Sponsored Research
Council for
European
Studies
Immigrants in European Labor Unions:
Organizational Pitfall or Potential?
Akasemi Newsome, University of California, Berkeley
The recent surge in anti-immigrant movements and
parties in Europe such as Pegida in Germany, the National
Front in France, and Golden Dawn in Greece, reflects the way in
which immigration has elicited intense, even violent opposition
from native populations. My research investigates the problem
this opposition to immigration poses to labor unions. Native
workers make up the bulk of union members and lobby unions
to prioritize policies that favor natives over immigrants. At the
same time, although many native workers favor employment
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Spring 2015
Volume 45
Issue 1
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protectionism, immigrant members still turn to
labor unions to improve their working conditions
and amplify their political voice. As a recipient
of a Council for European Studies Dissertation
Fellowship, I have explored the question of when
and why unions engage in pro-immigrant action in
my dissertation, “Fair-Weather Friends? Explaining
Labor Union Support for Immigrants in Western
Europe.”
My research shows how unions engage
in pro-immigrant action when immigrant leaders
articulate a mobilizing identity and then form
alliances with native workers to pressure union
leadership. Furthermore, the incidence of proimmigrant action is stronger in weaker, more
fragmented unions. Different chapters address each
of three issue areas in which immigrant workers seek
union support: confronting the xenophobia of farright movements, combating job marginalization
or dualization, and addressing discrimination.
While such issues afflict some native workers,
they hobble immigrant workers in particular ways.
In contrast to native workers, all immigrants are
the target of far-right mobilization. For issues of
discrimination and job marginalization, immigrant
workers lack the cultural resources of natives with
which to gain redress. My argument about the way
in which immigrant actions combined with alliances
can elicit support from unions is based in large part
on four cases of immigrant protest. Two public
hospitals, one in Germany and one in the United
Kingdom (UK) – which underwent privatization –
as well as at two German and British auto plants
– where immigrants mobilized against the far right
at work and in the community – form the bulk of
my evidence.
Between 2009 and 2012, I spent 16 months
conducting fieldwork in Denmark, Germany, and
the UK. Trade union activists, managers, politicians,
and leaders of non-governmental organizations
served as key informants for more than 120 indepth interviews (many conducted in German)
from which my dissertation draws. I also collected
archival data from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Library in Bonn, Germany, and the Trade Unions’
Congress collection at London Metropolitan
Perspectives on Europe • Spring 2015 | 45:1
University in the UK, in addition to conducting
observational research at events and protests in
multiple sectors, including manufacturing and
public hospitals.
The importance of unions
Labor unions have been critical to the
political incorporation of the working class in
European democracies for at least a century. In
electoral politics, unions played decisive roles
in extending the franchise to wage-earning men
as well as in founding and sustaining left-wing
parties.1 In the economic realm, some unions
gave workers decision-making powers through
employee councils at firms and representation
on company boards.2 Furthermore, many unions
leveraged their working-class voter base and social
democratic party support to gain seats at national
forums tasked with developing social and economic
policy. Although unions in both the historical
and contemporary period have supported the
expansion of social welfare policies to benefit the
working class, unions have had mixed records when
it comes to extending gains to workers of a different
ethnicity, race, or national origin. In fact, unions
across my country cases initially opposed postWorld War II migration from the Mediterranean
rim and former colonies that had been encouraged
by politicians as a solution to post-conflict labor
shortages in the economy.3
Native-immigrant cleavages within unions
Organizational survival demands that labor
1 Gregory Luebbert, Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy: Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in
Interwar Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991);
Ruth Collier, Paths to Democracy: The Working Class and
Elites in Western Europe and South America (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999); and Margaret Anderson, Practicing Democracy: Elections and Political Culture
in Imperial Germany (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2000).
2 For a discussion of works councils in Germany, see Kathleen Thelen, Union of Parts: Labor Politics in Postwar Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991).
3 Judith Roosblad and Rinus Penninx, Trade Unions, Immigration and Immigrants in Europe: 1960–1993 (New York:
Berghahn Books, 2000).
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unions neutralize competition among different
the least likely to address the concerns of immigrant
factions of member subgroups. Labor unions
members, whereas British unions – among the
face decisions about which member subgroup
weakest unions in Western Europe – are the
demands to prioritize
most likely to support
over others. Fragmented
immigrant
member
Danish unions are the least likely to
organizations with low
interests. Germany is
union density, such as
a mixed case, in which
address the concerns of immigrant
British labor unions,
moderately strong unions
members,
whereas
British
unions
–
face greatly reduced
engage in some kinds of
pressure
to
keep
pro-immigrant actions
among the weakest unions in Western
member dissent in check
but not others. A key
Europe
–
are
the
most
likely
to
support
than the encompassing
finding of my dissertation
organizations of Danish
research is that the most
immigrant member interests.
