Trade union inclusion of migrant and ethnic minority workers: Comparing Italy and the Netherlands

Abstract

This article explores trade union policies and actions towards migrant and ethnic minority workers in Italy and the Netherlands, drawing on union documents and interviews with trade unionists at different organizational levels. It examines how far the explanatory factors addressed in the migration studies and industrial relations literatures help in explaining the observed differences. The findings suggest an inverse relationship between union institutional embeddedness and the perception of migrant workers as ‘power resource’. Of particular relevance, in comparative perspective, are differences in internal union structures and dynamics.