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Dualism or solidarity? Conditions for union success in regulating precarious work

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  • Laura Carver
  • Virginia Doellgast

Abstract

This article summarizes and reviews research on union responses to precarious work in Europe, based on a systematic coding of 56 case study-based articles published between 2008 and 2019. Analyses of these cases suggest two paths to labour market dualism, with the first involving institutional fragmentation and union division, and the second a combination of weak structural power and partnership-oriented union identities. The authors also identify two paths to solidarity, with the result of reduced precarity for peripheral workers: a conflict-based path and a social partnership-based path. Campaigns to organize migrant workers present distinctive institutional and structural challenges to unions, with studies involving migrants most often finding ‘failed solidarity’, in which inclusive organizing fails to reduce precarity. The article integrates these findings with past frameworks on union responses to precarious work and concludes with recommendations for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Carver & Virginia Doellgast, 2021. "Dualism or solidarity? Conditions for union success in regulating precarious work," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(4), pages 367-385, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eurjou:v:27:y:2021:i:4:p:367-385
    DOI: 10.1177/0959680120978916
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    2. Henri Haapanala & Ive Marx & Zachary Parolin, 2023. "Robots and unions: The moderating effect of organized labour on technological unemployment," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 827-852, August.
    3. Giorgio Cutuli & Alessio Tomelleri, 2023. "Returns to digital skills use, temporary employment, and trade unions in European labour markets," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 29(4), pages 393-413, December.
    4. Dongwoo Park, 2023. "Lopsided inclusion: The impact of multi‐employer bargaining and class‐based unionism on non‐regular employment in South Korea," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 110-132, March.
    5. James Duggan & Michelle O’Sullivan & Maeve O’Sullivan, 2023. "Essential or excluded? Union pressures and state responses to platform work in three liberal market economies," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(4), pages 491-505, November.
    6. Matteo Marenco, 2024. "Platform work meets flexicurity: A comparison between Danish and Dutch social partners’ responses to the question of platform workers’ contract classification," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 30(2), pages 201-220, June.
    7. Maxime Bellego & Virginia Doellgast & Elisa Pannini, 2023. "From Taylorism to teams: organisational and institutional experimentation at France Télécom," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 355-370, August.
    8. Giorgio Cutuli & Alessio Tomelleri, 2023. "Returns to ICT Skills Use and Labour Market Institutions," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2023-02, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.

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