ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the difficulties facing trade unions organising in Compass, and looks at the ways in which the union representatives on the European Works Council (EWC) integrate their experience of the EWC into their union work. Wills argues that ‘without close connections between local, national and European levels of representation, EWCs are likely to be seen as remote institutions, with little influence or relevance for those employed on the ground’ (Wills 1999: 32), a view widely supported (Martinez Lucio and Weston 2000; Stirling and Fitzgerald 2001; Waddington 2001). The relationship of this international layer of activity to the local, regional or national consultative mechanisms in the countries of the EWC affects the co-ordination of trade union activity. This, in turn, affects the representativeness of shop stewards or their equivalents on the EWC, and their links with their respective workforces. This study seeks to illustrate the dilemmas that this additional representational activity can pose for representatives in three countries, the UK, France and Sweden, in a company whose composition presents a number of challenges for the unions, in a sector which is widely regarded as difficult to organise.
