In the early 1990s, automakers were closing plants and reducing headcounts at facilities across Europe. In Germany and the U.K., numbers of workers at Ford plants were down 40,000 since the 1960s and more cuts and production shifts were expected.

“There was a growing sense of risk,” said Thomas Fetzer, associate professor in the Department of International Relations and European Studies. “British and German unions were similarly affected by management decisions to reduce headcounts and wages. The unions felt a mutual vulnerability that prompted cooperation.”