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Organizing migrant workers: a case study of working conditions and unionization in a London sandwich factory

ABSTRACT

The structural position of black and minority ethnic workers (BME) and migrantworkers in the UK labour market is relatively well known. Many workers in thesegroups find themselves in low-paid, low-skilled jobs primarily because of their ethnicityand regardless of their skills.This racialization of the labour market has beenwell documented – particularly since the ‘large-scale’ BME immigration in the postwarperiod. What is less well known is what it is like to work in these increasinglysegmented sections of the economy where white workers have abandoned jobsin favour of (slightly) more lucrative work. Adopting a case-study approach, thisarticle follows a trade union’s attempt to organize a sandwich factory of 500workers, where most of the workforce was made up of BME migrant workers

.KEY WORDSidentity / migrant workers / racialized labour markets / trade union organizing

Introduction

he racialized nature of immigration is an important element in the historicalprofile and social experience of Britain’s black and minority ethnic(BME) worker communities (Fryer, 1988). Racism has shaped the socialgeographies of ethnicity within which BME communities have sought to liveand work. As Carter et al. (1996: 135) point out, ‘the racialised nature of immigrationregulation both structures the way in which migrants are situatedwithin the labour market and valorises notions of “race” difference’. This racialized distribution of labour has consequences for trade union recruitmentand organization, especially as BME migrants are, on average, more likely to beworking in lower-paid jobs where unions have little, or no influence (Bloch,1999; TUC, 2004). It also has particular significance for trade unions inLondon because of the geographical concentration of BME workers andmigrant workers.
The hurdles and barriers faced by BME workers, especially recentmigrants, put them at considerable disadvantage in the labour market, evenwhen controlling for socio-economic characteristics (Kempton, 2002).Moreover, as Allen et al. point out, an ethnic division of labour has sprung upin London, particularly in cleaning work (but also in hotels, retail, catering andfood processing), where workers hold such jobs ‘primarily because of their ethnicity– regardless of their skill capabilities’ (Allen et al.,1998: 105). It is withinthis context of labour market change and labour distribution that the tradeunion movement has been forced into a period of reassessment and revaluationin order to stem membership decline (Carter, 2000; Hyman, 2002).The British Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for increased legalprotection for migrants and identified the need for unions to organize this particulargroup of workers, and this article examines how one particular unionresponded to this challenge (TUC, 2004). The union chosen was a large TUCaffiliate, which considered itself an ‘organizing model’ with a commitment toorganizing migrant workers. The research aimed to analyse the extent to whichthis particular campaign adequately recognized and acknowledged the diversityof the experiences of the BME workforce at the level at which it interfaced withworkers and, if it did, how this affected its organizing approach.

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Introduction
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