“I don’t always agree with everything you guys do, but the stand you guys took in the negotiations with the EU over our wages was simply great. You took a lot of flak, but you didn’t budge. And that saved our future.” In his mid-forties, construction worker Thomas’s comments to the union organizer visiting his site referred to a heated political clash over Switzerland’s relations with the European Union.

While the Alpine state is not a member of the continent-wide bloc, recent years have seen more formalized ties developing. For most of the last decade, Switzerland has been in negotiations with the EU over a so-called “institutional framework agreement” outwardly designed to stabilize and advance relations between the two. Yet Swiss labor unions opposed the deal that was ultimately tabled, which would have dealt significant blows to existing wage protection laws.

When Switzerland finally decided to scrap the proposed deal last May, it represented the culmination of a stand-off between various actors who took opposing sides for varied reasons, from trade unions to the right-wing opponents of the European project. But the battle over Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, and what it means for workers’ rights, has also revealed very different perspectives on what it means to be on the Left.