Introduction

This chapter draws on a research study carried out with UNI Global Union (the Global Union Federation for unions representing workers in private sector service industries). A total of 58 interviews were undertaken with officials and activists of UNI Global and their affiliates from around the world with a view to investigating union responses to the changing world of work. This chapter briefly outlines three of the 25 cases from this study of union resistance: namely, Sindicatul IT Timişoara in Romania; Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Teleperformance de a Republica Dominicana in the Dominican Republic; and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in the US. It will focus on new forms of unionism for the 21st century. The chapter begins with a brief outline of the challenges faced by unions in the context of austerity and then moves on to examine the cases, which reflect a range of union activity: from elements of social movement and community-based unionism with little immediate ‘pay off’, to forms of unionism that have secured collective bargaining agreements and transformative increases in membership.

The world of work is changing rapidly and, while there are important geographical variations, a number of global trends present challenges to trade unions. The major changes in political economy that have taken place since the 1970s – the emphasis on the dominance of the market and, by association, trade liberalization, de-regulation and financialization – have become the accepted economic ‘common sense’ around the world. In this context, employment relationships that diverge from standard forms, for example, temporary, part-time and agency employment, as well as bogus self-employment, are on the rise in developed economies (ILO, 2016). This comes at a time when standard forms of employment remain unattainable for many working within the informal economy elsewhere. This work is associated with lower wages, reduced social protection, income insecurity and poorer working conditions, as well as challenges over rights to unionize and engage in collective bargaining (Eurofound, 2013). These developments in the world of work take place against a context of rapid and far-reaching technological change that has aided outsourcing, offshoring and the fragmentation of production processes locally, regionally and globally.

While many of these trends predate austerity, it is undeniable that post-2008 retrenchment policies have exacerbated them.