European union movements played a central role in promoting a "Europeanmodel of society", a humane industrial relations system, high labor standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation which reached its pinnacle in the post-World War II era. The recent shift to lower growth, rising unemployment, renewed European integration, neo-liberalism, and globalization has challenged this "European Model" and the unions' place in it. These essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, examine responses of six major European union movements to the dramatic changes in economic and political conditions in the last two decades. They are the result of a group research effort and are based on a common framework which lends it quite an exceptional coherence.

George Rossis Morris Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought at Brandeis University and Senior Associate of the Mindade Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is also editor ofFrench Politics and Society, and Chair of the West European Politics and Society section of the American Political Science Association.

Chapter 1. European Unions Face the MillenniumGeorge Ross andAndrew Martin

Chapter 2. Unforgiven: British Trade Unionism in CrisisChris HowellChapter 3. Every Which Way But Loose: German Industrial Relations Since 1980Stephen J. Silvia

Chapter 4. "Yesterday's Modern Times Are No Longer Modern" : Swedish Unions Confront the Double ShiftRianne Mahon

Chapter 5. The Hollowing of French Unions: Politics and Industrial Relations After 1981Anthony Daley

Chapter 6. The Resurgence of Italian Unions?Richard M. Locke andLucio Baccaro

Chapter 7. Tightrope: Spanish Unions and Labor Market SegmentationLydia Fraile

Chapter 8. In the Line of Fire: The Europeanization of Labor RepresentationAndrew Martin andGeorge Ross

Chapter 9. Conclusion: Through a Glass DarklyGeorge Ross andAndrew Martin