Social Solidarity for All? Trade Union Strategies, Labor Market Dualization, and the Welfare State in Italy and South Korea

• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Niccolo Durazzi,Soohyun Christine Lee,Timo Fleckenstein
• Date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0032329218773712
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329218773712

Politics & Society

2018, Vol. 46(2) 205 –233

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0032329218773712

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Article

Social Solidarity for All?

Trade Union Strategies,

Labor Market Dualization,

and the Welfare State in Italy

and South Korea

Niccolo Durazzi

London School of Economics

Timo Fleckenstein

London School of Economics

Soohyun Christine Lee

King’s College London

Abstract

Challenging the new political-economic “mainstream” that considers trade unions

to be “complicit” in labor market dualization, this article’s analysis of union

strategies in Italy and South Korea, most-different union movements perceived

as unlikely cases for the pursuit of broader social solidarity, shows that in both

countries unions have successively moved away from insider-focused strategies

and toward “solidarity for all” in the industrial relations arena as well as in their

social policy preferences. Furthermore, unions explored new avenues of political

agency, often in alliance with civil society organizations. This convergent trend

toward a social model of unionism is ascribed to a response of unions to a “double

crisis”: that is, a socioeconomic crisis, which takes the form of a growing periphery

of the labor market associated with growing social exclusion, and a sociopolitical

crisis, which takes the form of an increasing marginalization of the unions from the

political process.

Keywords

trade unions, Italy, South Korea, dualization, welfare state

Corresponding Author:

Timo Fleckenstein, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, London WC2A 2AE, UK.

Email: t.fleckenstein@lse.ac.uk

773712PASXXX10.1177/0032329218773712Politics & SocietyDurazzi et al.

research-article2018

206 Politics & Society 46(2)

Labor markets across the OECD world have been under enormous pressure, and we

observe rising social polarization with the decline of stable, well-remunerated stan-

dard employment and the explosion of irregular and precarious jobs at the ever-grow-

ing margins of labor markets. Globalization and increasingly aggressive employer

strategies have been identified as key drivers of labor market dualization; but govern-

ments’ labor market deregulation across the OECD (typically responding to business

lobbying) also allowed employers to change their employment practices.1 These

developments pose fundamental challenges to trade unions, which have typically built

their industrial and political strategies around the assumption of standard employ-

ment—not only as a social reality but also as a normative goal.

The new political-economic “mainstream” considers trade unions to be “com-

plicit” in labor market dualization, arguing that organized labor not only prioritizes

insider interests at the expense of irregular workers but also enters producer coali-

tions with employers to secure the privileged position of insiders, their core mem-

bership. In other words, insider/outsider and producer coalition theories assume

that trade unions are ready to support the greater use of precarious workers if that

stabilizes core workforces.2 This literature calls into question traditional political-

economic research that assumes organized labor as representing the genuine inter-

est of the entire working class.3 Although insider/outsider theory has rightly pointed

out that with the successive differentiation of labor market positions it is increas-

ingly difficult to assume one class interest, its perception of unions, on the basis of

rational choice assumptions, merely as an interest organization of insiders essen-

tially reduces trade unions to business unionism. However, with reference to

Hyman’s seminal work,4 recent contributions have highlighted cross-national

diversity in trade unions’ responses to labor market dualization and have underlined

how unions’ historical identities and institutional structures shape organized labor’s

strategies toward new challenges.5

Although our analysis of the Italian and South Korean cases confirms the impor-

tance of union identity and structure, and thereby contributes to the emerging body of

literature challenging insider/outsider and producer coalition approaches, we also

show how the perception of fundamental socioeconomic and sociopolitical crises

made organized labor call into question historically established trade union identities

and corresponding industrial relations and political strategies. We observe not only

changes in the industrial relations arena, with unions displaying greater inclusiveness

toward outsiders, but also a politicization of union agency with organized labor more

proactively engaging in social and labor market policymaking in order to protect both

insiders and outsiders. Historically, Italian class unionism was preoccupied with the

workplace and did not ascribe much importance to the universalization of welfare, as

wage increases and contributory social insurance, of primary benefit to insiders (nota-

bly old-age pensions), were considered the main source for improving the living stan-

dards of the working class. In Korea, we also find union preoccupation with the

workplace but rooted in business unionism, which considers unions a purely economic

agency. However, in the face of dualization and associated challenges to organized

labor, in both Italy and Korea, we show trade unions’ deliberate strategies to open up