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Despite its political and strategic importance, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been largely absent from cross-regional comparative treatments of industrial and labor relations. This special issue builds on a rich, multidisciplinary, and methodologically diverse body of research on labor and employment in the MENA, bringing together a collection of cutting-edge work in this field. The goal is to bring the study of the MENA into conversation with international and comparative scholarship on industrial and labor relations and to encourage more systematic inclusion of the MENA in comparative work. Drawing on research on Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, and the Gulf states, contributors to this special issue advance comparative scholarship on migration, labor market outcomes, worker agency, and the relationship between unions and precarious workers. This introductory essay situates these contributions in the context of three bodies of research in the study of labor in the MENA: resistance and contentious activism, labor market challenges, and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our core aim was to explore the perceptions of precarious workers on the ways in which the pandemic impacted their relationships with their employing organizations and to explore the ways in which they viewed the pandemic as (re)shaping the dynamics of precarious work and the extent to which they saw the pandemic as contributing to substantive improvement in their working lives or whether the pandemic is exacerbating their marginalisation. Design/methodology/approach: We adopted an approach akin to grounded theory in an exploratory research design and utilized in-depth, semi-structured interviews as the most apposite method of data collection. Our research design centred on a two-phase data collection approach, which were intended to gather data at two points. First, during the most difficult part of the pandemic, which we describe as the "Lockdown phase" and second, during the period wherein the pandemic rules were eased but elements of the risks remained; the "New Normal phase". Findings: This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the reflections and interpretations of precarious workers on the impacts of the pandemic on their relationships with their employing organizations. We supply findings across three periods – pre-the COVID-19 pandemic, during the pandemic lockdown phase and post-lockdowns in the "new normal phase". Research limitations/implications: The first contribution of the study is the importance of "voice" and giving voice to workers in nontraditional, fragmented and marginalised employment. Our study builds on these contributions by exploring the journeys of precarious workers and is particularly valuable in that we explore the perceptions of these workers across the societal, organizational and employment/working turbulence of the pandemic. The second contribution arises from the insights developed through studying the working lives and experiences of precarious workers longitudinally rather than in a single, snapshot fashion. A third contribution centres on how precarious workers felt they were treated by others during both the two phases of the study. The insights here are complex and, in parts, contradictory – reflecting the interpretations and conflicted opinions/deeds of those connected with precarious workers. Originality/value: It is particularly important for scholars to understand the ways in which the pandemic shaped (or reshaped) the dynamics of precarious work and to understand whether the evolving conceptions of the centrality of such workers as "essential" during the pandemic (Crane and Matten, 2021) contributed to substantive or merely illusory, improvements in their working lives. Thus, we analyse the reflections of precarious workers on changes to their working lives that are linked to the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the last three decades, nightlife policies in Southern European cities have been directed towards promoting the night as a space–time for tourism-oriented promotion. At the same time, highly precarious, often racialised migrant actors performing informal activities during the night have been (re-)criminalised, put under surveillance and persecuted by public discourse and policy-making. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the centrality of 'the night' as a fundamental cornerstone for urban governance. However, analysis of how debates on urban nightlife dialogue with frameworks on urban in/formality, security and governance during the day require a more systematic analysis. In this commentary, we call into question the role of the in/formal urban night in ordering neoliberal cities in Southern Europe. By focussing on informal workers during the night as exemplar cases of how in/formal nocturnal governance is produced, we propose an approach to incorporate deeper explorations in future nightlife studies along three avenues: (i) contradictory public discourses encompassed by 'the night', and how they are affected by long-term cultural, neo-colonial legacies and 'darkness' archetypes; (ii) survival and resistance strategies conducted by precarious/subaltern nocturnal actors during the day and night; and (iii) urban governance arrangements shaping and being shaped by the in/formal night in contemporary 'Fortress Europe'. The research agenda suggested in this critical commentary aims to be a provocation, not only for nightlife scholars, but also for broader urban studies to take