Negotiating the crisis? Collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn

This paper highlights in the role of the key actors in the labour market, which are the trade unions, the employer organizations and the state, in negotiating responses to the economic downturn. As the crisis revealed, the role of the state changed with regard to the prevailing paradigm of the neoclassical school towards a central role in finding responses to the crisis. The paper therefore reflects a wide range of responses on the national, inter -sectoral and sectoral level, the regional level and most important the company level