White-collar unionisation in West Germany, 1960–1976

The rapid growth of white-collar trade union membership in the UK in recent years has been paralleled by a similar phenomenon in Germany. Hermann Bayer and his colleagues explain the causes and results of the growth in trade unionism in West Germany against a background of socio-political developments.     

Human resource management and industrial relations in Italy

Evolution of industrial relations and human resource management in Italy in the last decade is analysed through qualitative case studies, quantitative surveys and a combination of qualitative/quantitative data originating from network researches.

In the 1980s, complementary industrial relations/human resource management in Italy were based on the trade-off between employment security, work flexibility and industrial adjustment. In the 1990s this complementarity is under pressure from a second restructuring process (and privatization) of Italian enterprises.

The last surveys underline that the basic features of industrial relations were not altered, but the data confirm the critical importance of the relationship between industrial relations and human resource management and also the fragility of this balance.     

A basis for economic cooperation in Europe

The UN-Economic Commission for Europe, to which today the large majority of the economically most advanced states in the world belong, has in the 21 years of its existence done work that cannot be gauged merely by tangible results. The Commission has played a vital part in creating the essential climatic conditions for the economic reconstruction of Europe after the war. During the dark days of the “cold war” it remained the only functioning forum for a dialogue between East and West. Its activities range from the regulation of cross-frontier traffic, to researches into long-term economic developments in Europe, to the promotion of East-West trade and even to questions of scientific and technological cooperation, and as such the ECE sets an example of economic coexistence. At the beginning of the third decade of its existence the Commission, firmly rooted as it is in a well-balanced mixture of idealism and realism, can look to the future with confidence. On the occasion of the 23rd meeting of the UN/ECE, which ended in Geneva on the second of May, we discussed with its chairman, Dr Treu, some of the main problems of economic cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe.