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Breaking Fragmentation through Mobilization: The Development of a Collective Identity during Movistar’s Contractors’ and Technicians’ Strike in Spain

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-09-27, 10:20 authored by Martí López-Andreu
This article contributes to the debates over the development of solidarity among a fragmented workforce by discussing the case of a strike in which the technicians and contractors at Movistar in Spain were involved. The strike involved employees and self-employed workers working for different contractors. The results highlight that ‘spontaneous’ mobilizations can help to develop a collective identity in fragmented employment systems. More concretely, they show that the lack of involvement of unions at the beginning of the strike helped to generate an identity involving all workers that was not based on occupational or contractual status. However, the findings also highlight that the later involvement of independent unions, which respected the assembling of workers as a space of decision, was key to the sustainment of the collective identity. Furthermore, the results show that mobilizing can be a strong organizing tool in contexts characterized by weak institutional regulation, fragmentation and precarious working conditions.

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: the primary research for this article was supported by the University of Huddersfield College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Development Fund.

History

Citation

Work, Employment and Society, 2019

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of Business

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Work

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US) for British Sociological Association

issn

0950-0170

Copyright date

2019

Available date

2019-09-27

Publisher version

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017019866688

Language

en

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