Making Class Politics Possible: Organizing Contract Cleaners in London

Abstract

Abstract

A new living contract: cases in the implementation of the Living Wage by British SME retailers

“…In the UK, the concept was revived by campaigns spearheaded by civil society alliance Citizens UK/London Citizens in the early 2000s, which started as a response to high incidence of "low-wage" jobs in East London immigrant communities. Wills and colleagues documented and analysed these campaigns (Wills, 2004(Wills, , 2008Wills, Datta, Evans, Herbert, May and McIlwaine, 2009), and examined the experiences of low-waged workers who received the LW (Linneker and Wills, 2016;Wills and Linneker, 2012) as compared to those who did not (Flint et al, 2014). Much of this work, however, focussed on contract service providers.…”

A Historical Legacy Untouched by Time and Space? The Hollowing-out of the Norwegian Model of Industrial Relations

“…However, as pointed out by Gray (2004), there is nothing innate in the sector that causes poor conditions except for precisely the lack of institutions. Historically, unions have put up a fight for such institutions, and there has internationally been a surge in efforts to organize low-wage service workers, such as cleaners and hotel workers, which has become an area for union growth in the US and the UK (Wills, 2008).…”

“…As one of our informants put it, through outsourcing "the link between responsibility and authority is severed." Wills (2009) thus argues that outsourcing has severe implications for traditional union models, based as they are on collective bargaining with employers, since with the introduction of outsourcing unions no longer bargain with the "real employer," that is, the client company (Wills, 2008).…”

Commentary on Bryan Palmer’s “Approaching working-class history as struggle: a Canadian contemplation; a Marxist meditation”

“…In this context, emphasis has been placed on non-workplace focused and more networked forms of social or community unionism, especially as they related to struggles by women or workers of color (Tufts 2006;Wills 2001Wills , 2008. Critically, these perspectives have increasingly recognized the importance non-trade union forms of labor struggles especially by workers in the Global South (see Rogaly 2009;Buckley 2013).…”