Industrial Democracy and Industrial Relations

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 431, S. 22-31

Abstract

Some of the changes which are transforming Western European industrial relations systems under the banner of industrial democracy are in reality serving to expand the scope of collective bargaining & to extend it structurally downward to include the level of the individual enterprise. Through employee representation of corporate boards of directors & enlarged rights of works councils, many issues formerly the exclusive prerogative of the employer are becoming subject to joint decision-making. The new rights are being obtained almost entirely through legislation rather than collective agreements. They include a right to information about vital affairs of the enterprise which management is obligated to provide to employee representatives. Since the scope of collective bargaining in the US has always been wider than in Western Europe & the individual enterprise is central to the US bargaining structure, it is not readily apparent how worker participation in management would contribute to improved labor-management relations in the US. HA.