European trade unions:in search of a narrative

We must first thank the Editor for arranging this Symposium, and Roland Erne, Guglielmo Meardi and Ida Regalia for their kind though perceptive commentaries. They say little with which we would want to disagree, but on a number of points we try to clarify what we were (and were not) attempting to do when we wrote the book, and to address some issues in comparative research on trade unionism where the reviewers themselves clearly adopt different perspectives.