Friday 23 February 2018

Reconstructing Solidarity: the New Book by Virginia Doellgast, Nathan Lillie and Valeria Pulignano

Doellgast, Virginia, Lillie,  Nathan, Pulignano, Valeria (eds.) (2018) Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.


The new book with contributions of ISA RC44 members:

Publisher's summary: Reconstructing Solidarity is a book about unions’ struggles against the expansion of precarious work in Europe, and the implications of these struggles for worker solidarity and institutional change. The authors argue against the ‘dualization’ thesis that unions act primarily to protect labour market insiders at the expense of outsiders, finding instead that most unions attempt to organize and represent precarious workers. They explain differences in union success in terms of how they build, or fail to build, inclusive worker solidarity, in countries or industries with more or less inclusive institutions. Where unions can limit employers’ ability to ‘exit’ from 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. The book builds its argument on comparative case studies from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Contributors describe the struggles of workers and unions in diverse industries such as local government, music, metalworking, chemicals, meatpacking, and logistics.

Table:
1: From dualization to solidarity: Halting the cycle of precarity, Virginia Doellgast, Nathan Lillie, and Valeria Pulignano
2: Negotiating better conditions for workers during austerity in Europe: Unions' local strategies towards low pay and outsourcing in local government, Damian Grimshaw, Stefania Marino, Dominique Anxo, Jerome Gautié, László Neumann and Claudia Weinkopf
3: Cutting to the bone: Workers' solidarity in the Danish-German slaughterhouse industry, Ines Wagner and Bjarke Refslund
4: Restructuring labour relations and employment in the European logistics sector: Unions' responses to a segmented workforce, Carlotta Benvegnú, Bettina Haidinger, and Devi Sacchetto
5: Labour markets, solidarity and precarious work: Comparing local unions' responses to management flexibility strategies in the German and Belgian metalworking and chemical industries, Valeria Pulignano and Nadja Doerflinger
6: The political economy of agency work in Italy and Germany: Explaining diverging trajectories in collective bargaining outcomes, Chiara Benassi and Lisa Dorigatti
7: Union campaigns against precarious work in the retail sector of Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia, Adam Mrozowicki, Branko Bembic, Kairit Kall, Malgorzata Maciejewska, and Miroslav Stanojevic
8: Better strategies for herding cats? Forms of solidarity among freelance musicians in London, Paris and Ljubljana, Ian Greer, Barbara Samaluk, and Charles Umney
9: Fighting precariousness: Union strategies towards migrant workers in the UK, France, and Germany, Maite Tapia and Jane Holgate
10: Unions and Migrant Workers: The Perspective of Estonians in Finland and Albanians in Italy and Greece, Sonila Danaj, Erka Caro, Laura Mankki, Markku Sippola, and Nathan Lillie
11: Conclusions. The Puzzle of Precarity: Structure, Strategies, and Worker Solidarity, Steven Vallas