British Trade Unions and European Union Integration in the 1990s

Politics versus Political Economy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7972800
AutoresGerard Strange (0000-0002-7362-8080, University of Lincoln, autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume50
Fascículo2
Páginas332-353
Data de publicação2002-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1111/1467-9248.00373
OpenAlexW2050382527
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas22

This article evaluates the changing assessments within the British trade union movement of the efficacy of European Union integration from the viewpoint of labour interests. It argues that there has been a marked further ‘Europeanisation’ of British trade unionism during the 1990s, consolidating an on-going process which previous research shows began in earnest in the mid 1980s. A shift in trade union economic policy assessments has seen the decisive abandonment of the previously dominant ‘naive’ or national Keynesianism. While there remain important differences in economic perspective between unions, these are not such as would create significant divisions over the question of European integration per se, the net benefits of which are now generally, though perhaps not universally, accepted. The absence of fundamental divisions is evident from a careful assessment of the debates about economic and monetary union at TUC Congress. The Europeanisation of British trade unionism needs to be seen within the context of an emergent regionalism, in Europe and elsewhere. It can best be understood as a rational response by an important corporate actor (albeit one whose national influence has been considerably diminished in recent decades) to globalisation and a significantly changing political economy environment

Abandonment (legal · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Economic integration · Economics · Economy · European integration · European union · Europeanisation · Globalization · International trade · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Regionalism (politics · Trade union · European Union Policy and Governance · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies