Migrant Workers' Representation and the Appeal of Independent Grassroots Unionism. Insights from Britain and Italy

In the Global North globalization has been coinciding with the interconnected growth in precarious work and migrant workers. Often finding inadequate representation in mainstream unions, many of these workers have turned to (or even created) ‘independent’ and grassroots formations. This paper explores one understudied aspect of these emerging forms of labour mobilizations, namely the appeal that this type of unionism has to its own precarious and migrant workers’ participants. Grounded in an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that draws on both social and labour movement studies, the paper contributes to shed light on the renewed significance that participatory labour organizing is having for marginalised groups in contemporary society, highlighting the importance of cross-disciplinary analysis. Methodologically, it follows and actor-centred approach (Alberti and Però 2018) and draws on ethnographic fieldwork carried out with migrant members of four independent unions in London (IWGB and UVW) and north-eastern Italy (ADL Cobas and SI Cobas). Theoretically, the paper contributes to further the integration of social and labour movement studies through the reconceptualization of the idea of appeal in the study of collective contentious practices.