Union Campaigns as Countermovements: Mobilizing Immigrant Workers in France and the United Kingdom

Abstract

In this article, we compare recent innovative union campaigns: the 'sans papiers' campaign in France and the 'Justice for Cleaners' campaign in the United Kingdom, both based on a sustained grass-roots mobilization of immigrant workers. Rather than focusing on the 'usual suspect' explanatory factors, such as contrasting national settings, union power structures or traditions, our cross-national comparison highlights important underlying similarities in unions' strategic responses to a growing precarious immigrant workforce. In the absence of established channels of representation, both unions decided to act like social movements fighting for social protection. Using Polanyi's framework, we view both case studies as examples of countermovements against heightened levels of global liberalization and precarious employment.

Mapping the frontier of theory in industrial relations: the contested role of worker representation

“…Also, numerous examples of community organizing tell us how ad hoc mobilizations have pushed employers into providing or at least promising better terms and conditions for workers, thus forcing them to change their business strategies and potentially adopt HPWS. Moreover, ad hoc mobilization can transform into institutionalization at higher levels, for example, the living wage initiative in the UK (Tapia, 2013;Tapia and Turner, 2013). Also, virtual campaigns against employers are another repertoire that is suitable for a new age of social media and one that both union and nonunion organizations are tapping into when targeting MNCs.…”

Comparative political economy and international migration

“…Some unions in the US and Europe started to support legal channels for labour immigration, and place more emphasis on the organisation of migrants (Watts 2002, Milkman 2006, Tapia and Turner 2013. This can be accounted for by a pragmatic acceptance that full immigration control could not be effectively achieved (Joppke 1998).…”

Organizational Contexts for Union Renewal

“…union renewal through integration of "new" social identities A key concern in the renewal literature has been whether unions are able and willing to change in ways that allow them to incorporate "new" social identities into their organizational fold (Levesque, Murray, and Le Queux, 2005;Tapia and Turner, 2013). Hyman (1996;2001) has long argued that unions must balance their market-based, class-based and social identities.…”

“…But despite these recent contributions, the IR literature has generally been limited in theorizing the organizational contexts for renewal. Hence, and in response to recent calls to draw on social movement theory in order to understand how unions create and sustain social movements (Tapia and Turner, 2013;Gahan and Pekarek, 2013), I turn next to the literature on social movements.…”

“…Scholars have referred to union 'renewal' as the attainment of institutional vitality in the internal governance of the union (Fairbrother, 2005: 387;Fairbrother and Yates, 2003;Turner, 2005). Programmatic calls for research into union renewal have discerned key elements of union renewal that include incorporating relatively new (to the labour movement) social identities (Haiven, Levesque, and Roby, 2006;Tapia and Turner, 2013) and securing sustained participation among members Fiorito, 2012b, 2012a). However, key questions remain unanswered.…”