STUDY Trade Unions in Europe Innovative Responses to Hard Times MAGDALENA BERNACIAK, REBECCA GUMBRELL-MCCORMICK& RICHARD HYMAN April 2014 n Trade unions across Western and Central Eastern Europe have almost universally been losing membership, bargaining power and political influence over the last de­cade. Economic crisis and austerity have created even more unfavourable conditions. n However, unions are not condemned by external forces to continuing decline and eventual irrelevance. Against the odds, they still have scope for strategic choice, and there are many examples of imaginative initiatives. n In many countries there has been a turn to active ‚organising‘, though what this me­ans is understood in very different ways in different national movements. n Despite hard times, some unions have reshaped the bargaining agenda in innovative ways. n To revitalise, many unions have redefined their purpose and social vision, have re­structured or found new approaches to political engagement.