4
labor unions. Immigrant
encompassing unions are
effectively less inclusive
workers
form
an
important such subgroup of labor union members
as a result of their efforts to maintain unity among
their members.
in Western Europe. However, unions stand to reap
both gains and losses should they decide to support
Immigrants as a source of union renewal
immigrant claims. Unions can make inroads into
Existing scholarly accounts of when and
immigrant communities as sources of potential
why unions choose to support the concerns of
members when they choose to engage in proimmigrant members highlight immigrants as
immigrant action. At the same time, addressing
catalysts for organization renewal for unions.
the concerns of immigrant members can also hurt
Since the 1970s, the percentage of the workforce
unions if it alienates native union members with
organized by unions has been falling across most
anti-immigrant views.
industrialized countries.6 In a parallel development
Danish unions, German unions and British
unions differ in their willingness to support
over the same period, the size of the immigrant
immigrant interests. In contrast to expectations
population in the global North has grown.7
that the strongest unions or those with high
Immigrants’ increasing share of the population and
degrees of corporatism have the most to offer all
workforce suggests that immigrant workers could
categories of worker-members,5 Danish unions are
be a source of organizational renewal8 for unions
4 For a discussion of efforts by union leaders to manage and
suppress dissent, see Charles Sabel, “The Internal Politics of
Trade Unions,” in Organizing Interests in Western Europe,
ed. Suzanne Berger (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1980); and Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action:
Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge: Harvard
Economic Studies, 1965).
5 See Colin Crouch et al., Changing Governance of Local
Economies: Responses of European Local Production Systems
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Jesper Due and
Jorgen Steen Madsen, “The Danish Model of Industrial Relations: Erosion or Renewal?” Journal of Industrial Relations
50, no. 3 (2008): 513–29; Anton Hemerijck and Jelle Visser,
A Dutch Miracle: Job Growth, Welfare Reform and Corporatism in the Netherlands (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1999); and Martin Rhodes, “The Political Economy of Social
Pacts: ‘Competitive Corporatism’ and European Welfare
Reform,” in The New Politics of the Welfare State, ed. Paul
Perspectives on Europe • Spring 2015 | 45:1
Pierson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
6 Many scholars have documented the shrinkage of union
membership rolls since the 1970s. For a summary, see Alex
Bryson, Bernhard Ebbinghaus, and Jelle Visser, “Introduction: Causes, Consequences and Cures of Union Decline,”
European Journal of Industrial Relations 17, no. 2 (2011):
97–105.
7 Net migration to the OECD has increased between 1959
and 2009. See “OECD Migration Policy Debates: Is Migration
Really Increasing?,” May 2014.
8 See Lee H. Adler, Maite Tapia, and Lowell Turner, Mobilizing Against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers and the
Crisis of Capitalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014);
Kate Bronfenbrenner, ed., Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2007); Janice Fine, “Community
Unions and the Revival of the American Labor Movement,”
Politics and Society 33 (2005): 153–99; and Ruth Milkman,
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seeking to stabilize and increase member numbers
in the medium and long term. Milkman and others
have used the United States (US) union context
to argue that when faced with steep declines in
traditional member constituencies, unions can
develop organizing strategies to attract members
from unorganized groups such as immigrant
workers.
Drawing primarily from studies of American
unions and workplaces, the literature on union
renewal provides limited purchase on the degree
to which immigrants in non-US settings could serve
as catalysts for union renewal. Researchers also
remain in the dark about the options available to
unions as they adjudicate competing demands from
native and immigrant members. As my dissertation
embeds a cross-national research design, it
accounts for variation in the institutional resources
of unions and differences in membership decline
across unions. This project also generates insights
into how unions deal with conflict between native
and immigrant members by examining specific
issue areas of immigrant demands.
Case study: Addressing immigrant job
marginalization in public hospitals
The public hospital case studies that I
explore in my dissertation examine two groups
of unionized immigrant workers trapped in jobs
with poor pay, benefits, and working conditions.
Immigrant workers in a British public hospital and
immigrant workers in a German public hospital
walked off the job in protest of job marginalization.
Only in the British hospital were immigrant
workers able to exercise agency, forge alliances
with native co-workers, secure support from the
union leadership, and improve working conditions.
