Labor Actors Research Articles

Mobilising tensions: transnational union network formation in the Asia-Pacific region

Trade unions are an important actor in the social regulation of the transnational corporation. How and why trade unions engage with the continued rise of global corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives remains largely under-researched, particularly in transnational arenas beyond Europe. Transnational trade union networks are a concerted development intended to advance collective worker voice and influence, especially in contexts without a history of strong social dialogue. Our qualitative fieldwork centres on a transnational trade union network comprised of global, national, and local union representatives from different countries in the Asia-Pacific representing workers from one Germany-headquartered multinational corporation in the chemical sector. We examine how labour actors involved in the network engage with global CSR initiatives to advance worker voice and influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Our micro-sociological and relational approach focused on the practices, relations, and affective dimensions of building and sustaining a transnational network. What emerged is the centrality of tensions and how actors creatively utilise and shape those tensions into resources for building the network. We analyse the nature of the tensions and their effects and discuss how key actors work generatively with tensions.

The Jordan Compact, Refugee Labour and the Limits of Indicator‐oriented Formalization

ABSTRACTThis article explores the significance of initiatives to formalize the labour market participation of refugees. Many practitioners believe that formalization is a panacea for improving the lives of marginalized workers, including refugees. This article argues, however, that in practice it easily becomes an indicator‐oriented exercise, where readily quantifiable targets are prioritized over substantive improvements. To this end, the article analyses the trajectory of the Jordan Compact, a flagship initiative that brought together humanitarian, development and labour actors to create ‘win‐win’ solutions for Syrians and Jordanians. Drawing on years of qualitative fieldwork in Jordan, the article traces how the Jordan Compact has made formalization an end in itself, with little regard for how much it actually benefits workers. It examines three central areas of programming: work permits, home‐based businesses and working conditions. In each area, the article demonstrates how the chosen indicators have shaped initiatives while undermining meaningful reform. Bringing together insights from humanitarianism, development and critical labour studies, the analysis shows that indicator‐oriented formalization, a form of measurement‐driven governance, ostensibly produces impressive results, yet it can simultaneously undermine longer‐term, multidimensional processes that would benefit workers more. The article advocates shifting the focus onto the individual and collective power of workers so that they can better realize the potential benefits of formalization.

Dynamics of unionism in the platform economy: the case of the food delivery sector in Bologna, Italy

AbstractIt is a characteristic of platform capitalism that struggles to re-embed digital platform work within institutionalised forms of employment have been set in motion by new labour actors (i.e. self-organised, grassroots unions). Contrary to the view that these new actors signify the decades-long decline of traditional unions, evidence increasingly highlights their continued relevance to the labour–capital relations of platform capitalism. We argue that dynamic interactions between ‘old’ and ‘new’ labour actors in platform capitalism are influenced by national union traditions that emerge more vividly when struggles to re-embed labour relations require the transition to more institutionalised forms of labour resistance. We develop this argument based on a longitudinal qualitative study of labour struggles in the food delivery sector in the city of Bologna, Italy. We pay particular attention to the dynamics of intra-labour actor relations that have unfolded in the sector across different temporally based events of contention in the city. As we illustrate, synergies between the two were prompted by the self-organised workers’ need to rely on partners with an ‘official’ status when re-embedding procedures required; yet, collaboration was also favoured by what we describe as a ‘posture of respect’ developed by the traditional union vis-à-vis the self-organised informal union, particularly with regard to their quest for autonomy from traditional union structures. We interpret this approach of the established labour actor in line with its traditional orientation as ‘class’ actor, whose actions look beyond the membership so as to expand solidarity to all workers, including in new productive (platform) sectors.

