Trade unions' solidarity at a transnational level as a challenge. The controversy surrounding the European minimum wage directive

Abstract

With the European Minimum Wage Directive (EMWD) the EU took an important step towards a 'more' social Europe. We underline that national and transnational trade union organisationss enacted  differnt forms of  transnational solidarity to support and to object the directive. We argue that solidarity, as a multi-faceted idea, may be inclusive when it is reffereing to an extended 'us', meaning to reach a collective good that benefits more than the original constituency. However, we also discuss preconditions for this form of transnational solidarity. This is not morally better or worse than a form of particularistic solidarity used to defend only national interests at transnational level. In this article, we elaborate and defend our conceptualisation of transnational solidarity proposed inte issue 2023/2, which was criticised by Höpner and Kiecker in the issue 2025/1 of this journal. Even more, we show the impact the EMWD already has had at the national level to effectively improve minimum wage income - contesting the argument of some opposing trade unions that it would not be successful.