Striking issues: from labour process to industrial dispute at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet

Abstract

This article applies a feminist intersectionality approach to analysing the dynamics of the labour process and labour in two workplaces where Asian women workers were in\ud the forefront of resistance. It stresses the importance of understanding the links between different aspects of workers’ identities

Unpacking the Category of Migrant Workers in Trade Union Research: A Multi-Level Approach to Migrant Intersectionalities

“…Another critical study that shows a strong intersectional sensitivity at the micro level is that by Pearson et al (2010) Focusing on the intersecting class, gender, and racial identities of the workforce, the authors show how in both cases a largely Asian women workforce decided to walk out and engage in tactics of resistance overcoming major constraints and repression from their employers. At the same time, the unions failed to acknowledge the multiple layers of discrimination the workforce faced.…”

“…As Holgate (2005) and Pearson et al (2010) have shown, gaining a better understanding of the micro level of analysis would have provided critical insights for the trade unions as well, leading to different and potentially more successful mobilisation strategies.…”

From Grunwick to Gate Gourmet: South Asian Women’s Industrial Activism and the Role of Trade Unions

“…The Grunwick dispute was a spontaneous act of resistance to managerial control while the underlying grievances behind the Gate Gourmet dispute were downward pressures on pay and conditions and the growing use of agency and contract labour. 74 The workers involved in both the disputes resorted to collective action as the result of cumulative experience of injustice based in large part on the discordance between their perceptions of themselves in terms of their identities as women and as workers and formed as much by their experience of migration and their class dislocation, as by any overt racist or discriminatory practices. A useful framework for understanding their position is offered by feminist analyses of intersectionality, which stress the significance of interlinking different aspects of identities.…”

“…But this remains a formidable challenge in a period when trade unions remain constrained by both nature of labour market in an era of globalisation and restructuring and by increasing restrictions on trade unions imposed by a neo-liberal state in the UK. 44 In 2016, sections of the British union movement collaborated in celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Grunwick strike, 76 seeking to locate the historic struggles of the 1970s within the current context of the "gig economy" characterised by the quasi selfemployment status of those working for technology-enabled companies such as Uber (taxis) and Deliveroo (meal deliveries). In spite of some significant legal victories, these burgeoning service sectors which employ large numbers of migrant workers remain largely unorganised.…”

“…43 This made the clerical department the bottleneck or pressure point for keeping up with the high turnover necessary throughout the peak summer months. 44 The management sought to maximise productivity in this department through constant threats of dismissal if workers did not respond to efforts to increase output, and by employing students on casual contracts during the summer. As Jayaben Desai recalled:…”