into deeper consideration how the criminalisation of 'In/formal Nocturnal Cities' is used in governance processes in contemporary (post-)pandemic cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding limited representation in established unions, a growing number of precarious and migrant workers of the gig economy have been turning to self-organization. Yet little is known about how these workers can compensate for their lack of material resources and institutional support and negotiate effectively with employers. Drawing on interviews, frame, and content analysis grounded in ethnographic research with the precarious and migrant workers of British 'indie' unions, we examine the significance of self-mediation practices in facilitating effective negotiations. We find that the effectiveness of campaigns can be enhanced by strategically integrating vibrant direct action of workers and allies with self-mediated messages, which are framed to resonate with the general public and mainstream media – a practice that we call communicative unionism. These findings extend labour movement scholarship by showing the analytical importance of considering workers' discursive power-building practices. They also contribute to addressing social movement studies' historical neglect of workers' collective engagements with employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses a campaign urging a British university to re-establish in-house cleaning services after years of outsourcing. The small independent union leading the campaign began from an extremely low level of power resources and managed to build enough associational and societal power to win the dispute on cleaners' working conditions. The study is based on participant observation of the union's activities, document analysis and interviews. The article argues that the strategy emerging from the study, centred around three key strategies (collectivization of individual grievances, education, and disruption of core business activities), can be articulated in a process following the main categories of Mobilization Theory: organization, mobilization and collective action. Additionally, the union managed to conciliate servicing and organizing strategies, as well as attention to class-oriented and migrant-specific issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, the globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migration to rural areas in Southern Europe. Portugal is no exception to this trend, as the intensification of foreign investment in agriculture combined with a declining and ageing workforce created a demand for flexible immigrant labor. The Eastern European and Asian immigrant workers who answered the industry’s call were confronted with poor working conditions and lacking access to public services. In this article, we zoom in on the governance challenge that the presence of precarious immigrant workers (PIWs) poses to rural municipalities in the south of Portugal. The burgeoning literature on local integration policies mainly focuses on how cities deal with the challenge posed by international labor migration. This article draws on a detailed case study of the municipality of Odemira to argue that more attention needs to be paid to emerging local migration regimes in non-urban localities. By adopting a regime-theoretical approach, we study how power relations between the local government, civil society, and the private sector play out around the question of immigrant reception. Our study suggests that immigration policies in rural localities are increasingly being developed through cooperation and coproduction between public and private actors. First, we demonstrate how the presence of PIWs is perceived as a policy “problem” by each actor. Second, we outline how a governing coalition formed around the shared concern to improve arrival infrastructures, stimulate integration, mediate socio-cultural impact, and accommodate business interests. We conclude by critically questioning the impact that emerging local migration regimes have on the rights and social position of PIWs in rural contexts.

This longitudinal study revealed a significant association between precarious employment (PE) and poor self-rated health (SRH), especially in young male adults. There is an urgent need to consider improving the health of young workers in PE and the quality of employment for young people who are vulnerable to PE. Objective: To investigate the relationship between employment changes including sustained precarious employment (PE) and poor self-rated health (SRH) in young Korean adults. Methods: A longitudinal study was performed using follow-up data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey 2007 (3rd–12th). Overall, 1265 young adults were included. Multiple logistic regression analyses estimated the poor SRH risk according to employment changes. Results: Poor SRH risk was significantly higher in sustained PE than in fulltime permanent employment in young male adults and overall. However, in young female adults, PE was not clearly associated with poor SRH risk. Conclusions: The proportion of new cases of poor SRH was increased by PE, particularly in young male workers. This finding emphasizes the importance of improving the health of young workers with PE and employment quality for young people vulnerable to PE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many industrialised countries, including the Netherlands, the share of solo self-employed workers has strongly increased in recent years. This development is subject to a lot of public debate as it is feared that this increase