Confronting Crisis and Precariousness: Organised Labour and Social Unrest in the European Union(Studies in Social and Global Justice)

The 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent Eurozone crisis triggered dramatic changes in European labour relations. Unemployment and precariousness increased considerably. This was further exacerbated by austerity measures, leading to declining minimum wages and layoffs in the public sector. These structural changes varied considerably by country but collectively pose challenges to organized labour as they confront neoliberal restructuring. Concurrently, recent social struggles continue to develop with unemployed and precarious workers playing a major role as protest actors. Focusing on the triangular relationship of precariousness, trade unions and social movements, this book draws on a range of exciting cases, both comparative and country case studies, in order to understand how the shadow of the crisis still haunts organized labour in Europe. The chapters in this collection each offer a unique perspective on how the results of the crisis, in Western, Southern and Eastern Europe, are leading to a variety of new social movements as a consequence of increased precariousness and also how trade unions are attempting to respond.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Confronting Crisis and Precariousness in the European Union, Stefan Schmalz, Raúl Lorente, Antonio Loffredo, Johanna Sittel and Brandon Sommer / 2. Precariousness in Europe: Causes, Effects and Resistance, Klaus Dörre / 3. The Competitive Architecture of European Integration: the European Division of Labour and Locational Competition, Stefanie Hürtgen / 4. Nuit Debout and Labour: France's Mobilization against the Neo-liberalization of Labour Law, Karel Yon / 5. Italy: Precariousness and Trade Union Strategies after Post-Crisis Labour Market Reforms, Giovanni Orlandini and Giulia Frosecchi / 6. The End of the German Model? Labour Conflicts in the German Service Sector, Karina Becker, Yalcin Kutlu and Stefan Schmalz / 7. Are Trade Unions in Portugal Trapped? Precariousness, Work and Detachment, Elísio Estanque, Dora Fonseca, Hermes Augusto Costa and Andreia Santos / 8. No Break from Austerity and Labour Deregulation: Left-wing Crisis Management in Greece, Geoff Kennedy and Maria Markantonatou / 9. Labour Protests in Eastern Europe, Joachim Becker / 10. Precarity and Counter-movements in the European Semi-peripheries: The Case of Poland, Adam Mrozowicki / 11. Precarious Environment: European Trade Unions in a Time of Crises, Steffen Lehndorff / 12. Spatialities of Precarity: Young People in the Southern Mediterranean, Jörg Gertel / 13. Conclusion: The Failure of Progressive Social Movements as the Breeding Ground for the Far Right?, Stefan Schmalz and Brandon Sommer

About the Author :
Brandon Sommer is Researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.

Review :
The Great Regression has developed through very uneven territorial patterns. Common paths of neoliberal restructuring had different effects in different economic and political contexts. Bridging political economy with social movement studies, this remarkable collection presents a much needed account on how variegated neoliberalism was reflected in diverse forms of protest and union action. Confronting Crisis and Precariousness provides a comprehensive framework in order to understand basic issues of European labor markets. First, the role of macro regulation, at European level, that promotes a pressure towards precariousness. Second, the national development of this process is uneven. Third, the challenge to unions and their different capacities to adapt and to develop new lines of action confronting austerity This book is a unique and timely contribution to the debate on precariousness and collective action in the post-crisis context. The consequences of increased precariousness are discussed bringing together the debates on austerity politics, worker organisation and political transformations in Europe. This book is also admirable for its analysis of the role that not only traditional unions, but also new collective actors and grassroots movements, are playing in organised labour and in labour market policies in EU countries. European labour relations have become fundamentally restructured. Through a focus on the triangular relationship of increasing precariousness, trade unions and social movements, this volume makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of two different worlds of precariousness and a variety of labour responses. This is a must-read for anyone seeking a way out of crisis for European labour. Across Europe, work today is increasingly precarious. This wide-ranging survey by leading scholars in the main countries affected shows that intensified commodification of labour creates few winners and a multiplicity of losers. But the contributors also map innovative responses to the challenges, and explore how trade unions and social movements are building coalitions to respond to labour market insecurities. A comprehensive country by country assessment of the underbelly of European integration, focused on the variable but always fraught relation between the included and the excluded; between those countries at the center of the EU and those at the periphery; between trade unions representing secure wage labor and movements of the precarious classes. Essential reading for understanding political responses - right and left - to the deepening inequality within and between nations.