Berufsverbände, Tarifautonomie und das System der Interessenvertretung
The article focuses on the question whether the observable renaissance of occupational unions leads to an increase of their empirical impact and whether they have a lasting impact on the stability of industrial relations. The first part analyses their conditions to act and to organize (recruitment of members, aggregation and reconciliation of interests, representation versus external actors). The second part focuses on the medium-term and long-term goals of these unions, especially their safeguarding of existence and legitimacy by means of concluding autonomous collective contracts; then, the options of industrial unions and employers are indicated. The third part analyses the consequences of their actions and distinguishes explicitly between direct consequences for the involved unions and indirect ones for non-involved groups of consumers and producers. Some preliminary remarks on the frequency and empirical consequences of the existence of competing unions on the future of industrial relations conclude the paper.