The essay analyzes the tension between the recognition of the right to collective bargaining as a fundamental social right in international and European sources and the effects, induced by the globalization of markets, in the dismantling of contractual systems, still largely rooted at national level. The absence of effective measures to support collective bargaining at supranational scale, where economic decisions are taken, together with the strict interpretation given by the European Court of Justice, violating the principle of collective autonomy and freedom of association, as well as the subordination to economic freedoms underpinning the functional vision of the European institutions, are all factors threatening to weaken and alter the right to collective bargaining, even within national systems, where it historically developed.
Keywords: Collective bargaining; International Labour Organisation; Fair globalization; Trade unions; Collective agreements; Fundamental social rights.