TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 2

1.0 THE BACKGROUND of the crisis of the 1970S 2 1.1 The symptoms of the crisis 2 1.11 The slowdown of the growth rate 2 1.12 An inflation rate of double digits 3 1.2 The shocks bring complications 3 1.3 Structural factors worsening the situation 3 1.31 Demographic changes 3 1.32 The crisis of traditional industries 3 1.33 New needs and new values 4

2.0 LIMITATION OF THE TRADE UNIONS’ ABILITY TO mobilisE WORKERS in France and Germany: The “de-unionisation” 4 2.1 Fall in numbers of days lost by strikes 4 2.2 Fall in trade unions membership 4

3.0 LONG-TERM SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CHANGES REFLECTING THE CRISIS IN FRANCE AND GERMANY 5 3.1 The socio-economic factors 5 3.11 The disappearance of the secondary sector to the profit of the service sector. 5 3.12 The casualisation of work 6 3.13 Unemployment 7 3.2 Socio-cultural impediment to French and German trade union. 8 3.21 Feminization of the work place 8 3.22 The “Free-Rider movement” 9 3.23 Change of perception of trade union by the workers 9 3.24 Rigidity of trade unions 10

CONCLUSION 10

BIBLIOGRAPHY 11

Introduction

Since the Second World War, until the around the 1970s, the Western world became accustomed to the idyllic growth of the post-war ‘golden years’ which it presumed to be perpetual. Consequently, full-employment would be assured ad vitam aeternam and Kondratiev’s spectrum of cyclic crises was no longer a reflection of modern economics[1]; the Keynesian theory provided an empirical confirmation of its triumph through political and economical success. However, since the first oil crisis in 1973, the occidental world has been forced to revaluate the sustainability of their economic model as a result of growing economic interdependencies beyond their control.

At first sight, it seems that trade unions in France and Germany[2] do not have a lot in common: