About the Book
Informal Workers and Collective Action features nine cases of collective action to improve the status and working conditions of informal workers. Adrienne E. Eaton, Susan J. Schurman, and Martha A. Chen set the stage by defining informal work and describing the types of organizations that represent the interests of informal workers and the lessons that may be learned from the examples presented in the book. Cases from a diverse set of countries-Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Liberia, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uruguay-focus on two broad types of informal workers: "waged" workers, including port workers, beer promoters, hospitality and retail workers, domestic workers, low-skilled public sector workers, and construction workers; and self-employed workers, including street vendors, waste recyclers, and minibus drivers. These cases demonstrate that workers and labor organizations around the world are rediscovering the lessons of early labor organizers on how to aggregate individuals' sense of injustice into forms of collective action that achieve a level of power that can yield important changes in their work and lives.
Informal Workers and Collective Action makes a strong argument that informal workers, their organizations, and their campaigns represent the leading edge of the most significant change in the global labor movement in more than a century. Contributors Gocha Aleksandria, Georgian Trade Union Confederation Martha A. Chen, Harvard University and WIEGO Sonia Maria Dias, WIEGO and Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil Adrienne E. Eaton, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey Mary Evans, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey Janice Fine, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey Mary Goldsmith, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco Daniel Hawkins, National Trade Union School of Colombia Elza Jgerenaia, Labor and Employment Policy Department for the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Republic of Georgia Stephen J. King, Georgetown University Allison J. Petrozziello, UN Women and the Center for Migration Observation and Social Development Pewee Reed, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Republic of Liberia Sahra Ryklief, International Federation of Workers' Education Associations Susan J.
Schurman, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey Vera Alice Cardoso Silva, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil Milton Weeks, Devin Corporation
Table of Contents:
Introduction, Adrienne E. Eaton, Martha A. Chen, and Susan J. Schurman Part I. Formalizing or Reformalizing Distanced Employment Relationships 1. Port Workers in Colombia: Reinstatement as Formal Workers, Daniel Hawkins 2. Retail and Hospitality Workers in South Africa: Organized by Trade Union of Formal Workers to Demand Equal Pay and Benefits, Sahra Ryklief 3. Haitian Migrant Workers in the Dominican Republic: Organizing at the Intersection of Informality and Illegality, Janice Fine and Allison J. Petrozziello 4. Domestic Workers in Uruguay: Collective Bargaining Agreement and Legal Protection, Mary R. Goldsmith 5. Beer Promoters in Cambodia: Formal Status and Coverage under the Labor Code, Mary Evans 6. Informalized Government Workers in Tunisia: Reinstatement as Formal Workers with Collective Bargaining Rights, Stephen Juan King Part II. Securing Recognition and Rights for the Self-Employed 7. Minibus Drivers in Georgia: Secure Jobs and Worker Rights, Elza Jgerenaia and Gocha Aleksandria 8. Waste Pickers in Brazil: Recognition and Annual Bonus, Sonia Maria Dias and Vera Alice Cardoso Silva 9. Street Vendors in Liberia: A Written Agreement With Authorities and a Secure Workplace, Milton A. Weeks and Pewee Reed Conclusion: Expanding the Boundaries of Labor Organizing and Collective Bargaining,Susan J. Schurman, Adrienne E. Eaton, and Martha A. Chen
About the Author :
Adrienne E. Eaton is Associate Dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations and Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is the coauthor of Healing Together: The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente and coeditor of Employment Dispute Resolution and Worker Rights in the Changing Workplace, both from Cornell. Susan J. Schurman is Distinguished Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is coauthor of Teaching for Change: Popular Education and the Labor Movement and coeditor of Transforming the U.S. Workforce Development System: Lessons from Research and Practice. Martha A. Chen is Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, an affiliated professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Cofounder and International Coordinator of the Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) network. She is coauthor of The Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty and coeditor of Bridging Perspectives: Labour, Informal Employment, and Poverty.
Review :
"Informal Workers and Collective Action is a wonderful and extremely rich collection of case studies of informal workers' movements that covers an impressive range of countries and industries. It offers a truly comparative view of informal workers' movements across countries and industries. This book will make an enormous contribution to our budding understanding of informal workers' movements at a global level."-Rina Agarwala, Johns Hopkins University, author of Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India
