Rates of pay and working conditions still vary widely between EU Member States, bringing the risk of social dumping and of cross-border companies playing off workers in different countries against one another.

Increasingly, trade unions in neighbouring countries are seeking to agree on common objectives before they reach the negotiating table, so that they can give mutual support and avoid undermining each other’s demands.

The ETUC has been helping to coordinate collective bargaining across Europe since the mid-1990s.