ILPC 2027

Collective representation and bargaining in the context of networked-based organisational forms and fragmentation of work is a research issue that has been gaining increasing attention in the literature (Benassi and Dorigatti 2015; Doellgast et al. 2015; Marchington et al., 2005). These organisational models are characterised by economic concentration and “controlled autonomy” relations between the core organizations and the external ones (Appay 1998). They are far removed from the Fordist integrated production model, with corollary bilateral employment relations, that has served as the reference for the creation of labour laws and the structures and actions of the labour movement in industrialised countries (Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman, 2013). Even when they are concentrated in a single jurisdiction, networked-based organisational forms produce “fissured workplaces” (Weil, 2014), where different employment statuses and standards coexist. Collective representation and bargaining by unions entail particular difficulties in these complex organizational contexts because the legal regulation of collective labour relations fails to take into account the “influences from 'non-employers’ over the nature of work” (Marchington et al., 2005: 240). Consequently, workers, especially more precarious workers, lack voice at the decision-making centre level. Other difficulties can result from the inter-union rivalries creating obstacles to worker solidarity beyond the firm’s boundaries (Chevance and Jalette, 2015). However, while the union’s lack of effective power in networked-based organisational forms contributes to the precarisation of work, the latter can also prompt unions to renew their practices (Béroud et al., 2009). How can union power be constructed in these contexts? We are particularly interested in looking at sectors where care work is involved. Care work has traditionally been devalued through the gender and racial division of labour (Glenn, 2010) and the inter-organisational contractual arrangements can reinforce this devaluation by contributing to limit the extent of employment protections (Rubery and Urwin, 2010). The research findings we will present come from a case study conducted during a strike in private seniors’ residences in Quebec, Canada, in 2016. This sector is expanding as a result of population aging and the increasing privatisation of public services. First, our paper describe the employment conditions and the organizational context in the sector, where various types of private structures coexist, from small family-run enterprises to large specialised enterprises with multiple subsidiaries or large enterprise groups that rely on real estate investment and externalising service management. Second, it analyses the strategy adopted by a national union and local unions affiliated. While the general collective labour regulation applicable is a decentralised North American Wagner-style regime, they attempted a coordinated collective bargaining with the main enterprises involved in the sector. They also organized an indefinite strike involving workers occupying low-paid jobs employed in 32 work sites in 20 cities in Quebec, most of whom were women, including a high proportion of racialised women in the larger cities. Our case study is based on the analysis of data from the following sources: twenty interviews (with workers and union representatives), observation of picket lines and union meetings, the content of union documents and of collective agreements, and the factual and legal content of court decisions. REFERENCES Appay B (2005) La dictature du succès. Le paradoxe de l'autonomie contrôlée et de la précarisation. Paris: L'Harmattan. 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