SOCIAL PACTS WORKED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES DU RING THE 1990S

Since the start of the 1990s, social pacts have been negotiated in var ious European countries. What are the reasons for; and meanings of thi s re-emergence of forms of national negotiation that had disappeared d uring the 1980s? The prospect of the European Monetary Union has, it i s hypothesized modified the context of labor relations, especially in the lands (Portugal, Italy, Spain, Finland, Ireland and too, Belgium) that are not a structural part of the mark currency area. The parties to these pacts have been led to anticipate the implications of a singl e currency for inflation and wages in particular Negotiations about th is have tended to be centralized so as to make it easier to control ma croeconomic factors. Macroeconomic variables have thus been internaliz ed. and bargaining levels, shifted. Whether or not these pacts will la st is an open question. The coming of the Euro will bring along proble ms that unions and management have never previously had to face. So fa r they have been capable of adjusting the collective bargaining system to the immediate consequences of the monetary union.