Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe
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| Anteprima |
Work
is widely thought to have become more precarious. Many people feel that
unions represent the interests of protected workers in good jobs at the
expense of workers with insecure employment, low pay, and less generous
benefits. Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work,
and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe argues the opposite:
that unions try to represent precarious workers using a variety of
creative campaigning and organizing tactics. Where unions can limit
employers' ability to 'exit' labour market institutions and collective
agreements, and build solidarity across different groups of workers,
this results in a virtuous circle, establishing union control over the
labour market. Where they fail to do so, it sets in motion a vicious
circle of expanding precarity based on institutional evasion by
employers. Reconstructing Solidarity examines how unions build, or fail
to build, inclusive worker solidarity to challenge this vicious circle
and to re-regulate increasingly precarious jobs. Comparative case
studies from fourteen European countries describe the struggles of
workers and unions in industries such as local government, retail,
music, metalworking, chemicals, meat packing, and logistics. Their
findings argue against the thesis that unions act primarily to protect
labour market insiders at the expense of outsiders.
