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... Building upon the early insights of scholars who analysed the role of workers in expanding social welfare policies of advanced capitalist states in the mid-20 th century (Korpi 1974(Korpi , 1985 Esping-Anderson and Korpi, 1984), a growing number of contemporary labour scholars advocate a power resources approach (PRA) that identifies and theorises four main types of powerstructural, associational, institutional, and societal (Schmalz, Ludwig and Webster, 2018;Però and Downey, 2024; See also Refslund and Arnholtz, 2022). Identifying these distinct sources of worker power recognises the continued relevance and dynamism of organised labour in the 21 st century, despite awareness of the disempowerment of traditional labour union organisations and socialistlabour parties (Atzeni, 2020;Ellem, Goods and Todd, 2020). ...
... Especially important in this regard are societal forms of power that connect the struggles of workers to social allies who can use their resources and platforms to advocate on behalf of workers (Alberti and Però, 2018). Forging these coalitions with solidarity activists typically requires discursive narratives that frame labour struggles situated in particular workplaces as broader societal struggles for social justice (Chun, 2009;Haug, 2009;Lévesque and Murray, 2010;Schmalz, Ludwig and Webster, 2018). But what types of narrative and discourse resonate with solidarity allies who come from markedly different, and sometimes highly privileged, social backgrounds and work-life experiences? ...
... Indeed, the past two decades have seen new upsurges in labour militancy across various regions of the world and working contexts that have allowed scholars to identify and theorise additional sources of working-class power (Schmalz, Ludwig and Webster, 2018;Però and Downey, 2024; See also Refslund and Arnholtz 2022). Most notable amongst these additional sources of power are institutional power and societal power. ...
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This paper extends scholarship on emerging sources of worker power in the 21st century through an examination of the solidarity activism of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an agricultural worker-led human rights organisation that advocates for Fair Food policies. The successes of the CIW are unexpected, since Florida’s migrant workers lack the traditional sources of worker power that bolstered the labour struggles of the 20th century. Through in-depth interviews and a survey of student-farmworker activists, we extend scholarship rooted in the power resources approach to analyse the societal forms of power – both discursive and coalitional – that the CIW has developed in their efforts to harness broad social support from actors beyond the fields. We demonstrate how CIW coalitions are sustained through solidarity narratives that clarify the stakes for student allies and the discursive frames that motivate their activism.
... This article sets out to contribute to LPT by providing insights on collective power-building practices that precarious and migrant workers deploy to redress some of the exploitative and oppressive labour process arrangements of outsourcing. In discussing how workers' contentious collective action can be made effective, the article draws on Schmalz's et al. (2018) typology of powers which is used as a heuristic device to provide an analytical account of how the collective engagements of workers in condition of 'high precarity' can change some exploitative managerial practices. ...
... To address these concerns and account for how this process can unravel, this article uses as heuristic device Schmalz et al.'s (2018) typology of powers 2 which identifies four main types of power. Structural power refers to the power deriving from the position workers occupy in the productive process and the possibility this position offers to disrupt this process. ...
... How did they build the necessary power to induce employers' change? Using the typology developed by Schmalz et al. (2018) as a heuristic device, the next section examines the specific power building strategies that indie unions deploy. As we will see, the key forms of powers mostly drawn upon and combined in this instance are associational, coalitional and discursive. ...
... Actualmente, existe consenso de que en contextos desfavorables la legitimidad social, expresada en la confianza y el apoyo de la opinión pública, puede convertirse en una fuente importante de poder para los sindicatos (Schmalz, Ludwig y Webster 2018;Marshall 2021). A pesar de esto, los estudios sobre confianza social en los sindicatos son escasos, especialmente si se los compara con la amplia literatura sobre confianza en instituciones políticas (Mingo y Faggiano 2020;Parra Saiani et al. 2021;Kim et al. 2022). ...
... Esto sugiere que, cuando son parte de movilizaciones masivas, los sindicatos pueden ser resistentes a las crisis de legitimidad institucional comúnmente asociadas a las movilizaciones populares (Bringel 2021;Parra Saiani et al. 2021). Asimismo, esto indica que, incluso en contextos de debilidad, las organizaciones sindicales pueden construir poder societal cuando participan de movilizaciones junto a otros movimientos sociales (Schmalz, Ludwig y Webster 2018;Bensusán 2019). Aunque el periodo de tiempo analizado en la Figura 3 no permite identificar un incremento sustancial de las movilizaciones en Colombia y Perú, el aumento reciente de las protestas en Colombia (2019) y Perú (2023) sugieren que algo similar a Chile podría estar ocurriendo en ambos países (Bringel 2021;Ramírez Gallegos y Stoessel 2023;Durand 2023). ...
