Abstract
Changes in he collective bargaining systems h Europe are generally described as
decentralization compared to other countries in Europe, howevet the development
of German collective bargaining system showed its relative stabilty in the past
decades. Some authors characterized this development as " organized
deccntralization" or " controlled decentralintion." Purpose of this paper is to clarify
the institutional conditions at the plant level which enabled such a development.
This paper presents, frstly, the results of empirical research which includes seven electrical plants, followed by analysis which ascertained " organized decentralizatione." It is found that tte collcctive agreements are highly accepted at the plant level both by employers and by workers. It is also stressed that a high plant-level presence of the trade unions plays a signiflcant role in this situation.
On the basis of the empirical research, it is argued that two institutional conditions are important at the plant level: the co-determination and the flexible training system. Finally, the future of the German sytteml is examined by taking the impacts of such phenomena into consideration as outsourcing or dowrn-sizing, development from secondary toward tertiarysector in the industrial structure as well as high rate
of umenployment.
