Search results for "Dutch industrial relations"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Stepping up to strike: a union mobilization case study of Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands
2015
This article examines a union mobilization of Polish temporary agency workers in the Netherlands. The case study contributes to the migrant organizing literature a micro-level account of the dynamics of mobilization from the viewpoint of the migrants and organizers involved. The findings emphasize the importance of key actors in building solidarities within and between different groups of workers in fragmented workplaces, with implications for unions seeking new ways to respond to changing employment practices. This study highlights some of the possibilities and limitations of organizing among contractually fragmented workforces.
Agency of labour in a flexible pan-European labour market : a qualitative study of migrant practices and trade union strategies in the Netherlands
2015
Regulatory frameworks on intra-EU mobility and flexible cross-border employment relations have stimulated competition on labour costs by recruiting migrants via cheaper labour market regimes. While it allows firms to remunerate migrants under different terms and conditions, blurring regulatory boundaries also generates opportunities for non-compliance, resulting in violations of migrant labour rights across Europe. Against this background, this thesis explores the agency of labour, more specifically of temporary migrant workers and unions, and the ways they cope with and respond to the competitive dynamics of the pan- European labour market. This study draws on 90 qualitative interviews wit…
Hyper-mobile migrant workers and Dutch trade union representation strategies at the Eemshaven construction sites
2016
The EU regulatory regime and employers’ cross-border recruitment practices complicate unions’ ability to represent increasingly diverse and transnationally mobile workers. Even in institutional contexts where the industrial relations structure and labour law are favourable, such as the Netherlands, unions struggle with maintaining labour standards for these workers. This article analyses Dutch union efforts to represent hyper-mobile construction workers at the Eemshaven construction sites. It shows that the nexus of subcontracting, transnational mobility, legal insularity and employer anti-unionism complicate enforcement so that even well-resourced unions can, at best, improve employment c…