By contrast, in the German hospital, immigrant
workers did not exercise agency, but rather set up
weak partnerships with native co-workers and did
not succeed in gaining support from union leaders.
In the British case, immigrant worker members
realized their potential as a mobilized member
subgroup of the union, whereas in the German
Joshua Bloom, and Victor Narro, eds., Working for Justice:
The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2010).
Perspectives on Europe • Spring 2015 | 45:1
case, immigrant workers remained under-utilized
as political allies by unions.
The realization of immigrant potential in the UK
Several immigrant employees working in
cleaning and catering at Great Western hospital
outside of Bristol walked off the job during the
winter of 2012. As members of the GMB union,
these immigrant workers sought to improve working
conditions and opportunities for advancement.
Immigrant workers at this hospital were subject
to arbitrary behavior from management, including
bullying and harassment.9 In the British hospital,
immigrant workers mobilized around race,
attributing poor working conditions to “racism from
supervisors,” and the fact that they were “darkskinned.” Immigrant workers took the initiative
in building a partnership with native GMB union
officials. Their partnership was a fruitful one, and
GMB union officials helped to build a coalition of
unions supporting the cause of immigrant workers.
For example, one community protest in March 2012
had several hundred participants, among them
union officials and members from Unite, UNISON,
and other GMB branches.10 As a result of agency
exercised by immigrant workers and alliances
initiated by immigrant workers with native trade
unionists, immigrant workers at Great Western
Hospital were able to secure GMB leadership
support in holding and publicizing strikes. Together,
they put pressure on the employer with the result
that a manager responsible for many incidents of
bullying resigned, and disputes over back-pay and
vacation time were resolved.
Immigrant members as pitfalls in Germany
In contrast to immigrant members at the
British hospital, immigrant union members at the
German hospital examined in my dissertation did
not succeed in improving their working conditions
through union leadership support. During most
of the year of 2011, immigrant workers at the
9 Katie Bond, “GWH Ballot to Take Strike Action,” Swindon
Advertiser online, December 14, 2011.
10 Emma Dunn, “Host of Other Unions Back Angry Carillion
Employees,” Wiltshire Gazette and Herald online, March 19,
2012.
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Charité hospital in Berlin went on strike in protest
of low wages and poor working conditions.
Media coverage deemed wage levels for many
cleaners and caterers at the German hospital to
be unacceptably low, with reports of hourly wages
of 5.5 euros per hour. Journalists also uncovered
health and safety violations, as many of these
workers did not have access to proper protective
equipment.11 Immigrant workers aimed to improve
their status by securing a collective bargaining
agreement with their employer.
Despite facing challenges similar to their
counterparts in the British hospital, immigrant
union members at the German hospital did not
exercise agency in mobilization, as they lacked a
mobilizing identity. Immigrant informants disagreed
about the role of identity in explaining shared poor
working conditions. Immigrant workers in the
German hospital also did not initiate a partnership
with native trade unionists at the Ver.di trade union
to improve their working conditions. Rather, they
were junior partners in an alliance created by native
trade unionists. This weak alliance fell apart after
a short period of cooperation. Immigrant workers
did not succeed in gaining the union leadership
support needed to compel their employer to sign
a collective agreement, thereby improving their
working conditions.
As a result of the immigrant agency exerted
to build an alliance with native trade unionists,
immigrant workers in the British hospital not
only succeeded in gaining union support for their
concern with job marginalization, but they delivered
organizational gains for the union as well. Since the
GMB was willing to accept immigrant mobilization
around race, it broadened its appeal to immigrants
and minorities inside and outside of the union.
The GMB has begun to realize the potential of
immigrant members. On the other hand, immigrant
members’ failure to exercise agency in mobilization
and then to initiate a partnership with native
union members at the German hospital resulted
in an unfulfilled partnership with the union, Ver.
di. Not only did immigrants fail to gain a solution
to job marginalization, but Ver.di suffered an
organizational setback as well. The union’s inability
to deliver gains for immigrant members risks the
designation of both unionized and non-unionized
immigrants as “a problem group,” with unions
unwilling to expend resources on them. It also risks
bolstering immigrants viewing unions as unable
and unwilling to address their interests.
11 Gilbert Schomaker and Katrin Schoelkopf, “Nur 5,55 Euro
fuer den Sicherheitsdienst” [Only EUR 5.55 for Security], Die
Welt, October 14, 2009; Katrin Schoelkopf, “IG Bau: Arbeit
ohne Mundschutz im OP” [IG Bau: Working without a Mask
in the Operating Room], Berliner Morgenpost, August 2,
2008.
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