In the Interest of Labor: Union Agency in the New World of Work

• In Event: Re-working Democracy: Defending Substantive Rights through Labor Struggle

Abstract

Can organized labor foster egalitarianism under Post-Fordism? Political economists are skeptical, pointing to declining union membership, liberalized collective wage bargaining, and unilateral government action as reducing leverage for workers’ collective action across the advanced economies. Whatever union power remains seems to be used in ways that contribute to labor market dualization, with some potential exceptions in Scandinavia. This paper challenges commonly held interpretations of little positive union influence today, arguing for a shift in the conceptual lens on contemporary labor power and theorizing labor movements’ contributions to institutionalized solidarity through new agency repertoires. The analysis demonstrates converging union strategies across regimes in the United States, Germany, and Denmark. It emphasizes how labor movements have moved on from Fordist strategies with respect to power resources, channels of influence, and target outcomes. Understanding labor’s positive impact in the evolving world of work requires looking in the right places. These arguments speak directly to the conference theme.

Authors

• Tobias Schulze-Cleven, Rutgers University

• Christian Ibsen, University of Copenhagen