Fighting Precariousness

Abstract

This chapter examines union strategies towards precarious migrant workers in the UK, France, and Germany. It shows that at a national level, the umbrella labour organizations or confederations—the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), the German Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), and the French Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT)—have changed their policies over time, becoming more open and welcoming towards migrant workers. However, specific union strategies towards migrant workers differ substantively. Thus, even though the policy framework at a macro level is quite similar across the UK, Germany, and France, the chapter finds significant differences in union approaches at the micro level when examining the organizing or advocacy work that is happening on the ground in the workplace or locality. The findings show that institutional power resources and union ideology really matter to the specific approaches taken by unions at the micro level.