Taking the left way out of Europe

Abstract This paper investigates how Brexit was de/legitimised by different Labour actors in a corpus of texts published after the referendum (2016–2020). It thus contributes an intra-party perspective to understanding discursive dynamics of European (dis)integration by building on the notorious ‘European question’ historically debated inside Labour and on the polysemy of Brexit constructed by/reflected in such discourses. The analysis, conducted at lexical-semantic and discursive-pragmatic levels, points to distinct strategic, ideological and ambivalent forms of de/legitimation of Brexit in the discourses of Labour. While strategic and ambivalent de/legitimation point to the Brexit debate being mainly driven by political communication logics, ideological de/legitimation highlights a deeper struggle inside Labour over EU-rope, especially in relation to international vs. national conceptualisations of socialism. While EU-rope was de/legitimised (and Brexit legitimised) by advocates of ‘socialism in one country’, reverse stances tended to be adopted by supporters of ‘international socialism’.

(Re)mobilizing labour. A lesson from recent labour struggles in Italy

ABSTRACT Social movement studies and labour scholarship have been developed as separate research fields, the former exploring the mobilizations of the so-called ‘new’ social movements, the latter the ‘old’ labour movements. However, such a sharp disciplinary distinction does not do justice to the interwoven character that social mobilizations may often take on in their formation processes and outcomes. This distinction seems especially untenable today given the return and proliferation of struggles on labour issues, where bottom-up forms of worker organizing and social movement types of action have been mixed, giving rise to a new array of labour actors and mobilizations. In short, the time seems ripe to spur on a scholarly prolific discussion between scholars of social movement and labour studies. In this profile, I start to do so by accounting for the case of the ongoing worker struggle at the GKN plant in the outskirts of Florence (Italy), where workers have been carrying out a bottom-up mobilization, consisting of the factory occupation and other radical forms of action. Both labour and social movement scholars can learn from this struggle, as it encompasses features whose interpretation cannot be confined to only one of the two disciplines, but it necessitates their integration. ‘Remobilizing labour’ entails, therefore, to stimulate a prolific conversation between these two communities of scholars on the topic of workers’ collective organizing. With this contribution, I hope to be opening up the way for such kinds of studies to come.

Effects of City–State Relations on Labor Relations: The Case of Uber

Using case studies of labor’s interaction with Uber in the United States, the author investigates how legal relations between cities and states affect labor relations models. The case studies demonstrate a persistent dilemma for labor actors outside the National Labor Relations Act: While local regulations might be more politically accessible, these interventions are also more legally vulnerable to state and federal preemption attempts. The implications of this common dilemma are explored through the struggles of unions and labor actors with Uber in New York City, Seattle, and California. The case studies show that city–state relations affect both how innovative and how assertive a local labor relations model can afford to be. These findings can influence broader discussions about ossification and power outside traditional labor relations frames.

Digital communication as a global challenge for trade unions: lessons from Brazil and Portugal

As a cross-cutting issue encompassing all of society, the evolution of digital technologies is particularly challenging to traditional labour actors that are accustomed to physical work and face-to-face contact. This article discusses the distinctive possibilities of social media use as a forward-thinking global strategy for organised labour. After an initial clarification of useful concepts to consider in the digital age, we focus on the social media presence of trade unions, identifying the pros and cons associated with platform-based communication. Finally, the article debates the implications of social media platforms as tools to strengthen networks with nonunion actors and contribute to the amplification of the labour agenda. Through a comparative analysis of four trade union confederations, two from Brazil and two from Portugal, we argue that, despite the possibilities for outreach and interaction enabled by the new communication and information technologies, trade union confederations maintain constricted networks and an outdated top-down communications model.

“The people’s wisdom” and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution: folklore, colloquial poetry, and subalternity in Shaima’ al-Sabbagh’s praxis

This virtually inaugural scholarly study of the activist Shaima’ al-Sabbagh (1983–2015) documents and analyzes three areas of her production in relation to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. The argument is made that her colloquial poetry, folklore research and support of subalternity worked in synergy together. Foregrounding the folk imaginaries that the revolution drew on, al-Sabbagh identified a fundamental gap in that event between bourgeois intellectuals/activists and subalterns. Seminal pedagogies she was in the process of devising to close that gap and creative projects to empower labor actors are analyzed in relation to Antonio Gramsci’s views on folklore and his “philosophy of praxis.” These projects benefited from al-Sabbagh’s apprenticeship in the popular, at both the grassroots and academic levels, including her involvement in aragoz (hand-held puppet theater). Al-Sabbagh’s texts, among them manuscripts, as well as video and audio recordings of her, are cited; additionally, interviews about her have been conducted.

