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"Belgium is one of the few EU-15 countries with no system of involving employee representatives in the strategic management of a company. The post-second World War social pact created extensive institutions for information, consultation and collective bargaining at the company, sector and country level but did not envisage, for example, employees on company boards. At the same time, one of the two large trade union confederations (the ACV-CSC) with its historical links to the long-time dominant Christian democratic party, has been in favour of such a system for a long time. In this working paper, the post-war views of the ACV-CSC on workers on the board and economic democracy are presented and discussed. When considering the different periods of debate and activism, clear evolutions in thinking are evident. Ethical arguments in general and arguments drawn from Christian teaching decrease markedly in importance, while economic and pragmatic argumentation becomes more prominent. Further, the Belgian Christian trade union's recent rejection of the idea of codetermination is a rupture with its previous positions, but it seems that these positions never really enjoyed the support of most of their members anyway."

"Rules to Win By: Participation and Power in Union Negotiations is a book for anyone who wants to understand how to build the power required to effectively challenge and reverse income inequality and attacks on democracy. Drawing insights from recent hard-won unionization and contract negotiation fights, Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor use lessons from some of the toughest fights today--preparing a durable, all-out strike in a union-hostile environment--to provide a masterclass in participatory social change, indispensable both within and beyond the workplaces where we spend half of our waking lives.
In an era of polarization, big lies, and massive legislative setbacks, changemakers in every arena need to learn the skills and lessons honed in pitched battles against experienced and ruthless union busters. Rules to Win By is a book for workers, unionists, racial justice and climate campaigners, academics, policymakers and everyone who wants a more fair and democratic society."

"A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change. Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen. It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic."

"The central questions and main contextual background explored by this year's issue of Benchmarking are, at their core, fairly straightforward. Europe is at a crossroads, painfully navigating four transitions at once: a (perhaps less than obvious) economic policy transition best exemplified by the debates surrounding the EU economic governance framework (COM(2022) 583 final); a geopolitical transition, increasingly shaped by the ‘open strategic autonomy' debate (Akgüç 2021) and, of course, by the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine; and the two more readily acknowledged green and digital transitions. It is, however, becoming increasingly clear, as explored in greater detail in the following chapters, that these four transitions imply important trade-offs and have significant ramifications for the social dimension of the European project and for the livelihoods of European workers. These consequences are currently being ignored by the principal institutional actors that are shaping them and that, at times, have conflicting priorities.

The current inability on the part of governments and policy-makers, at a national and supranational level, to resolve the tensions inherent to these transitions is a major factor in determining what the following pages of this issue refer to as a ‘polycrisis'. We understand the current conjuncture as a ‘polycrisis' due to the presence of a series of multiple, separate crises happening simultaneously (e.g. a climate crisis, a cost-of-living crisis, a geopolitical crisis, etc.), due to the way in which these separate crises interact with each other (for instance the energy crisis and the climate crisis), and due to the extent to which they thus amplify each other's effects, in particular social and economic effects (the extent to which strained supply chains and externally driven inflationary pressures tend to magnify the shortcomings of current fiscal policies, for instance, as noted in the opening chapter). There is also a growing perception that resolving any of these crises in isolation may be a particularly arduous task and that cumulative responses must be identified.

This polycrisis is intimately linked to the inability of the ruling class to engage with what we identify here as the missing transition: the social transition. This issue of Benchmarking Working Europe engages critically with these four transitions and their effects and posits that only a transformative and ambitious social transition can break the current cycle of crisis after crisis and instead institutionalise what the issue refers to as ‘sustainable resilience'.

The four transitions – and the missing one
We are arguably witnessing four major discernible and disruptive transition processes that are shaking the kaleidoscope of the European project as it is currently still enshrined in the (fragile) constitutional consensus embodied by the Lisbon Treaty. The rather more obvious (but no less challenging) processes are the green and technological transitions. Yet, it is arguable that, most visibly since the suspension of parts of the Stability and Growth Pact, we have also been experiencing an economic policy (including a monetary policy) transition and – in connection with the supply chain shortages caused by Covid‑19 and its aftermath, and more markedly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a geopolitical transition linked to the developing concept of ‘open strategic autonomy'"

"The labour market position of the lower skilled is increasingly under pressure in most high income countries. Their bargaining position is declining under the twin pressures of globalisation and technological change; and they are at risk of losing access to better positions as firms' pay and conditions arrangements increasingly drift apart. These rising between-firm differences partly come about through the increasing separation of lower skilled workers into lower-paying firms with worse conditions, thereby reducing their opportunities further. One mechanism driving this is the process of (domestic) outsourcing where main firms take certain tasks that are seen as non-core out of their payroll, instead purchasing those same tasks from another official employer while being able to retain control. Workers who see their jobs outsourced generally have to work under worse conditions and for lower pay.

This paper uses cross-national European data (LFS and SES) along with contextual data to study how the labour market position of lower qualified workers is changing over time and how outsourcing and between-firm segregation is contributing to this gap. I find that (1) domestic outsourcing is increasing over time and leading to greater differences in where the lower and higher qualified work; (2) outsourced workers are working under worse conditions with generally lower wages; and (3) wage gaps by qualifications are increasingly due to between-firm segregation, helped along by this process. However, the process is not universal: it hits harder in sectors with greater technological innovation and can be alleviated by union density and worker representation."

"To secure a sustainable, inclusive future in a world of continuous, overlapping disruptions, leaders are recognizing the critical need to invest in long-term resilience.

The Resilience Consortium, a high-level leadership group of ministers, CEOs, and heads of international organizations, promotes alignment on key resilience themes and the steps necessary for building resilience in the face of ongoing natural and man-made disruptions. This white paper, written by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, highlights the importance of long-term planning and international collaboration in achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. The paper emphasizes that actions must be taken on multiple fronts, including climate, food and energy, education, healthcare, economic development, trade and supply chains, technology and finance. The paper puts forward the “resilience agenda”, consisting of frameworks for the private and public sectors to continuously evaluate and improve their resilience strategies.

The cost of inaction is high: research shows that in specific sectors or countries, the consequences of action or inaction can be plus or minus 15% in GDP performance, making it a crucial effort for leaders to align and act on in the face of ongoing disruption."

"A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear. Progress is not automatic but depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity.
Much of the wealth generated by agricultural advances during the European Middle Ages was captured by the Church and used to build grand cathedrals while the peasants starved. The first hundred years of industrialization in England delivered stagnant incomes for workers, while making a few people very rich. And throughout the world today, digital technologies and artificial intelligence increase inequality and undermine democracy through excessive automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance.
It doesn't have to be this way. Power and Progress demonstrates that the path of technology was once - and can again be - brought under control. The tremendous computing advances of the last half century can become empowering and democratizing tools, but not if all major decisions remain in the hands of a few hubristic tech leaders striving to build a society that elevates their own power and prestige.
With their breakthrough economic theory and manifesto for a better society, Acemoglu and Johnson provide the understanding and the vision to reshape how we innovate and who really gains from technological advances so we can create real prosperity for all."