is caused by 'quasi' self-employment. There still seems to be little consensus, however, on what constitutes 'genuine' self-employment and what not. In this article we present a theoretical framework for 'quasi' solo self-employment and discuss how the various indicators for 'quasi' self-employment that are used in the literature fit in this framework. We then compare the outcomes of different indicators by applying them to solo self-employed workers in the Netherlands. The data used for the analysis are taken from the Dutch Labour Force Survey (NL-LFS) 2017 complemented with the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) ad hoc module 2017 on self-employment. Our results show that about 7% of the solo self-employed workers is dependent on one client. Furthermore, almost 20% of all solo self-employed had an involuntary start. The correspondence between dependency and involuntariness is very low: less than 2% of the solo self-employed workers are both dependent and involuntary. Both dependency and voluntariness are related to the fiscal and legal status of the solo self-employed workers and to the type of work activities. Solo self-employed workers that own their own business and who mainly sell products are less likely to be dependent and/or involuntary self-employed compared to those who do not own a business and/or offer services. Dependency is hardly related to the unfavourable outcomes of solo self-employment. Involuntariness, on the contrary, seems to have some impact on outcomes. Those who became self-employed because they couldn't find a job as an employee have a higher probability to be unsatisfied with their job, to have financial problems or problems due to a lack of work or a low income. Nevertheless even among the involuntary solo self-employed workers, the majority does not report negative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins by chronicling the structural changes introduced to the labor market over the last two decades, which generated diverse forms of stratification among workers as well as new labor grievances. It examines how Korean workers responded to the neoliberal labor market conditions by pursuing new strategies of organizing and engaging in novel protest repertoires in their resistance to employment insecurity, precarity, and discrimination. Comparing cases of labor struggles with modest achievements with those without, this study suggests that the construction of broad social solidarity among stratified workers, national labor federations, and civil society contributes to the enhancement of labor's cause. Yet, corporations emboldened with the freedom of spatial mobility and diverse methods of extreme outsourcing continue to pose detrimental limitations to labor movements' ability to achieve meaningful gains despite their dire resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, the globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migration to rural areas in Southern Europe. Portugal is no exception to this trend, as the intensification of foreign investment in agriculture combined with a declining and ageing workforce created a demand for flexible immigrant labor. The Eastern European and Asian immigrant workers who answered the industry’s call were confronted with poor working conditions and lacking access to public services. In this article, we zoom in on the governance challenge that the presence of precarious immigrant workers (PIWs) poses to rural municipalities in the south of Portugal. The burgeoning literature on local integration policies mainly focuses on how cities deal with the challenge posed by international labor migration. This article draws on a detailed case study of the municipality of Odemira to argue that more attention needs to be paid to emerging local migration regimes in non‐urban localities. By adopting a regime‐theoretical approach, we study how power relations between the local government, civil society, and the private sector play out around the question of immigrant reception. Our study suggests that immigration policies in rural localities are increasingly being developed through cooperation and coproduction between public and private actors. First, we demonstrate how the presence of PIWs is perceived as a policy “problem” by each actor. Second, we outline how a governing coalition formed around the shared concern to improve arrival infrastructures, stimulate integration, mediate socio‐cultural impact, and accommodate business interests. We conclude by critically questioning the impact that emerging local migration regimes have on the rights and social position of PIWs in rural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research field of labour precarity is loaded with largely isolated empirical studies focusing on specific forms of precarious labour. This article is a preliminary attempt towards a more systematic understanding of the general causes and modulators of labour precarity under contemporary capitalism. It reviews how different traditions of classical theories explain the dynamics of labour precarity under capitalism and how empirical studies on labour precarity exemplify these explanations. It distinguishes three exploratory approaches: namely exploitation, exclusion, and commodification. They comprise distinct models of causation of labour precarity and corresponding proposals to reduce it. It also discusses the relationship between these approaches and suggests the possibility of selectively integrating certain elements of them in future research. Such integration refuses the reductionist temptation to attribute the occurrence of