International Collective Bargaining and Regional Economic Integration: Some Reflections on Experience in the E.E.C.

Surprisingly enough, for some observers of the European industrial relations scene, economic integration through the creation and operation of the European Coal and Steel Community (E.C.S.C.) and the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) has apparently had a relatively small impact on the relations between trade unions and employers. In particular there has so far1 been no collective bargaining at the Community level, even though the similarity of organisational structures and of the roles of the social partners in the E.E.C. member countries, as well as the Community’s basic supra-national legal framework,2 would have seemed propitious for such negotiations. Furthermore, the diversity in national labour legislation cannot be regarded as an insurmountable obstacle.3