The Employment Relationship on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century: Challenges for Trade Unions

The globalisation of markets, the concentration of capital, the European integration, the technological revolution and lean management set the productive forces free and led to an enormous increase of productivity on the one hand and to a redistribution of productive forces around the globe on the other hand. While ‘flexibility’ is the slogan used by management, shortterm, part time and non-standardised jobs spread more and more. These job-holders are rarely unionised.