- There are considerable sectoral differences in the ‘strike rate’ of
agreements establishing EWCs compared to the number of MNCs covered
by the directive. This may be due to a range of factors, including the
strength of trade union organization within companies, the effectiveness
of their European-level organizations and employer strategy. But also
important is the extent to which production is internationally organized
and integrated. Overall, the ‘strike rate’ of agreements in the more inter-
nationalized manufacturing sectors is double that in the service sectors,
where competition tends to be more nationally bounded (Marginson
et al., 1998; Carley and Marginson, 2000). The same factor can explain
why, within manufacturing, strike rates in the oil and chemicals sectors
are markedly higher than those in paper and printing and textiles, clothing
and footwear; and why the strike rate in financial services is considerably
higher than in any other service sector. Less evidence is available on dif-
ferences in the penetration of EWCs according to type of company.
However, the findings of a study undertaken before the directive was
adopted are suggestive: surveying 100 of the largest MNCs in Europe,
Streeck and Vitols (1995) report that the incidence of EWCs was higher
where employment was concentrated in operations outside the home
country.
Yet the ‘European’ character of these new European-level industrial
relations structures has been challenged by Streeck, who has argued (1997)
that EWCs are ‘neither European nor works councils’. In suggesting that they
are not European, Streeck’s contention is that ‘one can expect European works
councils to be heavily coloured by the national system of their company’s
country of origin’ (1997: 331). This is because employee representatives of the
MNC’s home country workforce, by dint of their established relations with
group management and their numerical dominance, are likely to play a deci-
sive role in negotiations and thereby significantly influence the structure and
role of the resulting EWC. ‘In effect ... European works councils will be inter-
national extensions of national systems of workplace representation, instead of
European institutions in a strict sense’ (ibid., emphasis in original). Streeck’s
claim is distinctly at odds with the implication of the earlier argument that
the Eurocompany is not reducible to a set of national variants. This in turn
suggests that EWCs will tend to develop non-nationally specific forms and
practices; although some ‘country of origin’ effect may be identifiable, com-
monalties between EWCs will also be evident in the form of practices which
cut across countries. In the face of such differences in position, and in order
to test the proposition that EWCs will tend to have a ‘European’ as opposed
to a ‘national’ character, the remainder of this section examines evidence first
on the agreements establishing EWCs and second on EWC practice.
470 International Human Resource Management