This article investigates the development of collective wage bargaining systems in manufacturing in five countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. We illustrate the responses of collective actors to two key challenges: first, increased cross-country competition between Northern European companies operating within the same high-value/high-cost segment of the market; second, the competitive pressures resulting from increased east-north integration. Our analytical framework sets out different forms and outcomes of institutional change, with a focus on how the responses of collective actors to these two challenges shaped the development of wage bargaining systems.