‘Encroaching upon trade union preserves’: the 1950s fight over global labor norms between the international confederation of free trade unions and moral re-armament

ABSTRACT The clash between the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, an international labor body that included the AFL and the before CIO, and Frank Buchman’s Moral Re-Armament Movement illustrated one of the many intra-Western contests in the early Cold War over creating international norms. Should national labor centers work for a world of more moral interpersonal relationships or should they follow traditional collective bargaining activities? What messages should Western labor actors send to workers in the decolonizing world? Which group could provide the best anti-communist Western model of labor relations? Analyzing CIO executive council meetings, ICFTU executive board and world congress meetings, MRA assemblies in Switzerland, Congress in Stockholm to statements from Indian trade unionists, and the presence of both organizations on the ground in West Africa in the mid-1950s, this article explores one of the ways two international NGOs argued over the content of global labor practices emanating from the West during the early Cold War. Their clash also revealed the anxiety Western unions felt as MRA claims and activities seemed to upset their precarious balancing act of appearing stridently anti-communist while still benefiting workers through collective bargaining, which would undermine the appeal of communism by showcasing a capitalist model where workers benefited.

Keeping It Quiet? The Micro-Politics of Employee Voice in Company Strategic Decision-Making

Employee voice in company strategic and governance decision-making in Anglophone countries commonly has few formal channels. This article’s investigation of labour’s (collective employees) interest expression in Australia and New Zealand finds that labour actors engage with company actors to craft a range of channels of expression and participation. In addition to actors’ utilisation of formal institutional provisions for adversarial collective bargaining and cooperative participation, actors utilise other ‘at the table’ arrangements that are typically of low salience. These include non-formal, inter-actor arrangements that facilitate contribution to decisions that can include matters of strategic importance. Labour actors engage with company actors in intricate micro-political relations to contribute influence in framing understandings and horizons of decisions and norm-building. Their quiet activities contribute regulatory effect in company decision-making.

CHALLENGES IN COMBATING CHILD LABOUR IN SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING COMMUNITIES IN SHINYANGA REGION, TANZANIA

Combating child labour in Tanzania is a challenging endeavour especially in small-scale gold mining communities. Studies on child labour in Tanzania indicate that the government in partnership with international actors has undertaken several intervention actions to control and eliminate child labour in the country. Yet, child labour continues to be dominant in virtually all economic sectors including small-scale gold mining for reasons not sufficiently known. This research sets out to explore the challenges that face anti-child labour actors in their efforts to control and reduce child labour in Kahama district in Shinyanga region. The study uses a qualitative methodology in order to gain an in-depth insight of the context, cultural realities, community members’ views and experiences relating to child labour in small-scale gold mining communities. A sample size of 38 participants was drawn from among regional and district government officials, non-governmental organization (NGO) workers and community-based organization (CBO) activists responsible for combating child labour, small-scale gold miners, parents and children in Shinyanga region. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and documents review. Findings revealed seven challenges facing anti-child labour actors in their efforts to combat child labour in small-scale gold mining communities all arising from within the household, local community and government contexts. The study recommends that the government, policy makers and other stakeholders should develop policy interventions that effectively address these challenges in order to eradicate child labour in small-scale gold mining communities in the country. Keywords: Child Labour, Small-Scale Gold Mining, Anti-Child Labour Actors, Challenges.

Conflictual Complementarity: New Labour Actors in Corporatist Industrial Relations

Liberalisation of industrial relations entails the weakening of unions and a respective rise of alternative, ‘new labour actors’, altering traditional class representation by introducing new strategies. Research on this phenomenon has focused on decentralised contexts, where new actors are seen to pursue both independent strategies as well as cooperation with unions to contest rising employers’ discretion. Drawing on multiple qualitative methodologies, this article analyses the roles and contributions of new actors in the context of corporatist industrial relations, to find rising conflicts between them and unions. Combining social movement theories of strategic change with industrial relations theories of power and theories of institutional complementarity, reveals conflictual forms of complementarity between new actors and corporatist unions. Through interacting with new labour actors, corporatist union strategies are seen to change in a ‘spin-off’ form, reforming unions’ traditional power and dominance to (partially) counter previous liberalisation of industrial relations.