labour precarity to a single mechanism which is popular in the existing literature and provides a powerful tool for comparative historical studies of labour precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent with the large-scale re-emergence of precarious forms of work, in recent years literature on precarious workers and their working conditions has become one of the main strands in labour studies. However, the literature on the nexus between precarious workers and workers' education is almost non-existent; and yet precarious work is probably the future of labour at least under global capitalism. In an attempt to fill the gap and make a contribution to the emerging literature on precarious workers and workers' education, the article argues that the emerging workers' education that has tended to be ignored by the literature on precarious work is beginning to respond to the fact that the workforce within South African borders has been fundamentally restructured by the current phase of capitalism. The decline of the trade union movement in South Africa in the 2000s meant that precarious workers have limited resources to advance their workers' education agenda, but interestingly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advice centres are gradually fling the gap by engaging with precarious workers in education that is dialogical and emancipatory. There is a similar trend in other countries, where precarious workers are also defining their educational programmes to improve their working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policies and practices of workers’ compensation have barely kept pace with the changing worker and employer needs created by the growth of precarious forms of employment. This study focused on how well workers’ compensation and RTW policies in Ontario fit the needs of precariously employed workers. A critical discourse analysis guided our study which consisted of in-depth interviews with 15 precariously-employed workers and 5 employers who had hired and managed these kinds of workers. Three domains where RTW policies fit uneasily with the experiences of precariously-employed workers were identified. These related to knowledge and power contrasts between well-informed employers and vulnerable workers, injury attribution challenges, and worker fear of speaking up about accidents. This study suggests that workers’ compensation and RTW policies rest uneasily with the circumstances of precariously-employed workers. In particular, it was difficult for workers to engage with/make a claim for workers’ compensation when employers resisted this process.

The purpose of this article is to examine whether and by what means traditional unions and other labour-oriented organisations engage in solidarity activities in favour of precarious workers and the unemployed. Our findings derive from qualitative data analysed from 10 in-depth interviews per country conducted as part of a large collaborative project with participants sampled from trade unions and other labour-oriented solidarity organisations based in three European national contexts: Greece, Poland, and the UK. Our aim here is to discern common features and differences in the strategies and answers given, within the three national contexts. To this end, we examine the actors engaged in labour solidarity; the value frames upon which these actions draw; the beneficiaries of their solidarity actions; the type of activities adopted mainly in favour of precarious workers and the unemployed; and their engagement in transnational labour solidarity activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I focus on the aesthetics of protest of the UCL Justice for Workers campaign, a University College London-based, student-led campaign dedicated to ending the outsourcing of workers at the university, including catering, cleaning and security staff. Drawing from my own participation in the movement, I explore how UCL Justice for Workers use aesthetics in order to communicate and perform a political voice. I use Enzo Traverso's reading of the concept of Left-Wing Melancholia to show how, through various aesthetic means, UCL Justice for Workers look to the past in order to recover the utopian imagination which has fuelled past workers' revolutions. Moreover, informed by scholars working in the fields of critical geography and urban studies, I detail how UCL Justice for Workers contest the spatial order of the university campus through the use of banners, posters, and other ephemera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policies and practices of workers’ compensation have barely kept pace with the changing worker and employer needs created by the growth of precarious forms of employment. This study focused on how well workers’ compensation and RTW policies in Ontario fit the needs of precariously employed workers. A critical discourse analysis guided our study which consisted of in-depth interviews with 15 precariously-employed workers and 5 employers who had hired and managed these kinds of workers. Three domains where RTW policies fit uneasily with the experiences of precariously-employed workers were identified. These related to knowledge and power contrasts between well-informed employers and vulnerable workers, injury attribution challenges, and worker fear of speaking up about accidents. This study suggests that workers’ compensation and RTW policies rest uneasily with the circumstances of precariously-employed workers. In particular, it was difficult for workers to engage with/make a claim for workers’ compensation when employers resisted this process.

