Contentious Labor-Capital Relations

Joining the literature on industrial relations and social movements, the workshop aims to reflect about challenges and changes in labour representation, in particular regarding the representation of workers in precarious employment conditions and low-skilled occupations. 

The workshop collects theoretical and empirical contributions that address questions related, but that are not limited to: the role of traditional and independent trade unions, social movements and civil society organizations in representing labour; organizational strategies for workers’ inclusion, considering both insiders and outsiders; organizational structures of alliances and cooperation; the influence exerted by labour laws, institutional contexts, sectoral characteristics, and employers’ strategies on employment conditions and workers’ collective actions; processes linked to the emergence of a new working class.

PROGRAMME

Thursday December 1 2022, 3-6 pm

Variety of trade unions and innovation among trade unions. Chair: Katia Pilati

• Guglielmo Meardi (Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze)
  Union power: Why varieties of power resources matter
• Trine P. Larsen (University of Copenhagen), Anna Ilsøe (University of Copenhagen), Oscar Molina (University of Barcellona), Alejandro Godino (University of Barcellona) and Karolien Lenaerts (Universiy of KU-Leuven)
  Back to basics: European trade unions’ innovative organizing strategies towards freelancers and platform workers
• Davide Però (University of Nottingham)
  New Labor Formations, Power and the Precarious Workers of the Gig Economy: Lessons from British Indie Unions
• Andrea Signoretti (University of Trento), Sabrina Perra (University of Cagliari), Marcello Pedaci (University of Teramo) and Katia Pilati (University of Trento)
  Multiple unions’ frames and representation of workers in the Italian logistic sector

Friday  December 2 2022,  9-12 am

Trade unions’ and social movements alliances. Chair: Andrea Signoretti

• Lucio Miguel Martínez (University of Manchester)
  Trade unions (ism), social movements and the community: connections and realities  
• Jiri Navratil (University of Masaryk)
  Processes of des-/integration: Protest alliances of Czech trade unions
• Mario Diani (University of Trento)
  Union activism and collective action fields: A comparative look

Friday  December 2 2022, 2-5 pm

Labour resistance and managerial control

• Mark Friis Hau (University of Copenhagen), Nana Wesley Hansen (University of Copenhagen), Oscar Molina (University of Barcellona)
  Grassroots integration or breakaway unionism: Unions, grassroots, and democracy in the digital age
• Sophie Beroud (University of Lumière Lyon-2) 
  In France: trade union experiments in organizing precarious workers that remain fragmented (online presentation)
• Maite Tapia (Michigan State University)
  The Militarization of Human Resources: Contemporary Models of Worker Control in Amazon Fulfillment Centers (online presentation)