Restructuring Labour Relations and Employment in the European Logistics Sector

Abstract

This chapter compares union responses and the emergence of workers’ struggles in two segments of the European logistics sector: warehousing in Italy and parcel delivery in Austria. The two case studies show striking similarities both in the management of the supply chain, resulting in highly segmented labour markets, and in the two sub-industries’ exposure to workers’ positional power. Unions’ success and failure to organize workers in logistics supply chains and in the effective adoption of strategies to contest casualization and fragmentation are related to differences in the dominant or competing union structures to incorporate precarious workforce groups, and in building upon inclusive worker solidarity and direct action. In Italy, rank-and-file unions approach workers directly, providing labour law knowledge and militant experiences. In Austria, unions stick to their old recipes of corporatist inclusion, act defensively, and leave precarious workers to their own devices in their struggles.

When strong unions meet precarious migrants: Building trustful relations to unionise labour migrants in a high union-density setting

“…Although the workers in the fish processing company had not directly engaged with the union, they had heard about the union and how it had helped other migrant workers, which convinced them the union had the power to help them (interview, Romanian union translator). This suggests that the migrant workers turned to the union instead of other strategies such as self-organising (Benvegnu et al, 2018) or individual exit strategies (Bernsten, 2016), because of the enduring strong position of the Danish unions and their presence in the local community.…”

Automated infrastructure: COVID-19 and the shifting geographies of supply chain capitalism

“…Various authors, moreover, point to the recent role of subcontracting in weakening labour unions, as well as the banding together of corporate and state actors to ensure the smooth circulation of goods despite the occurrence of strikes (Benvegnù et al, 2018;Folkers and Stenmanns, 2019). The propensity for technology to become ever more pervasive (and intrusive) has only added to these troubles, making it difficult for workers to mobilize without attracting personal retributions.…”

Dualisierung und Solidarität in Europas Arbeitswelt: Eine Hierarchische Perspektive

“…Italy, by contrast, features relatively comprehensive industrial democracy institutions, scoring slightly above the EU-28 average on associational governance. Even more, studies also show that Italy's labor movement has regained its inclusive standing at the sectoral and national levels (Benvegnú et al 2018;Durazzi et al 2018), particularly toward temporary agency workers (Benassi/Vlandas 2016; Burroni/Pedaci 2014; Durazzi 2017). Thus, given the quantitative findings, Italy is the single unit most likely to provide maximum insights, i.e., if the power resource thesis is corroborated for this case, it is likely to hold in other cases too.…”