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The 1990s and 2000s were a gloomy period for Germany's working class, hit by mass unemployment, welfare retrenchment and wage stagnation. We examine whether the growing economic disparity between the top and the bottom of Germany's class structure was accompanied by a widening class gap in life satisfaction. We analyse whether there is a social class gradient in life satisfaction and whether, over the last decades, this class gradient increased in Germany, relative to the comparison case of Switzerland. We use panel data for Germany (1984-2014) and Switzerland (2000-2015) and check the robustness of our results by replicating our analysis with the pooled German and Swiss samples of the European Social Survey (2002-2014). In both countries, respondents in higher classes report substantially higher life satisfaction than those in lower classes. The class gap is twice as large in Germany than in Switzerland. In Germany, the class gap in life satisfaction narrowed between 1984 and 1990, strongly widened between 1990 and 2005 and then decreased again after 2010. In Switzerland, the class gap did not follow a clear time trend, but remained basically constant. In Germany, differences in unemployment risks and household income account for half of the class gap and its evolution over time.

After decades of stability, Switzerland's unions entered a period of turbulence in the early 1990s: their status as junior partner in the corporatist growth pact was challenged by the economic crisis, business organizations' neoliberal turn and an abrupt decline in membership. These challenges put unions under pressure to initiate revitalization efforts. They first responded by investing more resources into political action, using direct democratic instruments to block neoliberal reforms. In parallel, they adopted new means of recruitment, affiliating white-collar unions, targeting private services and resorting more frequently to strikes. Finally, they rationalized their organizational structure through a series of union mergers.

Switzerland's system of industrial relations was for a long time synonymous for stability. Once the system of collective bargaining had been put into place at the beginning of the 1950s, Swiss trade unions settled into their role as subordinate partners in decentralized and consensual industrial relations. Stability came to an abrupt end in the 1990s, a decade that confronted trade unions with three major challenges. The first and foremost challenge arose from the unusually long recession of the early 1990s, which dealt a severe blow to membership in the traditional union strongholds. A second challenge was raised by the neoliberal turn in business organizations, which caught trade unions on the wrong foot. Thirdly, trade unions were challenged, at the end of the 1990s, by the imminent opening up of Switzerland’s labour market to the European Union. The liberalization of labour migration was threatening to undermine unions’ influence on wage-setting. These challenges – notably declining membership and the questioning of collective bargaining – put unions under pressure to initiate revitalization efforts. They took place on three different fronts. First, Swiss unions responded to the harsher economic context by investing more resources into political action, using direct democratic instruments to block neoliberal reforms. In parallel, they began to adopt new means of recruitment, targeting hitherto almost union-free private services, and resorted more frequently to strikes. Finally, the European wave of union mergers also seized the Swiss labour movement. Starting in the mid-1990s and gaining pace after 2000, a series of union mergers led to a profound restructuring of organized labour in Switzerland.

"Die brüske konjunkturelle Abkühlung anfangs der 90er Jahre und der mit ihr einhergehende, ungewohnt kräftige Anstieg in den Arbeitslosenzahlen löste in der Schweiz eine hitzige Debatte über das System der kollektiven Verhandlungen aus. Arbeitgeberverbände forderten lautstark eine Flexibilisierung und Dezentralisierung der Branchenabkommen. Obwohl der Deckungsgrad mit Gesamtarbeitsverträgen nur wenig abnahm, kam die schweizerische Sozialpartnerschaft unter erheblichen Druck während des letzten Jahrzehnts. In wichtigen Industriezweigen wurden kollektive Verhandlungen über die Löhne und die Arbeitszeit von der Branchenebene in die Unternehmen verlagert, der Teuerungsausgleich abgebaut und die Jahresarbeitszeit eingeführt. Der generelle Trend in Richtung Dezentralisierung und Deregulierung hat sich jedoch sehr unterschiedlich auf die verschiedenen Wirtschaftszweige ausgewirkt. Während in einigen Branchen die Verhandlungslogik grundlegend verändert wurde, herrschte in anderen Branchen Stabilität vor. Das Ziel des vorliegenden Artikels ist es deshalb, einerseits den allgemeinen Dezentralisierungstrend empirisch zu unterlegen und andererseits die erstaunlichen Branchenunterschiede innerhalb desselben Trends durch ein strukturelles Modell zu erklären." (Autorenreferat) "At the beginning of the 1990s, the abrupt change in economic conditions, characterized by a sharp rise of unemployment and the decline of traditional manufacturing industries, triggered a wide debate on collective bargaining in Switzerland. Employers' associations have actively sought the decentralization of the provisions contained in sectoral agreements. Although collective bargaining coverage has decreased only slightly, the functioning of Swiss industrial relations has been seriously challenged on various grounds during the 1990s. In important economic sectors, bargaining over key issues such as wages and working time has been transferred from the sectoral to the company level. Yet the general trend of decentralization and deregulation has affected the existing collective agreements in a highly uneven way. The in-depth changes in some industries constrast with the stability of bargaining in others. The scope of the present article is thus to illuminate both the general trend and the striking inter-sectoral differences within this trend. In a first step, we present empirical evidence on decentralization of sectoral collective bargaining. In a second step, we show nuances within this trend by developing an analytical framework that accounts for the pattern of change which collective bargaining has undergone in different economic sectors." (author's abstract)