ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that traditional industrial relations classifications, based on national institutional features, have become sector-specific. Company case studies indicate that in retailing, which is characterised by generally poor working conditions, market structures and company characteristics tend to condition unions’ capacity to engage in collective bargaining. Only in Sweden, where the institutional framework continues to provide a significant degree of procedural security through coordinating mechanisms, have unions been able to retain control over the decentralisation process and to play an important role at the company level. Nevertheless, in large, often internationalised companies, unions that are proactive and willing to mobilise their organisational resources, as demonstrated by Irish and German cases, are still able to make a positive difference for workers.
