Big players, different rules? Multinationals and collective barganing in Europe

Abstract

As employers with a distinctive structure that does not correspond to the traditional boundaries of collective bargaining, multinational companies (MNCs) are a problematic actor for industrial relations. The paper will deal with their relation with collective bargaining. At the national level, MNCs may use their power to try to avoid or influence national collective bargaining, and they are particularly likely to introduce issues of international competitiveness on national or local bargaining tables. At the same time, at supranational level they may develop their own forms of negotiations, as exemplified by the recent developments with International Framework Agreements. The paper, drawing on a comparative analysis of collective bargaining and multinational companies in the 27 EU member states and Norway, addresses both destructive and constructive effects of MNCs on collective bargaining structures, reveals that the influence of these employers varies among countries, and exerts pressure for decentralisation within national bargaining, and internalisation through coercive comparisons. National institutional structures so far appear to be flexible enough to accommodate MNCs, but the weakness of transnational institutions means that the bargaining power is shifted to the employers‟ advantage.

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