Particularistic Solidarity?

Explaining the Nordic Opposition Against the European Minimum Wage Directive

Abstract

The European Minimum Wage Directive triggered the most bitter internal dispute in the
history of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), due to the fundamental
opposition from the side of the Danes and Swedes. The article traces the Nordic’s opposition
against the directive and identifies two causes. The first cause lies in in the – from a
continental perspective – peculiarly low importance of legally enforceable individual labor
law and the corresponding strength of collective rule-making. The second cause lies in the
specific experiences that Denmark and Sweden had with European assurances that their
collective models would be protected. In light of these findings, we deny that the attitudes of
the Nordic trade unions testify, as suggested by Nussbaum Bitran and Dingeldey in issue
2023/2 of this journal, to a transnational solidarity deficit.