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En este artículo, estudiamos qué factores individuales y contextuales explican la confianza en los sindicatos latinoamericanos. Utilizando datos de Latinobarómetro (2018–2020), mostramos que la confianza en los sindicatos es mayor entre personas de clase trabajadora y clase media asalariada, así como entre quienes se identifican con la izquierda y confían más en las instituciones políticas. A nivel contextual, la confianza es mayor en países neo-desarrollistas (por ejemplo, Brasil y Uruguay) y menor en países capitalistas tercerizados (por ejemplo, México y países centroamericanos). Contrario a nuestra hipótesis, también encontramos que la confianza en los sindicatos es alta en Chile (un país liberal-rentista con sindicatos débiles) y baja en algunos países redistributivo-rentistas (Venezuela) y neo-desarrollistas (Argentina). Para explicar estos resultados, analizamos cómo la confianza en los sindicatos depende de aspectos contextuales como la informalidad laboral, el desempleo, la inflación, el poder de los partidos de izquierda y el nivel de movilización social.
... I find the power resources approach (PRA), commonly employed in labor sociology, industrial relations, and global labor studies, particularly useful in highlighting the importance of collective agency to win demands and power. As Schmalz et al (2018) affirmed, the PRA is based on the principle that 'organized labor can successfully defend its interests by collective mobilization of power resources' (p 113) (own emphasis). In this model, individual workers are perceived as 'systematically disadvantaged' (Prinz and Pegels 2018, p 212) due to their structural subordination to employers. ...
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This study explores the complexities of Germany’s energy transition, focusing on coal workers and their unions. Drawing from labor geography, the article examines how workers navigate the challenges of the coal phase-out. Despite strong union representation, co-determination rights, and negotiated economic provisions, coal workers express significant concerns about industry restructuring. These concerns are categorized into two main areas: personal futures and the broader societal impacts of the transition. Workers fear deindustrialization, social decline, and an exacerbation of austerity effects, leading to a prevalent rejection of Germany’s green transition. Additionally, a rightward political shift has been observed, which is linked to fears of social decline. This study highlights the importance of considering these factors in policy discussions, advocating for a just transition that addresses both the immediate material anxieties and the broader societal impacts experienced by workers.
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Studies indicate that gig workers, one of the leading groups revitalizing labor movements globally, have organized by diverging from traditional union strategies. How do they achieve this in diverse local contexts? Drawing on 21 months of international ethnographic fieldwork with gig workers’ unions in Seoul and Toronto, this article examines how and why these two unions develop different strategies for addressing critical crises. Comparative analysis reveals that while the shared labor process and the multinational parent company drive the unions toward new unionism, different worker subjectivities are emphasized by each union based on specific axes of oppression: working-class citizen men in Seoul and racialized immigrants in Toronto. These union orientations are linked to the unions’ distinct histories, including the biographies of founding members. My argument is twofold. First, to better understand rising gig workers’ organizing efforts around the globe, we must consider both global and local contexts. While gig labor processes push gig workers’ unions to move away from traditional union tactics, two key local factors—the workforce’s demographic makeup and union histories—shape their divergent models. Second, it is critical to understand the process of cultivating solidarity—not only building solidarity itself but also deciding which groups to be in solidarity within the local context.
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In recent years, there has been growing evidence in Germany of efforts by employers to obstruct works councils, trade unions and individual employees in the exercise of their participation rights. When such situations arise, the asymmetry of power intrinsic to the employment relationship will put the employee side at a structural disadvantage. Nonetheless, employees have strategic options to regain their legal rights to co-determination. The article examines, firstly, how employers obstruct works councils, trade union representation and collective bargaining. Secondly, it analyses the strategies and practices the employee side uses in response. Based on 28 case studies from various sectors and a total of 87 interviews, the study identifies two broad types of obstruction of co-determination by employers and six key dimensions that characterize employee resistance. The analysis of successful and failed conflicts points to a wide range of the diverse options available to employees.
