摘要:The article addresses the following puzzle: if, as it appears, wage coordination under the European Monetary Union is unlikely to succeed, why do European trade unions continue to pursue it? The article examines German metal-sector trade unions’ ongoing participation in wage-coordination initiatives within the Eurozone. It argues that their participation can be explained by two factors – a decoupling of talk and action, as two complementary types of organisational output, and the reframing of wage coordination as an activity that will pay off in the distant future.