Desencuentros y conflictos entre actores colectivos en la industria paraguaya

<p>El sector industrial paraguayo ha experimentado un importante dinamismo en la última década, crecimiento que en gran medida se debe al aumento de inversión extranjera directa y a la instalación de plantas de maquila, ya sea con capital nacional o transnacional. Estos nuevos actores empresariales han introducido un mayor nivel tecnológico y nuevas estrategias empresariales, incidiendo además en la gestión de la relación capital/trabajo. Ante este panorama, este texto discute el desarrollo de las relaciones laborales entre actores colectivos del sector industrial y los cambios en el diálogo social registrado a nivel país. Para tal fin, se recurre a entrevistas realizadas con representantes de gremios empresariales, de centrales sindicales y de autoridades gubernamentales, identificando las prácticas relacionadas con la resolución de conflictos y prestando especial atención al accionar del Estado en su rol de mediador. Se argumenta que cuando el Estado prioriza la atracción de capital extranjero al país, en detrimento de su rol de mediador y árbitro imparcial entre empleadores y trabajadores, el sistema de relaciones laborales resultante queda sumido en un conflicto de baja intensidad que es arrastrado de manera endémica. Esto, con el tiempo, termina jugando en contra del objetivo que todos los actores laborales pregonan: el desarrollo económico y social del Paraguay.</p>

New Labor Actors Under Corporatism: Complementarity and the Renewal of Class Representation for Precarious Workers

Labor scholars identify increased roles of “new labor actors,” such as civil society organizations, in workers’ representation. Previous work found their increasing tendency to cooperate with unions, opening these up to inclusion of precarious workers. Praising these cooperative relations, research has understated other interactions that might develop between labor actors and their contributions to workers. Focusing on the relations among new labor actors and unions in the context of Israeli corporatism, this article analyzes conflictual interactions among labor actors and their implications of these for union legitimacy as well as for workers’ representation. Comparing two cases—of noncitizen Palestinian construction workers, and of subcontracted cleaning and security workers—the article argues that “conflictual complementarity” persists in the relations between labor actors in corporatist contexts. Conflictual complementarity is identified as based on sectoral traditions, contributing to transformations in union representation of precarious workers.

Why worker-supported collective bargaining may still fail

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate that some enterprise unions in South China, as strategic labor actors, made local progress in collective bargaining, but further elaborates on why gainful bargaining would require a more systematic understanding of the prevailing industrial structure.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is mainly drawn from intensive site visits and 51 in-depth interviews in 2013 and 2014, and several follow-ups up to 2018. Three cases of collective bargaining, featuring different union strategies of assertive negotiation, informal cooperation and direct confrontation, are discussed in detail.FindingsThe study illustrates that viable collective bargaining with worker-supported unions is possible in China. However, the effectiveness of bargaining does not count on this alone; the supply chain structure also imposes significant constraints, mainly by narrowing the bargaining scope of each supplier and differentiating the structural power of their unions. In these cases, institutionalized union coordination beyond individual suppliers is proposed.Research limitations/implicationsThese cases began as post-strike bargaining in Japanese auto supply chains and became the frontier of industrial relations in China. The impact of the supply chain in different sectors or regions requires further study.Originality/valueThis paper draws attention to the effect of an “invisible” but increasingly significant factor, industrial structure, on enterprise-level collective bargaining in China, unlike many previous criticisms of unwillingness or incompetence among labor actors.