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Die Arbeitsbedingungen in der Frachtschifffahrt entsprechen vielfach nicht den internationalen Standards für gute Arbeit. Für ein besseres Verständnis der Einflussmöglichkeiten zugunsten sozialer Nachhaltigkeit in der Frachtseefahrt stellt diese Kapitel die zentralen Akteure der Schifffahrtsindustrie vor. Die wirtschaftlichen Eigentümer von Schiffen, d. h. die natürlichen oder juristischen Personen, die in den Genuss der Vorteile des Eigentums kommen, sind nicht leicht zu ermitteln, da die Register oft nicht öffentlich zugänglich sind oder die wirtschaftlichen Eigentümer hinter weiteren Schichten von offshore registrierten Unternehmen versteckt sind. Schifffahrtsunternehmen scheinen jedoch die dominierenden Akteure im Seeverkehrssystem zu sein. Als kommerzielle Betreiber sind sie für die kommerzielle Dimension eines Schiffes verantwortlich, einschließlich seiner Beschäftigung und der Art des Chartervertrags, unter dem es betrieben wird. Sie beauftragen Crew-Management-Unternehmen, erhalten Aufträge von globalen Seefrachtspediteuren und nutzen die Dienstleistungen von Klassifikationsgesellschaften, Versicherungsunternehmen, Finanzakteuren und Hafenbetreibern. Nach der Vorstellung dieser kommerziellen Akteure folgt eine Darstellung der maritim engagierten Staaten, insbesondere den Flaggenstaaten, der Regierungsorganisationen wie Hafenbehörden, der Internationalen Seeschifffahrtsorganisation und der Europäischen Union. Aus der Übersicht der Verantwortlichkeiten dieser Akteure der Schifffahrtsindustrie ergeben sich Handlungsempfehlungen.
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Debates on labor regimes situate worker outcomes at the intersection of globalized production and specific social formations, but they do not specify how and why labor regimes change over time. This article presents a new approach to explaining how labor regimes change in the global apparel industry, the labor-led profit squeeze approach, combining insights from global production networks (GPN), development economics and labor studies. This approach argues that workers’ bargaining power is largely conditional upon processes of structural transformation. The article demonstrates this conceptual approach through a comparative analysis of the apparel export industries in Madagascar, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
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The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the rise of fitness platforms offering students access to online classes. However, there appears to be little research on how fitness professionals perceive and engage with these platforms. This article focuses on a group of yoga teachers in Berlin who resisted the growing influence of fitness platforms in their field. Using a mixed-methods approach, this case study of the Fair Yoga Initiative investigates why and how this group of self-employed workers mobilised against platforms. Previous research suggests that self-employed platform workers face numerous challenges in building collective power, including workforce heterogeneity and fragmentation. This study reveals the importance of subjective interests in overcoming these challenges and motivating yoga teachers to defend their profession from pressures of valorisation represented by fitness platforms. The article explores how gender might play a part in shaping subjective interests in this feminised profession. Moreover, the text highlights the importance of self-employed workers' rights in the current debates about regulations of digital labour platforms in the European Union. Despite operating in a restrictive legal LLI, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2024, ISSN 2421-2695 157 environment, in this case the yoga teachers leveraged their collective power to influence public discourse on fitness platforms. I argue that new worker organizations can spotlight the rights of specific professional groups and contribute to the development of laws that better protect their interests.
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The article concerns the recent transformation and ensuing successes of a Turkish trade union of road transport workers called Tüm Taşıma İşçileri Sendikası (TÜMTİS). In the mid-2000s, TÜMTİS was mainly organised in small-sized freight companies having around 1 500 members with collective contracts. The strategic choice of a new leadership to concentrate on a large-scale, international firm with the support of Global Unions was the turning point. The ensuing United Parcel Service campaign ended with a collective agreement for nearly 2 700 new members in 2011. The union won its second large-scale organising victory at DHL in 2014. At the time of writing, a third large-scale firm is on the verge of recognition. To scrutinise this case, I use the power resources approach in a critical way. To the approach, I add an examination of the subjectivities of union leaders by drawing on the debates about different types of unionisms, importance of the ideology and motivations. I argue that the agency behind this revitalisation can be only explained by taking both its objectivities and subjectivities into account. While the class unionism embraced by TÜMTİS leaders explains the subjective side of the story, associational power from below and its meeting with international solidarity play the key role on the objective side.
