This article traces the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty, with the aim of uncovering the role of transnational coalitions. The perspectives of transnational coalition-building and policy-making, in the European Union, are combined to shed light on transnational strategies of influence. Such strategies were employed by political parties and trade unions. They are treated as linkage actors in a transmission system, or belt, linking the domestic and supranational levels to one another. Institutions in the European Union are conceived of as both carriers of their own strategies and access points. By identifying support and initiatives on the part of governments, an attempt is also made to assess the relative importance of intergovernmental and transnational channels. A temporal dimension is thus injected. In conclusion, it can be shown that the employment title was to a large extent a result of a transnational policy contribution.