The Making of European Labor Unionists: An Investigation into European Trades Union Council’s Training Courses

Since the 1980s, the European Trades Union Council (ETUC) has organized training courses that aim to Europeanize unionists. This paper analysis these courses as a specific mode of acculturation in Europe. These training courses consist not in inculcating an identity but in transmitting technical and social skills. They allow for the accumulation of social capital and the consolidation of European networks. However, they also reveal a number of contradictions in the Europeanization of labor unions.