Contenu du sommaire : Reconfigurations des relations professionnelles – J. Goetschy, M. Lallement.

Union conceptions of employees ' interests in a changing Europe : Dilemmas and prospects. For several years now, debate has been waged about modernizing labor unions. What new conceptions of employees' interests can the unions work out as the workforce is diversifying, egalitarian norms are wearing thin, economies are being globalized, and the law of the marketplace is tightening its hold ? By referring to the labor movement's history, three questions are raised that call out for answers. Whose interests do the unions represent ? How are these interests classified by order of priority ? What organizational solutions can be imagined for satisfying them ? By exposing these problems, it is shown that the quest for solidarity, a never achieved goal, has always been contradictory for the labor movement. Given that the achievements from past struggles are coming under attack, given the risk of solutions being reduced to microcom-promises, given that losers and winners are ever more visibly distinguished, new approaches are suggested for the unions to explore in the quest to build other forms of solidarity.

Trade-unions in the United Kingdom since 1979 : The neoliberal experiment and reforms What impact has the neoliberal policy implemented by Conservative governments in the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1997 had on the organization, activities and, more broadly, power of trade-unions ? Many of the measures adopted by the Conservatives did not meet up to expectations. Moreover, the unions do not want to return to the practices of the 1970s, which are now deemed inappropriate. Three fields where unions have begun to revise their agenda are analyzed : relations between the trade-unions and the Labour Party, relations with employers and the involvement of members in their unions. Some of these reforms, still only existing in words rather than deeds, have spawned internal dissent (e.g., the idea of a social partnership within firms). This shift of priorities and strategies has not, at least not till now, stopped the decline in union-membership nor enlarged the scope of union actions. Two essential problems must be solved : strengthen the weak internal cohesion of the strongly diversified labor movement and improve the linkage between local and top-levels in the trade-unions.

Since the start of the 1990s, social pacts have been negotiated in various European countries. What are the reasons for, and meanings of, this re-emergence of forms of national negotiation that had disappeared during the 1980s ? The prospect of the European Monetary Union has, it is hypothesized, modified the context of labor relations, especially in the lands (Portugal, Italy, Spain, Finland, Ireland and, too, Belgium) that are not a structural part of the mark currency area. The parties to these pacts have been led to anticipate the implications of a single currency for inflation and wages in particular. Negotiations about this have tended to be centralized so as to make it easier to control macroeconomic factors. Macroeconomic variables have thus been internalized ; and bargaining levels, shifted. Whether or not these pacts will last is an open question. The coming of the Euro will bring along problems that unions and management have never previously had to face. So far, they have been capable of adjusting the collective bargaining system to the immediate consequences of the monetary union.

Persistent high unemployment has destabilized the labor relations system in France. Jobs have become an ever more important issue in negotiations about the time spent working. By combining legal and sociological analyses, it is shown that regulatory oversight has, since the 1980s, taken the place of a quite decentralized bargaining process that formed an exception to legal rules. Although jobs often stand at the top of the agenda in negotiations about work-time, it is less an actually targeted objective than a bargaining chip for working out agreements on other topics. The issue of jobs crops up in three types of situations. First of all, jobs may serve as a mere pretext for opening negotiations about the time spent working. Secondly, the jobs issue can also lead to solid commitments in exchange for measures allowing for more flexibility. Thirdly, it may be a formal objective for negotiators bargaining about work-time even though no party has any real interest in reaching such an objective. This diversity of cases and of forms of commitment raises question about the traditional principles of labor law.

Since the mid-1980s, the persistence of significant differences between jobless rates in developed countries with comparable productive capacities has raised new questions about the links between systems of labor relations and the labor market. Some researchers claim that the branch of industry is the level where wages are negotiated in the least efficient way with respect to job creation. Following an assessment of the results and arguments used to defend this viewpoint, the proposal is made to shift attention from an exclusive focus on negotiation levels to a dynamic view of sectorial patterns. This proposal is empirically based on comparing the dominant modes of regulation in retail businesses in Germany and France. By paying special attention to labor relations, light is shed on two well-defined sectorial models for managing jobs.

During the second half of the 20th century, a bountiful corpus of scientific writings has arisen around industrial relations. But these many studies are hard to fit into a single, integrated theory. For each approach — the systemic viewpoint developed by Dunlop, Marxists paradigms, institutionalism, action theories and economic models of negotiation — the most significant studies are presented and critically reviewed. A personal perspective is worked out on the basis of a genetic-historical analysis and the notions of bargaining and "arena". It fits — and gives new insight — into the institu-tionalist current of thought.