Labour Euroscepticism

Italian and Irish Unions’ Changing Preferences Towards the EU

Darragh Golden

The European Union is at a crossroads. Euroscepticism, a growing phenomenon, is redrawing political maps and could potentially spell the end of the European dream. Trade unions have, since the outset, been important players in the genesis of the European project. Yet, the pro-European consensus of national unions is on the wane. While the ‘Great Recession’ has contributed to this waning, the origins of dissent pre-date the onset of the financial crisis. This leaves a number of unanswered questions: What explains certain unions adopting Eurosceptic stances? Conversely, yet equally puzzling, why do other unions maintain a broadly pro-European stance? And can such support be taken for granted? This book addresses the emergence of labour Euroscepticism and argues that it is a particularly salient indicator of the challenges facing the EU. By comparing, over a fifty-year time span (1950 – 2015), the shifting preferences of Irish and Italian unions’ preferences towards the EU, the book sheds light on such questions. It explains trade unions’ stances towards European integration as a function of their capacity to locally police transnational labour markets.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / ECPR Press

Pages: 240 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78661-052-2 • Hardback • February 2023 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-78661-053-9 • eBook • February 2023 • $38.00 • (£29.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations, Political Science / Political Economy, Political Science / World / European

Labour Euroscepticism

Italian and Irish Unions’ Changing Preferences Towards the EU

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Summary

The European Union is at a crossroads. Euroscepticism, a growing phenomenon, is redrawing political maps and could potentially spell the end of the European dream. Trade unions have, since the outset, been important players in the genesis of the European project. Yet, the pro-European consensus of national unions is on the wane. While the ‘Great Recession’ has contributed to this waning, the origins of dissent pre-date the onset of the financial crisis. This leaves a number of unanswered questions: What explains certain unions adopting Eurosceptic stances? Conversely, yet equally puzzling, why do other unions maintain a broadly pro-European stance? And can such support be taken for granted? This book addresses the emergence of labour Euroscepticism and argues that it is a particularly salient indicator of the challenges facing the EU. By comparing, over a fifty-year time span (1950 – 2015), the shifting preferences of Irish and Italian unions’ preferences towards the EU, the book sheds light on such questions. It explains trade unions’ stances towards European integration as a function of their capacity to locally police transnational labour markets.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / ECPR Press

Pages: 240 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-78661-052-2 • Hardback • February 2023 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-78661-053-9 • eBook • February 2023 • $38.00 • (£29.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations, Political Science / Political Economy, Political Science / World / European

Author

Darragh Golden is a ERC Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University College Dublin, Ireland.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Imagining Europe / Part I: Conceptual Considerations and Research Design / 2. Understanding European Integration: A Neo-Polanyian Approach / 3. Controlling the Past: A Diachronic and Comparative Research Design / Part II: Labour Politics Across Three Phases of European Integration / 4. The Past is Another Country: A Variant of Euroscepticism and its Waning / 5. Ever Closer Union: Constructing a Pro-European Consensus / 6. Deepening Through Widening: Labour Market Politics to the Fore / Part III: European Integration in the Twenty-First Century / 7. EU Enlargements and Free Movements: Trade Union Coping Mechanisms / 8. Managing Expectations and Confronting Challenges: European Integration on the Ground / 9. Conclusion: Understanding Labour Politics and European Integration Across Time

Labour Euroscepticism

Italian and Irish Unions’ Changing Preferences Towards the EU

Darragh Golden

Labour Euroscepticism

Italian and Irish Unions’ Changing Preferences Towards the EU

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