kari Tapiola: International Affairs, Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 1995, vol. 1, issue 3, 360-377

Abstract: Transition from totalitarian single-party systems carries with it the danger of deunionisation. Trade union organisations can disappear when the structure of the economy changes profoundly. Old structures have only partially been dismantled in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). A proper division of authority between owners, managers and trade unions has not yet emerged. The economic and social crisis, with rampant poverty and rising unemployment, limits the scope of action of trade unions. Austerity programmes seriously limit collective bargaining. Rates of unionisation go down, and unions are particularly weak in new private activities. After decades of forced consensus from above, it is difficult to build organisations based on democratic delegation of authority. The future of the trade unions will be seriously affected by the choice of development model of the different countries. With wider income differentials and rising poverty and social exclusion, this model in all countries will not be that of a "European" welfare state.

Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/102425899500100304 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:1:y:1995:i:3:p:360-377

DOI: 10.1177/102425899500100304

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().