Active Industrial Citizenship of Domestic Workers: Lessons Learned from Unionizing Attempts in Israel and the United Kingdom

Abstract

In this Article we offer a new conceptualization of industrial citizenship, which is sensitive to gender and migration status. Our conceptualization builds on the theoretical distinction between active and passive citizenship and the analyses of active industrial citizenship. We suggest that active industrial citizenship should be detached from the old and influential tradition of trade unionism that is connected with the public/private divide. Our proposed conceptualization leads to attaching value to activities related to ethics of care and to the pursuit of legal status, which should be seen as forms of activism. The discussion focuses on organizing domestic workers. We argue that this new conceptualization of active industrial citizenship leads to the recognition of domestic workers as active industrial citizens, rather than passive victims of abuse. It also transforms the way we view organizational forms within the labor market, making it possible to appreciate on an equal basis membership in trade unions and participation in NGOs and other civil society organizations, thereby building cooperation as well as taking part in other aspects of public life. We ground our argument on theoretical literature as well as a qualitative study, a series of interviews with key trade union and NGO actors with expertise in organizing and supporting domestic workers in Israel and the United Kingdom.

Collective bargaining in domestic work and its contribution to regulation and formalization in Italy

“…Employers' associations are engaged and involved (see section 2) and it is thus the workers who are neither adequately represented nor organized in other ways (Marchetti, Cherubini and Garofalo Geymonat 2021). This differs from other countries of the global North, where domestic workers are more engaged in activism, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel (Mundlak and Shamir 2014;Albin and Mantouvalou 2016).…”

La negociación colectiva en el trabajo doméstico y su contribución a la regulación y la formalización en Italia

“…Las asociaciones de empleadores participan con voluntad negociadora (véase el apartado 2) y son, en cambio, los trabajadores quienes no se encuentran adecuadamente representados ni organizados de otras formas (Marchetti, Cherubini y Garofalo Geymonat 2021). Esta situación difiere de la observada en otros países del Norte, donde los trabajadores domésticos participan más en el activismo, como ocurre en los Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido e Israel (Mundlak y Shamir 2014;Albin y Mantouvalou 2016).…”

Hard-working Heroes or Curious Students? - Au pair Positioning, Organizing, and Negotiation

“…Operating on a national level, unions can tend to show more solidarity with workers holding a citizenship than with migrant workers, which may create tensions and preferential treatment (Albin 2014). This lack of citizenship and recognition can also prevent migrant domestic workers from being devoted to unions (Albin & Mantouvalou 2016). The nature of domestic workespecially for live-in workers -with long working hours any time of day also leaves little time for organizing and/or union activities (Ford 2004;Mundlak & Shamir 2014) and tends to challenge the sustainability of such initiatives when they do take place (Jiang & Korczynski 2016).…”