"The four Nordic countries share several basic features concerning industrial relations, enabling a discussion of conflict regulation to be restricted to five aspects: by-laws and bargaining traditions, bargaining structure, mediation, state intervention in the bargaining process, and legal regulations concerning industrial action. Regulations in the four countries reflect to some extent the varying historical capacity of the main union confederations to centralise collective bargaining. Variations also relate to the sources of the regulations, i.e. whether they are unilateral, bilateral (collective agreements) or state imposed. These differences and their strengths and weaknesses are discussed, as are trends in industrial action, pointing out the rise of public-sector strikes and newer features of industrial conflict in the private-service sector. "

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