While unions observed the need to set up transnational dialogue structures as early as the 50s, businesses only started introducing these committees in the 90s, in the wake of the establishment of their European Works Council. Today, there are very few global structures and most of them are in the metal industry. Here is a quick overview of the structures put in place and of their prerogatives.
In the 50s, unions started debating – notably the American United Auto Workers (UAW) – the possibility of building transnational employee and union representation structures. The first attempts at building international social dialogue spheres took place in the 60s/70s, especially in the following industries: metal/electromechanical, chemistry and food-processing. However, they can’t always get strong enough. The differences in national social cultures, industrial relations systems, laws on
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