Trade Unions in Western Europe Hard Times, Hard Choices

Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick, Lecturer in Management, Birkbeck, University of London,Richard Hyman, Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics

Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick is a former international trade union official. Since obtaining her PhD at the University of Warwick she has been teaching at Birkbeck College. She is one of the world authorities on international trade unionism, and her work has been cited by scholars and practitioners in many countries. She is Board Member and European Regional Representative for the Research Committee on Labour Movements, International Sociological Association.


Richard Hyman, formerly at the University of Warwick, is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics and founding editor of the European Journal of Industrial Relations. He has written extensively on the themes of industrial relations, trade unionism, industrial conflict and labour market policy, and is author of a dozen books as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. His comparative study Understanding European Trade Unionism: Between Market, Class, and Society (Sage, 2001) is widely cited by scholars working in this field.