This article examines the historical evolution of labor force dualism at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The proportion of precarious workers at HHI reveals a U-shaped curve over time, with its nadir in the late 1980s. There has been a transformation at HHI from dualism without inequality before 1987 to dualism with inequality after the mid-1990s. Before 1987, HHI management pursued dualism but inequality did not widen because wages were kept low for both regular and non-regular workers. Dualism without inequality at HHI disappeared in the aftermath of the 1987 labor upsurge as a result of working-class solidarity around the demand for eliminating precarious employment. However, the decline in dualism was short-lived. To achieve industrial peace while simultaneously reducing labor costs, HHI management pursued a strategy of micro-corporatism that involved granting concessions to regular workers while controlling wage increases for non-regular workers. The consolidation of this dualism with inequality was facilitated by the concurrent rise of business unionism. Finally, this article outlines conditions favorable to renewed class-based labor solidarity that have emerged at HHI recently, opening up the potential for a new round of successful workers' struggles against workforce dualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stress is measured through the use of tools that allow detection in large samples, and the search effort is directed to validating tools to ensure that they are predictable. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the three most commonly used tools to measure perceived stress. The three versions of the PSS have never been evaluated for use with Italian workers. Therefore, the overall aims of this study are to translate and clarify the psychometric properties of the Italian versions, known as IPSS-14, IPSS-10, and IPSS-4 for use with Italian precarious workers. A sample of 649 precarious workers (mean age = 39.6, SD = 10.1) participated in this study, which consisted of 393 males and 256 females. The sample was randomly split into two for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate the PSS structure. The two-factor models for the three Italian versions of PSS showed a better fit than the single-factor models. The reliability was high for IPSS-14 and IPSS-10. The results suggest that the psychometric properties of IPSS-10 are greater than those of IPSS-14 and IPSS-4. Therefore, IPSS-10 can be reliably used to measure perceived stress and is a suitable tool to incorporate the support/intervention programs for Italian precarious workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swedish response to Covid-19 has been to implement policies on social distancing and a decrease in public activity, while refraining from a lockdown and the closing businesses and public services. To counteract the disastrous economic effects for workers, changes have been implemented to the unemployment and sickness benefit schemes. A re-enforced system for part time furlough has been put in place. Parents receive parental leave benefits for staying home with sick children according to the ordinary system.

The rise of the 'gig' economy has placed a spotlight on employment status, leading to challenges over the nature of working relationships and attendant rights from increasingly diverse groups. The predominant image of the struggle against 'bogus self-employment' features the mostly young, male riders and drivers engaged in platform work. This article examines the distinctive campaign of foster carers to be recognised as workers, focusing upon the emergence of the campaign and the imaginative solidarities forged with seemingly disparate groups of precarious workers. Drawing from interviews and observation, this article explores the tactics used in contesting 'bogus' self-employment, the achievements and challenges faced. The concept of legal mobilisation is used as lens, capturing the blend of strategic litigation, organising and legal enactment. This article concludes by considering how this solidaristic project might be further broadened to provide fully inclusive protections for all those who work for a wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of African Political Economy is the property of Review of Political Economy (ROAPE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision‐making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part‐timers, temporary employees, and low‐skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment insurance fund was the main reason for declining union density in the 2000s and early 2010s. Second, in terms of precarious workers, we find that the emergence of the independent fund has affected their choices about unemployment insurance membership and that their choices depend on the type of precarious employment they have. Moreover, part‐timers and temporary employees younger than 35 years of age are much less likely to enroll in unemployment insurance than older employees who have the same types of employment contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, public institutions in China increasingly subcontract social workers as service providers. This process, largely viewed as being innovative, is simultaneous with policy demands for 'more social workers'. The experiences of the sub-contracted social workers are very recent and have been under-researched. This study is based on questionnaires and interviews with subcontracted social workers. Result of this research suggests subcontracted social workers experience dissatisfaction and frustration in regard to the low entry threshold, employment instability, an excessive workload, and little understanding or support from the public institution. The paper concludes that subcontracted social workers make a precarious group of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on mobilizations around work, this article sheds light on generational identity as it emerges in activists involved in labor struggles in Italy in the past few years. Do Italian "millennial" activists perceive themselves as part of the same political generation? What are its main traits? And are the contextual