Exit, voice, and solidarity: contesting precarity in the US and European telecommunications industries
In: Oxford scholarship online
Downsizing and outsourcing have contributed to increased job insecurity and inequality across the industrialized west. Virginia Doellgast compares the US and European telecommunications industries to show how labour can succeed. Market liberalization and shareholder pressure pushed employers to adopt often draconian cost cutting measures, but in certain countries labour unions pushed back with creative collective bargaining and organising campaigns. Their success depended on the intersection of three factors: constraints on employer exit, support for collective worker voice, and strategies of inclusive labour solidarity. Based on findings from ten country studies, this book shows how different national political economic contexts shape what workers can and cannot accomplish.