Transformations of the Greek trade union movement from post-dictatorial period up to the economic crisis: continuity and discontinuity

With the present paper we suggest an alternative periodization of the post-dictatorship trade unionism, which is purported a) through a dynamic understanding of the structure of the interest representation, b) through an exploration of Greek unionism in three moments: the class moment of the first post-junta period; the social moment of the eighties; the european moment, which signals an upgrade of the stricto sensu economic functions in the expense of social-political ones. The labour radicalism of the early-crisis period suffering from a lack of consistent revitalization plans and experiencing a hostile environment fails to become hegemonic and this failure impacts negatively upon the trade union functions.