Labor action as political responses

Research on labor mobilization has traditionally centered on strikes as the main form of industrial action (Vandaele, 2016), the role of unions in organizing worker mobilization (Gumbrell-McCormick & Hyman, 2018), and workplace interactions. However, since 2008, labor actions have expanded to include demonstrations, sit-ins, blockades, online protests as major forms of actions, and newer groups like grassroots unions, civil society and social movement organizations have emerged as important actors in the field (della Porta, 2015; Meardi et al., 2021). In this framework, integrating insights from the fields of contentious politics into current theories of labor studies, is becoming increasingly compelling to fully understand the evolving nature of labor action and actors involved in worker mobilization (Gahan & Pekarek, 2013; Grote and Wagemann, 2018; Andretta, 2018; Atzeni & Cini, 2023; Jansson & Uba, 2023). Following this, we ask whether labor action since 2008 can be thought as a response to the political context, in particular, to the various political measures taken by governments during this period. How did labor action change in response to political decisions affecting workers taken since the 2008 economic crisis and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? How did the union and organizational field change in the post-2008 period as a response to such decisions? Drawing on the political process model and its advancements within the literature of contentious politics, we argue that political elites' decisions—such as the implementation of austerity measures, neoliberal structural reforms, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic enacted in the post-2008 period—have driven significant transformations in labor actions, intensifying their politicization beyond traditional economic targets and issues. Additionally, we argue that political reforms have expanded the field of actors active in labor action, attracting the interest of a diverse array of participants (Alberti et al., 2013; Engeman, 2015; Perra and Pilati 2023). Our empirical study focuses on labor protests in post-2008 Italy, a country deeply affected by the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, which implemented a series of reforms significantly impacting workers’ rights, wages, and job precarity. We use a dataset built through protest event analysis (PEA) covering more than 9,800 labor protests that took place from 2008 to 2023. So far, results show a wave of contention peaking between 2011 and 2014 (Pilati and Perra 2022). Throughout the timeframe considered, labor protest increasingly politicized with spikes of protests closely aligned with the passage of reforms. Furthermore, political reforms transformed the field of unions and organizations mobilizing workers. While union federations led the majority of labor protests, a diverse range of participants, including federated and grassroots unions, as well as non-working groups such as students collectively opposed reforms and resisted common threats during general political strikes. The COVID-19 period marked a significant turning point, with both established and grassroots unions showing decreased participation, while professional organizations and non-working categories experiencing a marked increase in involvement in labor actions.