Globalizing Employment Relations: Multinational Firms and Central and Eastern Europe Transitions

How has foreign investment helped transform the ten former Communist members of the European Union?

What role have multinational corporations based in France, Germany and the US played in changing work and employment relations?

What impact have the European Social Model and European Works Councils had? What is happening now to these economies in the face of the global economic crisis?

Is foreign direct investment a new colonialism or a real boost to the region?

The expert contributors to this book offer major insights into the ways in which multinational corporations are helping to transform Central and Eastern Europe. Based on original fieldwork into the behaviours of French, German and American corporations, the evidence of a partial transfer of employment relations models comes from service sector multinationals such as Accor, Carrefour and Societe Generale as well as those in the automobile industry such as Volkswagen and Renault and in food processing including Danone and Bongrain.

Sylvie Contrepois is Senior European Researcher at London Metropolitan University's Working Lives Research Institute, UK, and a member of the CRESPPA CNRS Institute in Paris, France. She is author of many articles and chapters on French and comparative employment relations and of Syndicats, la nouvelle donne. Enquete au Coeurd'un bassin industriel et ouvrier.
Violaine Delteil is Assistant Professor and Director of the Department of European Studies, Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3, France. She is author of numerous articles and research papers on the Europeanization of social relations, European social models, and company human resource strategies and social relationships.
Patrick Dieuaide is Senior Lecturer at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3, France, member of ICEE-Paris 3, and a researcher associated with Ensta-Paris Tech. He is author of many articles and papers on work transformation, and company business and employment relations strategies.
Steve Jefferys is Director of London Metropolitan University's Working Lives Research Institute, UK, and Professor of European Employment Studies. Among his many publications is Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite at Work: Changing French Employment Relations and Management.