3 - Union resources: the power resources approach

Summary

ABSTRACT

Several labour scholars have argued that workers are rediscovering their power by collectively mobilizing to influence the asymmetric relationship between capital and labour. As a result of these developments, the power resources approach (PRA) emerged as a research heuristic. In this chapter we will outline the discussion on the PRA and present a scheme to differentiate workers’ power into structural, associational, institutional and societal power. We discuss two drivers of structural change – globalization and digitalization – and their implications for workers’ power. By referring to Silver's work and the PRA, we analyse emerging forms of transnational organizing. A prominent example of transnational organizing is that of global union federations. We then focus on labour organizing in the platform economy. We observe the emergence of hybrid forms of union-like associations in the transportation sector. We conclude with some questions for a research agenda on workers’ power and global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Keywords: Union resources; analytical frameworks; challenges for unions

INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, many scholars have challenged the “end of work” paradigm in labour studies and research on unions by arguing that unions are strategic actors and, therefore, able to revitalize. Thus, even under the conditions of an increasingly globalized economy, organized labour can develop and mobilize power to protect workers’ interests. As a result of this discussion, the power resources approach (PRA) emerged as a research heuristic to identify different sources of workers’ power. The PRA argues that organized labour can build its power through the collective mobilization of power resources to advance their interests in the structurally asymmetric and antagonistic relationship between capital and labour.

Today, several conceptions and varieties of the PRA have emerged, which identify a variety of power resources (Brookes 2013; Gumbrell-McCormick & Hyman 2013; Refslund & Arnholtz 2022; Schmalz, Ludwig & Webster 2018; Von Holdt & Webster 2008), strategic capabilities (Lévesque & Murray 2010, 2013) and spaces of action (Ford & Gillan 2021) of workers’ power. The PRA has, therefore, become an important research tool in global labour studies and inspired rich empirical studies on successful organizing strategies (Rhomberg & Lopez 2021), campaigning (Pannini 2023) and on labour relations (Rego 2022).