and terms and conditions consequent on particular aspects of restructuring at
Ford and General Motors’ European operations, come close to traditional col-
lective agreements (Carley, 2001). Second, EWCs may facilitate ‘arm’s-length
bargaining’ in which management and employee or union representatives do
not negotiate face-to-face at the European level; instead negotiating positions
and bargaining outcomes within the different national operations of an MNC
are increasingly coordinated across countries. On the employee side, EWCs rep-
resent a potentially vital resource for organizing such cross-border coordina-
tion: as yet it appears to be developing in only a few instances, amongst which
EWCs in the automotive sector are prominent. The Economic and Monetary
Union, by making terms of employment across countries more transparent, is
likely to accelerate this second process of virtual collective bargaining within
Eurocompanies.
7 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 To what extent are large, international companies developing distinctively
European dimensions to their business operations, management structures and
control systems?
2 In the way they are constituted and in their actual practice, are European Works
Councils primarily international extensions of nationally based representative
structures for employee information and consultation?
8 FURTHER READING
- • Lecher, W., Platzer, H-W., Rüb, S. and Weiner, K-P. (2001) European Works Councils:
Developments, Types, Networking. Aldershot: Gower.
A field-based study of European Works Councils in practice, which grounds differences in the
role, influence and development trajectory of these novel transnational industrial relations
structures in a robust actor-centred analytical framework. - • Marginson, P. and Sisson, K. (1998) ‘European Collective Bargaining: a Virtual
Prospect?’,Journal of Common Market Studies36(4): 505–28.
Considers European-level industrial relations developments within multinational companies
alongside developments at the EU sector and inter-sector levels, and speculates on the future
Europeanization of industrial relations at company level. - • Whitley, R. and Kristensen, P. H. (eds) (1996) The Changing European Firm: Limits to
Convergence. London: Routledge.
The Eurocompany and European Works Councils 477