Following the 2008 financial crisis and up to the COVID-19 pandemic, EU economic governance interventions contributed significantly to the commodification of Member States’ health-care systems. Nonetheless, trade union action in this area continued to target national policy-making almost exclusively. Drawing on the cases of Italy and Romania, this article argues that one reason unions refrained from politicising EU economic governance interventions is that they associate EU membership with better access, overall, to social rights. Moreover, by closely examining both Italian and Romanian health-care unions in this light, this study prompts us to take a more nuanced view of existing analyses contrasting Central and Eastern European with western or southern European collective action vis-à-vis the EU.
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