Uneven geographies of capital and labour: The lessons of European Works Councils

This contribution explores the ways in which trade unions have sought to or ganise workers in transnational corporations (TNCs) before looking at the p itfalls and possibilities of European Works Councils in more detail. The EW C directive covers an estimated 1400 companies across Europe, employing at least 15 million workers, and there are now more than 500 EWCs in existence . These new institutions are designed to allow employee representatives fro m across Europe to meet together for the purposes of information exchange a nd consultation with the senior managers from the TNC concerned. EWCs thus provide new horizontal networks of employee representatives across Europe a nd create new opportunities for information exchange, the formulation of tr ansnational trade union responses and strategy and even active solidarity a cross national divides. This contribution draws upon original empirical evi dence that highlights the difficulties of making EWCs work in this way. It is argued that there are at least four areas in which trade union intervent ion would make a difference to the operation of EWCs: (1) building active n etworks within and beyond any EWC; (2) sharing corporate intelligence; (3) formulating strategy at the level of the EWC; and (4) fostering identificat ion with colleagues in other parts of the corporate network.