The European Minimum Wage Directive – and why it is a challenge to trade unions’ but not employers’ unity

Abstract

The proposal of a European minimum wage directive by the European Commission was supposed to improve working conditions. This article asks why such an initiative created a challenge to the unity of unions, but not of employers’ associations at transnational level. The authors provide a network analysis of the communication structure of social partners. Applying Scharpf’s concepts of positive and negative integration and Hirschman’s typology of exit, voice and loyalty, the authors use qualitative methods to show how employers stayed loyal and united towards negative integration, while different voices arose within the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) leading to the temporary ‘exit’ of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation.