Europe tested through its products: the Renault–Vilvoorde affair and its implication for industry and employment policies

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489075.004

2 - Europe tested through its products: the Renault–Vilvoorde affair and its implication for industry and employment policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

Claude Didry

Edited by

Robert Salais and

Robert Villeneuve

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Claude Didry: Affiliation:
CNRS researcher CNRS (CR1) in sociology Centre ‘Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Economie’ (IDHE), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan

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Summary

Introduction

Can EU law today provide a tool for the expression of an ‘employment cause’, as a way of expressing the specific (and often not recognised) capabilities of workers in the creation of wealth? The capabilities discovered here are the outcomes of a cross-investment: the workers develop abilities and knowledge through a long-term learning that matches the investment of a firm. As a result of workers' mobilisation, the expression of these capabilities is an answer to the transformation of corporate governance in the early 1990s. Jobs cuts as an indicator of the search for greater labour productivity have become the corollary of a concern for increasing share value (Coutrot 1998). The 1997 Renault–Vilvoorde affair was a key illustration of this. But, at the same time, it became the symbol of what European labour law could bring to the expression of an ‘employment cause’. This chapter will focus on the following issues that this highly symbolic affair revealed:

What is the conception of employment underlying Europe's industrial and employment policies?
What role should product policyShould product policy be the basis for centring employment policies on capabilities development?
How can the mobilisation of EU law by social partners affect such a renewal?

Section 2 recalls that the early construction of Europe was focused on the future of products such as coal, steel, planes and cars.

Type: Chapter
Information: Europe and the Politics of Capabilities , pp. 21 - 37

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489075.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2005

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