Trade union democracy in Western Europe

Walter Galenson's study will not solve the American problem. But, by describing the variety of practices and attitudes in Europe. it makes a significant contribution to the discussion. In Belgium, Holland, and Austria there is dual unionism, and the labor move ments of those countries accept this as a healthy, positive situation. In France and Italy, on the other hand, unions function in a dif ferent social context. This context reinforces the tendencies of weakness and factional political fragmentation in the labor move ment

Obviously, the fact that dual unionism works well in one country does not mean that it can be transplanted to the United States. As Galenson makes clear, the structure of unionism grows out of the economy, the social and political history, of a nation. In the United States, the Wagner Act made a momentous option for the concept of exclusive jurisdiction. This decision has now become integrated into our trade union life. It, along with a range of economic, historic, and social factors, has given real power to the traditional American rejection of dual unionism.

And yet understanding the European attitudes and practices does help to focus the question. It opens up a whole range of reference for the discussion which is taking place in America. Similarly with other problems. In Sweden and Britain, for in stance, there is no real internal competition within the labor movement, yet this has not led to antidemocratic practices on a wide basis.

Or there is the question of the nonparticipation of the member in the affairs of his union. As this study makes plain, this is a problem in all the advanced nations. Yet the reason for it varies from country to country. In France and Italy, it is related to the weakness (really the absence) of strong locals; in Britain, it repre sents a change, part of the movement toward national bargaining; in Sweden, it may well be a function of the very success of the trade union movement. These facts do not carry with them some automatic conclusions of the problem of nonparticipation in America. Rather, they point out lines of investigation; they reveal possibilities which might not be so obvious to us.