 Indie Unions, Organizing and Labour Renewal: Learning from Precarious Migrant WorkersDavide Però Work, Employment & Society, 2020, vol. 34, issue 5, 900-918 Abstract: This article examines the organizing practices of indie unions – the emerging grassroots unions co-led by precarious migrant workers. It draws on an embedded actor-centred approach involving extensive multi-sited ethnography. The article shows how workers normally considered un-organizable by the established unions can build lasting solidarity and associational power and obtain material and non-material rewards in the context of precarity, scarce economic resources and a hostile environment. Here, I argue that the organization of workers into ‘communities of struggle’ geared towards mobilization facilitates their empowerment, effectiveness and social integration. The article contributes to labour mobilization theory by redefining the concept of organizing in inclusionary terms, so that the collective industrial agency of precarious and migrant workers organizing outside the established unions can be adequately recognized and accounted for. Keywords: CAIWU; communities of struggle; gig economy; grassroots and community unionism; IWGB; labour renewal; mobilization theory; organizing; precarious migrant workers; UVW (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:5:p:900-918 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association |
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