Israeli Labor Market and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In recent years, we have witnessed the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the labour market. Technological changes, internet use, and robotics are changing the practices, services, and needs of organizations and employees in the labour market. These changes represent both a threat and an opportunity for the significant economic development of many populations. This article aims to examine the current and expected implications of these changes in the labor market in Israel. The research presented in this article was conducted by in-depth interviews with two leading infrastructure organizations in Israel. These organizations have a broad understanding of the labour market gaps and opportunities, work with hundreds of actors in the labour market eco system (employment organizations, employees, employers, educational institutes, government, philanthropy). The results of the study suggest what some eco labour actors should do to cope with changes in the labour market due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We emphasis the need of new skills (up-skilling, re-skilling), Life Long Learning (LLL), new professional knowledge, and adopting further actions to older and diverse populations that will take a more significant part in the future labor market in Israel. In addition, we present some examples of programs that both researched organizations attempt to address these challenges in Israel.

Emotional labor actors, well-being, and objective performance

To manage the emotional labor demands, employees may primarily rely on one strategy or the other while they may use surface and deep acting in conjunction. However, most research on emotional labor have investigated how two emotional labor strategies function to predict employee well-being separately. This variable-centered perspective is difficult to capture subpopulations of employees who may differ in their combined use of surface and deep acting. Using latent profile analysis, the current study examined potential emotional labor profiles from a person-centered perspective. We identified 5 emotional labor profiles: trying yet faking, some faking, high deep actors, high regulators, and moderates. Also this profiles differently predicted employee well-being (emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction) and objective performance (new sales and member increase). The present study captured the particular conditions in which emotional labor may lead to positive or negative outcomes for employees and organizations.

Emotional labor actors, well-being, and objective performance: A Latent Profile Analysis of Emotional Labor Strategies

To manage the emotional labor demands, employees may primarily rely on one strategy or the other while they may use surface and deep acting in conjunction. However, most research on emotional labor have investigated how two emotional labor strategies function to predict employee well-being separately. This variable-centered perspective is difficult to capture subpopulations of employees who may differ in their combined use of surface and deep acting. Using latent profile analysis, the current study examined potential emotional labor profiles from a person-centered perspective. We identified 5 emotional labor profiles: trying yet faking, some faking, high deep actors, high regulators, and moderates. Also this profiles differently predicted employee well-being (emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction) and objective performance (new sales and member increase). The present study captured the particular conditions in which emotional labor may lead to positive or negative outcomes for employees and organizations.

Landlordism, Rent Regulation and the Labour Party in mid-twentieth century Britain, 1950-64.

This article examines the politics of private renting in 1950s and early 1960s Britain, through the radical approach taken by Labour Party towards private landlords. Through setting the radical aims of Labour in a mid-twentieth-century context of decrepit housing, rising rents and sluggish public housing programmes, Labour's rationale in arguing for the 'abolition' of the private landlord is more transparent. This article takes a chronological approach, investigating what actions Labour actors took, at local and national level, and what effect this had on the wider housing market. Part one takes a long view of Labour attitudes to the private rented sector. Part two explores the policy of 'municipalization'-the attempt to place rented homes under local authority control. Part three discusses the post-1962 policy shift to state-sponsored 'improvement' of private rented housing, prior to Labour's victory at the 1964 general election. Three key arguments are made: that Labour's radicalism hastened the collapse of the post-war private rented sector; that rental market weaknesses indicated the confused place of renting in the 'tenurial pattern'; and that the proposed 'abolition' of private landlords had a direct effect on slum clearance and the composition of British cities. The conclusion suggests that Labour's pursuit of the private landlord can shed light on the vast urban transformations of the post-war period. It invites greater attention to be paid to the effects that political ideas had on the composition of the twentieth-century British housing market.

European Works Councils after two decades

The European Works Council Directive was adopted over 20 years ago, and a voluminous body of research has developed on this relatively new institution. This article reviews the most cited literature in order to consider our state of understanding of this research field and to identify gaps in our knowledge. Most research has focused on a limited number of European Works Councils, mainly in manufacturing, and on labour actors. We still know little about the interplay between European Works Councils and other levels of employment relations, the role of management in their working and their effects on substantive employment relations outcomes. By taking stock of current knowledge, we aim to advance future directions and possibilities for research on this theme.