This article compares coordinated collective bargaining in Sweden and Denmark
after centralized bargaining. Existing theories — power resource and cross-class
alliance theory — seem capable of explaining the transition from centralized
bargaining to pattern bargaining system. However, they do not explain the
internal stability of bargaining coordination once established. This analysis
stresses the role of mediation institutions of both countries for solving collective
action problems in pattern bargaining by pegging other settlements to the
manufacturing labour cost norm. Mediation capabilities, however, dier, which
is reflected in more frequent defections in Sweden than in Denmark and thus
a more unstable bargaining coordination. These dierences have substantive
consequences for bargaining outcomes in the two countries.