ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the increasingly critical orientations of European trade unions to European integration in order to highlight the complex, contested and multifaceted nature of Euroscepticism amongst European trade unions. The main trajectory of European integration has been marked by the subordination of social policy to economic objectives, while eastward enlargement in 2004 and 2007 intensified the likelihood of social dumping between member states and appeared to many trade unionists as a 'Trojan horse' for liberalisation and marketization. The chapter also presents an overview of the main developments and dynamics that have contributed to a growing disillusionment of European trade unions towards European integration. It then provides a series of case studies that highlight the growing negative orientation to European integration and the institutional dynamics of the EU amongst trade unions in the UK, France, Sweden and at the European level. The chapter concludes by deconstructing the concept of Euroscepticism as applied to trade unions.
