ABSTRACT
The distinction of unions as social movements and as part of the state apparatus is meaningful. The reformist Portuguese union confederation UGT, for example, would hardly have been able to conclude any social partnership agreements with Portuguese governments and employers without the “street pressures” applied by the more radical union federation CGTP-IN. Irish community organisations had been incorporated into the state’s social partnership machinery during the Celtic Tiger years to an even higher degree than the unions. In 2011, the European Parliament and Council adopted the so-called Six-Pack of European Union (EU) laws on EU economic governance, which made the social and economic policies of Member States subject to binding EU recommendations. The increasing salience of EU interventions in industrial relations and social policy is politicising the EU integration process, as it is easier for social and political actors to politicise vertical EU governance interventions in comparison to abstract horizontal market forces.
