Participación de los trabajadores europeos en empresas transnacionales. Tres estudios de caso

Abstract

ABSTRACT (English) Information and consultation of workers in transnational firms with operations in the European Union has become a central process for European industrial relations. The adoption of the Council Directive 94/45/EC of 22 September 1994 on the establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees has brought about the consolidation of such practices in 784 multinational firms with operations in the European Union (European Trade Union Institute, data from 2006). Information and consultation of European workers results from the regulatory effort made by community institutions to develop a common labour and social standards in parallel to the process of economic integration at regional level. In the last two decades there have been major transformations in the world of labour. The creation of transnational economic areas (i.e. the European Union) has brought about the concentration of corporate decision-making. The spreading of the new technologies of information and communication has been also a decisive factor for this concentration, since they provide management with tools to run and (re)think firms operations at a transnational level. The transformation of corporate decision making into a transnational process has put strain on firm level industrial relations. Information and consultation at European level takes on a high relevance under these circumstances. The research has focussed on European works councils from a legal or a quantitative perspective. However, a new stream of research has arisen in recent times. Qualitative research on European works councils, based on case-study methodology, examines and compares individual experiences of workers in transnational firm. The Phd thesis aims at contributing to this stream of research. It developes the methodological tools and widenes the existent basis of empirical knowledge on European works councils. Three examples of information and consultation of European workers have been selected for this purpose: ThyssenKrupp, Saint Gobain and Arcelor. The objective is to evaluate the consolidation of information and consultation of workers at transnational level in the three firms, to examinate the factors which condition the practice of European works councils and to offer a sociological analysis of the impact of these bodies on firm level industrial relations.