Indie Unions, Organizing and Labour Renewal: Learning from Precarious Migrant Workers

Per�, Davide

Abstract

This article examines the organizing practices of indie unions-the emerging grassroots unions co-led by precarious migrant workers. It draws on an embedded actor-centred approach involving extensive multi-sited ethnography. The article shows how workers normally considered un-organizable by the established unions can build lasting solidarity and associational power and obtain material and non-material rewards in the context of precarity, scarce economic resources and a hostile environment. Here, I argue that the organization of workers into 'communities of struggles' geared towards mobilization facilitates their empowerment, effectiveness and social integration. The article contributes to labour mobilization theory by redefining the concept of organizing in inclusionary terms, so that the collective industrial agency of precarious and migrant workers organizing outside the established unions can be adequately recognised and accounted for.

Citation

Però, D. (2019). Indie Unions, Organizing and Labour Renewal: Learning from Precarious Migrant Workers. Work, Employment and Society, 34(5), 900-918. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019885075

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 20, 2019
• Publication Date: Nov 20, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 8, 2019
• Journal: Work, Employment and Society
• Print ISSN: 0950-0170
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8722
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 900-918
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019885075
• Keywords: grassroots and community unionism; precarious migrant workers; organizing; labour renewal; communities of struggle; IWGB; UVW; CAIWU; mobilization theory; gig economy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2781633
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017019885075