Based on samples of the European trade union reality, this article intends to develop, in the first place, a synthesis of some of the contemporary changes occurring in world labour. Secondly, it reappraises some of the characteristic elements of the present day crisis of trade unions. These features have hindered the creation of a cohesive European trade union identity. The paper also recovers themes around which alternative future challenges can be thought and which can help maximise a (re)assertion of labour identity.
trade unionism; globalization; trade union identities