Transnational Restructuring Agreements: General Overview and Specific Evidence from the European Automobile Sector

Transnational negotiations and the Europeanization of industrial relations: Potential and obstacles

“…A tripartite restructuring group set up by the Flemish government to find investors was given until December 2010, otherwise the plant would shut down. On 21 May, another EFA was signed called 'Opel Plan for the Future', confirming the job and wage reductions but excluding collective redundancies until 2014 (da Costa and Rehfeldt, 2011).…”

“…They cover a greater variety of subjects, such as social dialogue, health and safety, human resources, data protection and human rights. However, the main topic of over a third of EFAs is restructuring (da Costa and Rehfeldt, 2011).…”

“…Nevertheless, in the major restructuring of 2009 the three Visteon UK facilities were closed without specific guarantees as to redundancy or pension rights. After several weeks of sit-ins and a campaign led by the union UNITE, a settlement was reached with Ford and Visteon at national level including notice pay, a lump sum and full Ford redundancy entitlements (da Costa and Rehfeldt, 2010Rehfeldt, , 2011. The legally complex pension issue, however, remains unresolved at the time of writing.…”

“…The subsequent agreements, signed at GME in 2001GME in , 2004GME in , 2008GME in and 2010 are the most significant restructuring agreements signed with a TNC at European level, as in theory they protect all the company employees in Europe. After years of restructuring negotiated at local level, with plants being pitted against each other, the EWC progressively adopted a coordinated solidaristic strategy (da Costa and Rehfeldt, 2007Rehfeldt, , 2010Rehfeldt, , 2011Herber and Schäfer-Klug, 2002;Pulignano, 2006). Sometimes described as 'sharing the pain', this was based on three principles: no plant closures; no forced redundancies; systematic search for negotiated and socially responsible alternatives.…”

“…Altogether these three automobile companies have signed 18 significant European agreements, as can be seen from Table 2. The specificities of the sector have been analyzed elsewhere (da Costa and Rehfeldt, 2007Rehfeldt, , 2010Rehfeldt, , 2011Pulignano, 2007). What is important to note here is that the experiences in motor vehicles, with their successes and shortcomings, have been widely discussed by European unions and EWCs and have contributed to the evolution of EMF strategy concerning restructuring; and this strategy has in turn influenced or served as a model for the strategies of ETUFs in other sectors.…”