This book analyses the multiple ways in which the European Union affects industrial relations. Traditionally, the institutional framework for industrial relations has nearly exclusively been provided by the nation states, and the study of the role of trade unions and employers' organisations has prioritised the comparison of such national systems. However, the EU has gradually played an increasing role also in the field of industrial relations, providing for a unique transnational framework in which management and labour operate. This book places the EU center stage of industrial relations. It frames the EU as the provider of both a new institutional framework and policy context for industrial relations, while reflecting on the impact of the economic crisis on industrial relations in Europe. The first part of the book examines the European level institutional framework for industrial relations, assessing the most recent developments in the European social dialogue at cross-sectoral, sectoral and company level, as well as interactions between these and transnational developments. The second part focuses on the EU's influence as a driver of institutional change in the industrial relations systems at the national level. The third part of the book analyses how the EU's policy framework influences industrial relations, by way of the common market freedoms, its legislative framework, its economic governance, and the Lisbon and Agenda 2020 Strategies.
The book will be of great interest particularly to all those involved in industrial relations and EU studies and more generally to anyone interested in the EU's debated and contested role in socio-economic governance in the face of an economic crisis that puts into question existing national and transnational governance structures.

Introduction
1. The European Union: Institution-builder, arena, and policy context for industrial relations
Stijn Smismans
PART I: The EU and institutional change in the European social dialogue
2. The European cross-sectoral social dialogue between autonomous action and regulatory involvement
Tobias Müllensiefen
3. The EU and formalisation of sectoral social dialogue: lessons from the sector of central public administrations
Michael Kaeding and Lukas Obholzer
4. The European sectoral social dialogue as a tool for coordination across Europe?
Evelyne Léonard, Emmanuelle Perin and Philippe Pochet
5. European social dialogue and transnational company agreements
Evelyne Léonard and André Sobczak
Part II. The EU as driver of institutional change in industrial relations at the national level
6. The European dimension of employee involvement: articulating between local practices and supra-national structures
Valeria Pulignano and Norbert Kluge
7. The EU and institutional change in industrial relations in the new Member States
Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán and Stijn Smismans
8. The European Union as institutional model and policy context for industrial relations in France: New power games between the social partners and the State
Nicole Kerschen
Part III: The European Union as Policy Context for Industrial Relations
9. Labour and liberalisation: organised opposition to an 'open market' on the European waterfront.
Peter Turnbull
10. The European Union and posted workers: industrial relation disputes framed by European policy.
Nick Parsons
11. The Lisbon Strategy, industrial relations and Social Europe: an assessment of theoretical frameworks and policy developments
Janine Goetschy
12. Flexicurity: a new impulse for social dialogue in Europe?
Maarten Keune
Epilogue
13. European Industrial Relations after the Crisis. A Postscript
Roland Erne

Stijn Smismans is holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law and Governance at Cardiff University