Abstract

The Article is dedicated to Mario Rusciano and retraces the principal phases of collective bargaining since the rupture of Trade Unions' unity occurred during the 1980s. Then, strong differences between the structure and the contents of the 1993 Protocol and the most recent separated agreements are taken into consideration, with a particular focus on those about "productivity" and about the collective bargaining system as well as on the "Fiat case". The problem of the relationship between law and collective bargaining is then analyzed. The conclusion is that the system's crisis suggests the need for a legal regulation of both Trade Unions' representativeness and industrial democracy. Notwithstanding, in the present, the Author is skeptic about the real possibility to achieve this goal.