Collective bargaining has been decentralised in the UK and Germany over the past three decades. But in Germany, unions have retained much more power.

In 2009, 62 per cent of German employees had their wages determined by collective bargaining, against only 33 per cent of British employees. Niels-Erik Wergin-Cheek explores the reasons for this difference arguing that both the political and economic environment as well as the strategies and structures of German trade unions have kept them relatively strong.