Conflicting Imperatives? Ethnonationalism and Neoliberalism in Industrial Relations

Abstract

Based on a case study of non-citizen Palestinian workers in the Israeli construction sector, this article explores the dynamic relationship between the exclusionary imperative of ethnonationalism and the inclusionary imperative of neoliberalism. The authors argue that these imperatives together constitute a heuristically useful framework that can help to explain the choices of social actors and the constraints on these choices, as well as the apparently contradictory developments that affect industrial relations institutions and the employment relationship more broadly. While neoliberalism generally weakens organized labor, the study shows how the dynamic between these two imperatives can open space for the inclusion of disenfranchised ethnonational groups within collective labor relations—a first step to political empowerment. The study thus re-asserts the importance of organized labor as a powerful actor able to engender progressive change, even for the “ethnonational other” under rigidly ethnonationalistic regimes.

Introduction to a Special Issue on Labor in the Middle East and North Africa: Precarity, Inequality, and Migration

“…5 Israel’s system of industrial relations has undergone a partial shift from corporatism to pluralism beginning in the 1970s (Cohen, Haberfeld, Krisal, and Mundlak 2007). As Jonathan Preminger and Assaf Bondy (2023) argue in this special issue, industrial relations in Israel are set in the context of ethnonationalism, characterized by the “dominance of one group of people over all others under the regime’s de facto authority” (p. 647). This setting has created tension between the “objective of nation-building and maintaining a Jewish state,” and solidarity with non-citizen Palestinian workers (Cohen et al 2007: 257).…”

“…Building on previous work on the relationship between unions and precarious workers in Tunisia (King 2017), Saerom Han’s (2023) account of site workers’ activism takes seriously the complex relationship between privileged insiders, such as union members, and excluded outsiders, such as precarious workers. Preminger and Bondy’s (2023) study of Palestinian construction workers in Israel draws explicit attention to ethnonationalist settings, theorizing their effects on workers’ advocacy. Both articles contribute to our thinking about workers’ agency and the possibilities for advancing workers’ rights in the face of neoliberal economic reforms.…”

“…Preminger and Bondy (2023: 649) highlight the unique challenges and opportunities for non-citizen workers in the context of the competing pressures of the “neoliberal imperative to include and exploit,” and “the ethnonationalist imperative to exclude and suppress.” Drawing on interviews and archival material to examine the case of Palestinian construction workers in Israel, they show how these competing imperatives could shape the behavior of relevant social actors, including unions, the state, and civil society organizations. Although neoliberal economic policies deepened the exploitation of non-citizen workers by increasing labor mobility and weakening labor unions, they also opened a space for their potential inclusion, through the activities of civil society organizations—lobbying for workers’ rights through increased independent litigation.…”

“…In response, organized labor—traditionally aligned with exclusive nationalist policies—developed strategies to become more inclusionary. The social partners “established an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, an ‘enforcement committee’ comprising representatives of both labor and capital, conceived as mediation substituting court proceedings” (Preminger and Bondy 2023: 660). As a result, “neoliberal ethnonationalism can also open up space for inclusion and, potentially, participation toward effective citizenship” (p. 666).…”