‘Triple Transition‘ in Territorial Social Bargaining: Trade Union’s Role and Prospective

Workers’ participation in strategic actions, even outside the workplace boundaries, is relevant in contemporary industrial relations. The same can be said about the role of the citizenry, which is increasingly involved in forms of socio-political participation. However, these forms – or attempts – of active involvement in the collective well-being have suffered from structural and organisational weaknesses, as well as a lack of interest on the part of national politics.

Within the crisis of the ‘foundational economy’– i.e. the economic space that constitutes the infrastructure of everyday life (Foundational Economy Collective 2018) –, trade unions seem the only institutional actors to succeed in managing these weaknesses. Confederal unions are in fact the most accredited entities in the defence of citizens’ rights, workers and non-workers alike. This is also true in the face of the structural changes imposed by technological and climatic transition, as well as demographic transformation.

These processes have long been the subject of the union’s interest, mainly by the pensioners' federations. Indeed, through the so-called ‘territorial social bargaining‘ they try to be involved on the front of just transition and the quality and accessibility of services. In this perspective, unions act in a way that is disengaged from the spatiality of the workplace, going beyond their traditional boundaries of action.

This study aims to explore the different forms of action of the Italian confederal trade unions within the so-called ‘triple transition’ processes while considering not only the strategic forms adopted in workplaces but also the actions carried out outside their boundaries. Through a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of the three largest Italian union confederations and the analysis of the respective repertoires of action (Salento, Costalunga 2024), an attempt will be made to reconstruct how a participatory approach can address the challenges posed by the ‘triple transition’.