elements that define it linked more to socioeconomic context or to experiences of collective action? The analysis shows a clear self-identification of Italian millennials, in the context of labor struggles, as "the precarious generation": a generation mostly affected by the socioeconomic conditions of the past few years, with the explosion of labor precarity, of the economic crisis, and more generally, of neoliberal policies. While this shared identity refers to a specific socioeconomic context, there is a difference related to the experience of political mobilization: Activists are rather pessimistic when focusing on the youngest component of their generation, usually described as more individualist, due to their lack of exposure to intense waves of political mobilization. The contribution explores the multidimensional nature of generational identity and its asymmetric nature: If both the socioeconomic context and the experience of political socialization play a role in shaping a political generation, these dynamics do not always go hand in hand, and activists tend to actively work to reconcile the different dimensions of their generational identity into a coherent narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the significance of digital entrepreneurship in East Asia as informal work, based on empirical research in Taiwan and Thailand. Digital entrepreneurs in East Asia can be thought of as a new class of 'creative workers' who aspire to the neoliberal ideals of the West that advocate free markets and individualism. While digital entrepreneurship offers low-cost opportunities, it also represents highly precarious careers. The transition to the digital economy also means the expansion of the informal economy, which has existed in both Taiwan and Thailand. The encouragement of start-up ecosystems by respective political and economic elites serves to sweet-talk the creative class into participating in precarious work, or it may be an open bid to gain market share by incorporating informal businesses. In response to the theme of the special issue, this article discusses two contrasting cases and considers the significance of digital entrepreneurship as informalisation of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the cases of Italy and Poland, this article examines the link between union organizational democracy and the economic and political inclusion of precarious workers. It argues that union membership of vulnerable groups is not a necessary condition for the representation of their voice and economic interests by labour organizations; rather, these two forms of inclusion are shaped primarily by the institutional contexts in which unions operate as well as by their identities and structural characteristics. In both examined countries the economic inclusion of precarious workers has been more advanced, while the degree of their political inclusion has lagged behind and varied across major union confederations in line with two distinct models of unionism: a solidaristic and a diversity-oriented one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on in-depth interviews largely with women working as community health workers (CHWs) and documents, the article shines the spotlight on CHWs, who remain a blind spot in the literature on South African labour studies. Abandoned by mainstream unions and often ignored by labour scholars, the article reveals that CHW workers are crafting their own nascent organisational responses as women and as precarious workers to their conditions. New organisational responses led by women who carry most of the social and economic burden are beginning to contest their conditions of precariousness by using tools such as strikes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the origins and the dynamics of the social movement against the energy corporation Petrofac that took place in the Tunisian archipelago of Kerkennah between 2011 and 2016. The Kerkennah movement is seen as part of a broader cycle of mobilisations for social justice that started in 2008 and continues to the present day. The main subjects of these mobilisations are young people lacking sources of regular income and their core demands are secure employment and local development. It is argued that communal solidarities were key in compensating for the lack of occupational cohesion among the protesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I argue that graduate employees took on the political identity of precarious workers who face job insecurity and income insecurity, drawing attention to the casualization of work in the academic labor market in Canada, and the cost of undertaking graduate studies in Canadian universities. Their argument appealed to media, faculty, undergraduate students, and supportive media, which was key to building solidarity and public support for graduate employees’ struggle. Building on social movement unionism literature, I show how this identity moved the debate away from the bargaining table and into broader coalition building, suggesting a broader social movement unionism among academic workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of contemporary capitalism have argued that the rise of flexible accumulation and precarious employment has left workers disillusioned and adrift, experiencing an erosion of solidarities and human bonds. In contrast, this study uncovers a sense of collective efficacy where existing scholarship would lead us to least expect it: among workers who are, structurally, among the most marginal and vulnerable. The case examined is a Chicago living wage campaign, which for three long years mobilized workers laboring outside of traditional employment relationships. Why would a sense of collective efficacy emerge when participants’ ability to make change had remained in doubt for years? Why would workers who lack structural power come to feel so efficacious? Drawing on in-depth interviews with campaign participants, I argue that their understandings of power arose from their experience of collective action. The case sheds new light on our understanding of identity and subjectivity under contemporary capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]