The Project - Dedalus and AriannaDedalus and Arianna

Dedalus and Arianna Project

This site was developed as part of the European project Dedalus and Arianna (Developing Dynamic Analyses for good Levels of Union Standards and Articulation of International And National Networking Actions – Information Consultation Participation) which is being implemented over 18 months and has as its aim the improvement of trade union activity within European Works Councils (EWCs) by forming and developing efficient communication strategies.

Having as its starting point the experiences of the research activity during the previous European project (ICARUS) Dedalus and Arianna aims to improve and recognise trade union structures in EWCs by disseminating the contents and stimulating reflexion and coordination at different organisational levels.

More than that, Dedalus and Arianna aims to support as efficiently as possible workers’ representatives within EWCs, giving them the tools to support analysis, offering the exchange of good practice, the consolidation of an international trade union network, and the activity of the national and international training seminars promoting interactive study and decision making techniques.

In addition, Dedalus and Arianna is a large scale communication project. Its deeper objective is that of developing avant-garde communication techniques and strategies in order to reach a larger audience and to publicise the meaning and the importance of the above mentioned trade union activity. In this sense, Dedalus and Arianna seeks alternative messages and communications of a different nature, offering the experiences of those who have been trade union representatives at the European level for many years, along with information from international newspapers and a focus on different themes.

Thus, in order to make it possible for the ideas of Dedalus and Arianna to reach out and to be at the disposal of trade union structures (of workers’ representatives and of each web user) we decided to develop the website Unions Network Sindacale: a dynamic resource which will host all the materials we are going to develop during the project and which will become a reference point for those developing union activities at the transnational level.

And finally, in order to offer continuity to the project after its conclusion, we have decided to give a wider purpose to the website. Unions Network Sindacale wants to surpass the Dedalus and Arianna project to become an ongoing recipient of the initiatives and actions of different European partners involved in the trade union network. In practice, our ambition is to develop a tool for the use of the International Department of CGIL Lombardia, and of all its European partners, in order to collate materials and information on EWC work and trade union action in multi-national corporations, and to become a reference point for future European projects.