Unions for whom? Union democracy and precarious workers in Poland and Italy

Abstract

Focusing on the cases of Italy and Poland, this paper examines the link between union organizational democracy and the economic and political inclusion of precarious workers. It argues that union membership of vulnerable groups is not a necessary condition for the representation of their voice and economic interests by labour organizations; rather, these two forms of the inclusion are shaped primarily by institutional contexts in which unions operate as well as by their identities and structural characteristics. In both examined countries the economic inclusion of precarious workers has been more advanced, while the degree of their political inclusion lagged behind and varied across major union confederations in line with two distinct models of unionism: a solidaristic and a diversity-oriented one.

Fighting precarious work with institutional power: Union inclusion and its limits across spheres of action

“…The inattention paid to different levels of analysis is also associated with a weak conceptualization of institutional power in the literature. Due to a focus on sectors, the union inclusion literature emphasizes the importance of broader institutions, examining the role of more inclusive welfare states, labour market regulations and especially all‐encompassing sectoral agreements as sources of institutional power (Doellgast et al., 2018; Arnholtz and Refslund, 2019; Marino et al., 2019). According to this stream, unions have greater leverage to bargain for less precarious working conditions under more inclusive institutions.…”

Power resources and successful trade union actions that address precarity in adverse contexts: The case of Central and Eastern Europe

“…Internal democracy is employed to build solidarity between members with otherwise potentially heterogeneous interests. In Italy and Poland, Marino et al (2019) reveal that workers' representation without internal procedures hinders precarious workers from shaping the decisions that concern them. However, the study's focus on the voice dimension makes it unclear whether limited internal democracy prevents unions from taking successful actions to improve other dimensions such as low wages or irregular working time.…”

Unionisation and mobilisation within platform work: towards precarisation—a case of Uber drivers in Poland

“…The role of trade unions in representing vulnerable groups of workers has been analysed especially in relation to such issues as atypical employees (Benassi and Dorigatti, 2015;Pulignano and Doerflinger, 2013), migrant workers (Connolly et al, 2017;Marino et al, 2017) and gender perspective (Mrozowicki and Trawinska, 2013;Parker, 2002). The results indicate that attitudes of unions towards vulnerable groups differ not only due to certain factors related to trade unions themselves (union structure and identity) but also due to some contextual variables (Marino et al, 2019).…”