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Russia’s traditional system of employment relations was marked by an overt quiescence about past decades. From 2000 onwards, increasing numbers of transnational companies throughout Russia’s booming regions gave rise to the unfolding of an alternative union movement. In Kaluga, located south-west of Moscow, plant organisations successfully struggled to receive formal recognition as negotiating unions in foreign automobile firms, not shying away from open conflict. However, processes indicate their prospects for lasting consolidation go along with certain difficulties. Successes achieved are ostensibly the result of utilising workers’ strong primary bargaining power. The unions’ sole local focus of conflict, as well as the absence of employers’ associations, prevent negotiations for sectoral or regional agreements, possibly impairing unions’ associational power. Since societal power is practically absent, a substantial shift in power balances is not yet in sight.
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While street vendors have provided goods and services to millions at an affordable rate on their doorsteps since time immemorial, erosion of the rural livelihood base, growing informalisation and unabated urbanisation have suddenly increased their numbers in Indian cities in the 1990s. Despite the fact that these workers contribute significantly to the urban economy, they have faced and often continue to experience humiliation, continual harassment, confiscations and sudden evictions. It became imperative to advocate for their rights through the formulation of appropriate policies, the enactment of relevant laws, and the provision of adequate social protection benefits. The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) played a pivotal and catalytic role in transforming street vendors from non-entities into a formidable force to reckon with. Based on existing published works on the street vendors’ movement in India, a series of key informant interviews and national consultation with stakeholders, the paper aims to document the journey of NASVI in terms of milestones, struggles and successes using the theoretical framework of power resources and capabilities. It also makes an attempt to bring out important lessons for social actors interested in organising informal workers.
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This is a case study of how the transnational cooperation between two unions – IG Metall in Germany and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in the United States – was put on a new trajectory. It is a template for the challenges unions face in adapting their nationally oriented self-interest toward building transnational solidarity and being able to leverage global corporate power in defence of workers’ interests across borders. Using the power resources approach, it highlights the unions’ transnational strategy built on mobilising associational and institutional resources. Understanding their make-up and utilisation became crucial in the process as limits to institutional power without involvement and mobilisation on the ground became evident. The case study focuses on the initiation and preparation phase of a more comprehensive organisational cooperation, culminating in a formal agreement to establish a Transnational Partnership Initiative (TPI) in 2015. While no organising gains were made in this phase – indeed, only losses – it was crucial for building trust and mutual understanding, as well as for actively promoting a broadly based anchoring of the TPI in terms of policy in both unions. The case study’s conclusions are generally positive on this count; yet they are preliminary as the overall project is a work-in-progress and its basis of support beyond the two unions (societal power) is still untested.
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This paper looks at the development of the Unified Workers' Central of Brazil (CUT) during the four consecutive Workers' Party (PT) governments, first under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and later under Dilma Rousseff. The analysis draws on various aspects of the power resources approach, but focuses specifically on institutional power. The government found it politically difficult to implement a left-wing programme, due to the complex nature of the ruling coalition and its conservative opposition in the broader context of neo-liberal hegemony and financial globalisation. By continuing to establish dialogue with social movements, the PT governments stimulated forms of social participation in developing public policies, reinforcing existing institutions and creating new ones. By using its institutional power, the CUT was able to strengthen its participation in public institutions. There were hardly any substantial debates on labour or employment conducted without the CUT's participation. On the other hand, the privileged spaces in the labour arena did not achieve structural changes capable of redefining the country's development model and the standard of work regulation.
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This article presents a critical analysis of Michael Burawoy’s model of public sociology, discussing several of its epistemic and methodological limitations. First, the author focuses on the ambiguity of Burawoy’s proposal, problematizing the absence of a clear delimitation of the concept of ‘public sociology’. Second, the author links the academic success of the category of public sociology to the global division of sociological labour, emphasizing the ‘geopolitics of knowledge’ involved in Burawoy’s work and calling for the decolonization of social science. Then, the author expounds his concerns regarding the hierarchy of the different types of sociology proposed by Burawoy, who privileges professional sociology over other types of sociological praxis. Reflecting upon these elements will provide a good opportunity to observe how our discipline works, advancing also suggestions for its transformation. Along these lines, in the last section of the article the author elaborates on the need to go beyond a dissemination model of public sociology – the unidirectional diffusion of ‘expert knowledge’ to extra-academic audiences – and towards a more collaborative understanding of knowledge production.