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Affirming democracy: trade union action meets work fragmentation

How do you organize collective action if the workforce is spread in a fragmented value chain and if the power that governs processes is “faceless”?

Published:
open Movements
open Movements

The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.

pexels-photo-25931.jpg
pexels-photo-25931.jpg

There are many problems for trade unions in dealing with the changes that have occurred in the world of work in the last few decades. In western economies today, the institutional bargaining power of trade unions faces a crisis, and affirming workers' rights and improving working conditions through traditional systems of social dialogue at industrial and territorial level proves increasingly difficult, with a general decline in membership rates over the years.

Trade unions, as regards their membership and institutional framework, vary greatly. However, within the world of work, there are many shared challenges, with a common neoliberal trajectory based not only on institutional deregulation but also on institutional conversion.