Hyper-mobile migrant workers and Dutch trade union representation strategies at the Eemshaven construction sites

Lisa Berntsen and Nathan Lillie
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Lisa Berntsen: University of Jyväskylä, Finland; University of Groningen, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Nathan Lillie: University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2016, vol. 37, issue 1, 171-187

Abstract: The EU regulatory regime and employers’ cross-border recruitment practices complicate unions’ ability to represent increasingly diverse and transnationally mobile workers. Even in institutional contexts where the industrial relations structure and labour law are favourable, such as the Netherlands, unions struggle with maintaining labour standards for these workers. This article analyses Dutch union efforts to represent hyper-mobile construction workers at the Eemshaven construction sites. It shows that the nexus of subcontracting, transnational mobility, legal insularity and employer anti-unionism complicate enforcement so that even well-resourced unions can, at best, improve employment conditions for a limited set of workers and only for a limited period of time.

Keywords: Construction; Dutch industrial relations; migrant organizing; migrant workers; posted workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:37:y:2016:i:1:p:171-187

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X14537357

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