Dissertation project: Raising a new collective voice through greenfield union organising.
Short description
In an international context of union decline and shrinking collective bargaining coverage in many developed countries, “greenfield workplaces” – which lack union representation and collective agreement – tend to be associated with poor working conditions and sometimes violations of regulations. Thus, this project aims to explore the process of greenfield organizing, through which unions establish themselves in “greenfield” workplaces and extend institutional regulations through new collective agreements. Specific attention will be paid to these processes in the sectors where employment relationships tend to be precarious. Indeed, the lack of union protection is considered one of the fundamental characteristics of precarious work.
The conditions in which unions’ and workers’ agency may lead to institutional change, through new regulations of the work environment as a result of greenfield organising, will be investigated with reference to the concept of ‘embedded agency’, which emphasizes interactions between agency and structures.
The following research questions will guide the project:
How does the process of greenfield organizing leading to institutional change unfold, what are the outcomes and the factors that hinder or promote such success?
What are the respective roles of social structures and unions’ and workers’ agency in those processes?
How are unions and workers themselves impacted by the greenfield organizing process?
What is an organizing success in the conceptions of workers and unionists?
Data will be collected through interview-conducted studies and the examination of other empirical materials. I will use a comparative approach where I will investigate several cases in different sectors of employment order to make comparisons. Following the grounded theory approach, the purpose will be to generate theory about the determinants and outcomes of greenfield organizing. Furthermore, workers’ and unionists’ conceptions of an organizing success will be explored by using a phenomenographic approach.