The Spectre of Social Democracy: A Symptomatic Reading of the Power Resources Approach

Nowak, Jörg

doi:10.15173/glj.v9i3.3713

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Likewise, labour turnover might be an expression of labour unrest in a Silverian understanding (Silver, 2003), but might also be part of the reorganisation of domination. Our findings contribute to the recent debate on the power resources approach in this journal (Gallas, 2018;Nowak, 2018;Schmalz, Ludwig and Webster, 2018). They caution against conceptualising "power" as something that can be accumulated and invested into class struggle.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Migrant Labour and Workers' Struggles: The German Meatpacking Industry as Contested Terrain

Birke

Bluhm

2020

GLJ

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This article summarises results of a project whose aim was to analyse the role of migration within the current recomposition of the working class in Germany. We focus on the example of the meat industry in the Oldenburger Münsterland, a region that is experiencing a strong economic boom based on the expansion and modernisation of industrial work. The exploitation of migrant labour, composed of “newcomers” to the industry with both European Union and refugee backgrounds, is a pivotal feature of that boom. Most research on migrant labour focuses on legal frameworks and labour market dynamics. By focusing instead on the labour process, we are able to examine the connections between exploitation, resistance and collective organisation among migrant workers. We show that the experience of migrant workers is not one of complete powerlessness and subjugation. We contrast workers in two sub-sectors, slaughtering and packing on the one hand and industrial cleaning on the other. Although both of these activities are similarly low-wage and migrant-dominated, we find variation in the ability of these workers to exercise power. The importance of skill and the need to avoid turnover gives workers in slaughtering and packing some levers of power, despite their vulnerable immigration status. This power has even instigated a shift towards some formalisation of these jobs on the part of management. In contrast, the different labour process has prevented industrial cleaning workers from accessing the same levels of power, despite sharing a similar labour market position to their co-workers in slaughtering and packing. KEY WORDS: Migration; refugees; labor unrest; trade unions; subcontracting; meat industry

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Migrant Labour and Workers' Struggles: The German Meatpacking Industry as Contested Terrain

Birke

Bluhm

2020

GLJ

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“…Se deberán seguir probando estas hipótesis sobre la capacidad estructurante de la acción sindical, sobre la mutabilidad de las dominaciones del capital (de sus regímenes) y sobre las posibilidades de "desprecarización" del trabajo en otros sectores económicos y países. Estos aspectos deberían considerarse como elementos claves a la hora de evaluar los efectos y orientaciones de los recursos de poder de la clase trabajadora (Nowak, 2018).…”

Section: Discusión Y Conclusionesunclassified

La Intensificación Negociada: Cambios en el Régimen de Trabajo de una Gran Empresa de Retail en Chile (2006-2018)

Ratto

2021

Dados

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RESUMEN Pese a la precarización y declinación general de la actividad sindical, se han redescubierto experiencias de revitalización y contramovimientos desde los trabajadores, los que se presentan como gestas heroicas y sin efectos estructurantes sobre las condiciones de trabajo, en una panorama de mercantilización progresiva de la sociedad. A partir del estudio de caso de Walmart en Chile, se sostiene que la actividad sindical al interior de la empresa ha promovido la transformación de su régimen de trabajo, pasando de uno “despótico” basado en la inseguridad salarial, el abuso y las prácticas antisindicales, a otro “hegemónico segmentado”, con mejores trato, intentos de control normativo, fomento de la sindicalización y beneficios materiales desiguales. Se concluye reafirmando las tesis de que la organización autónoma de los trabajadores es posible en contextos de precarización, que la precariedad es reversible, y que el control del trabajo en el retail tiene límites de reproducción bajo mecanismos puramente despóticos y antisindicales.

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“…The issue of class relations leads us to an important misunderstanding of the PRA by some of the responses. In particular Gallas (2018) and Nowak (2018) perceive the PRA as a self-referential research heuristic that is largely detached from an analysis of global capitalism. At this point, it is important to clarify the intention of the PRA and to outline some of the discussions that took place a decade ago on the development of this approach.…”

Section: Areas Of Misunderstanding: Contextualising the Pramentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is particularly striking that Nowak (2018) and Gallas (2018) both refer in their articles to labour conflicts in former German state-owned companies and state-dominated or highly regulated economic sectors (airlines and railways) in order to criticise the PRA without contextualising the cases in the larger development of German capitalism, thereby drawing a distorted picture of the role of unions in these developments. For instance, in the case of recent labour conflicts in the railway sector, marketisation has played a major role, both changing working conditions and eroding institutional power, a process German rail unions EVG and its predecessors GDA and Transnet did not vigorously challenge as they relied on a strategy of social partnership without reflecting upon the changing context.…”

Section: Areas Of Misunderstanding: Contextualising the Pramentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While discussing our approach to the PRA, Gallas (2018) uses the concept of intermediary institution as an alternative concept to power resource oscillating between being class organisations and organisations of mass integration between capital and labour. Nowak (2018) does not put forward a clear theoretical foundation for the class unionism he is arguing for, but is critical of unions as legitimate organisations of interest representation, seeing them as organisations that are inevitably integrated into corporate structures. This places Nowak very much in what Richard Hyman (1971: 11-25) called, many years ago, the pessimistic interpretation of trade unionism.…”

Section: Areas Of Disagreement: the Nature Of Unionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Power Resources and Global Capitalism

Schmalz¹,

Ludwig²,

Webster

2019

GLJ

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We welcome the five responses to our introductory article published in the May and September 2018 issues of the Global Labour Journal and thank the editors of the GLJ for providing a platform for a more in-depth discussion of the origins, development and application of the Power Resources Approach (PRA). Our aim is to deepen the debate among critical labour scholars by introducing into the dominant narrative of union decline worldwide examples of innovative trade unionism. PRA is a way of analysing these developments, and we look forward to many more contributions on this, and other ways, of exploring the future of labour.Clearly there are important areas of agreement between ourselves and the comments made on our article. There are also areas where we feel our approach to PRA has been misunderstood, and there are areas of disagreement. Let us deal with the agreements first.

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The Spectre of Social Democracy: A Symptomatic Reading of the Power Resources Approach

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

Migrant Labour and Workers' Struggles: The German Meatpacking Industry as Contested Terrain

Migrant Labour and Workers' Struggles: The German Meatpacking Industry as Contested Terrain

La Intensificación Negociada: Cambios en el Régimen de Trabajo de una Gran Empresa de Retail en Chile (2006-2018)

Power Resources and Global Capitalism

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