The Shift Towards Single-employer Bargaining in the Italian Car Sector: Determinants and Prospects at Fiat

This paper examines decentralized collective bargaining in the Italian car industry. Its intention is to explain why the Italian vehicle manufacturer FIAT has recently moved from multi-employer to single-employer bargaining, and whether this trend may be relevant to other sectors in the future. The author argues that the “FIAT phenomenon” is likely to remain an isolated one and that the company will probably revert to multi-employer bargaining. A number of institutional and economic determinants are considered in support of this argument.