Trade unions are the key to migrant workers’ rights
AUGUST 15, 2025
Mike Phipps reviews The Precarious Migrant Worker: The Socialization of Precarity, by Panos Theodoropoulos, published by Polity.
Writing this book, Panos Theodoropoulos worked in a range of precarious jobs alongside other migrant workers. In a Bradford printshop, he was subject to wage theft (money deducted on his payslip for breaks he was not given); in a Glasgow fish-processing plant, he worked eight hour shifts with just a half-hour break two hours in, then six hours of continuous work; as a kitchen porter in the same city, he worked on through multiple cuts and burns – photos included – meaning that “almost every action I have to perform hurts.”
Precarious workplaces seldom have any trade union presence. But migrant precarity extends beyond the workplace – to residency restrictions, housing barriers, racism, xenophobia, language and cultural barriers and general disorientation.
Migrant workers now make up nearly a fifth of the UK’s working population and feature prominently in the most precarious sectors of the labour market – 27% of the hospitality sector, for example. Often working the longest hours for the lowest pay, migrant workers are also more likely than British-born people to work in jobs for which they are over-qualified.
Interviewing many migrant workers, Theodoropoulos finds that to get work, they have to conform to certain stereotypes. Putting one’s degree-level education on application forms, for example, will prevent the applicant from getting most of the jobs available – better to play down your qualifications. Most jobs were physically demanding, with no health and safety provision or sick pay. Many migrants faced racial discrimination from their employers, relative to the treatment of local workers. Some had pay withheld – like the author himself – which could be restored sometimes only with the threat of union or legal action.
Theodoropoulos argues that precarious working conditions socialize the workforce in an individualist, survival-oriented struggle that erodes solidarity and enforces a neoliberal world view. In an Amazon fulfilment centre where he worked, “whatever can be isolated, individualized and automated, will be.” All human interaction is minimised, but surveillance cameras are everywhere, an environment brilliantly conveyed in Laura Carreira’s film On Falling.
Yet precarity cannot entirely erase workers’ awareness and experience of class injustice. Theodoropoulos gives several examples of workers looking out for and helping each other in some of the workplaces he experienced, beyond the requirement of their job. The big question is: does this allow collective action to germinate to a level that can fight the exploitation they face?
In some cases, yes. The author interviews migrant workers who initiated trade union organisation in their workplaces, which brought about some significant changes in working practices. On the other hand, migrant agency workers had a pretty negative view of mainstream unions which made no attempt to connect local unionised workers with non-unionised migrant agency workers, despite the strong desire of the latter to be represented. This failing is identified by Theodoropoulos as the single biggest obstacle to the organisation of migrant workers.
Independent unions like the IWW are more engaged but lack the resources of bigger unions that would enable them to effectively fight unfair dismissals and workplace discrimination. However, in recent years, they have clocked up some notable successes in organising industrial action that has empowered migrant workers in particular, and these advances have had an impact on more traditional unions. Even Amazon has been affected: the US Amazon Labour Union’s 2022 success in organising the company’s Staten Island warehouse “demonstrated the importance of organizing along both class and migration lines.”
For many migrants to the UK, however, overall trends are worsening. Brexit has increased the precarity facing European migrants, who face an increased threat of deportation. The demonisation of migrant workers has intensified under the Labour government and the rhetoric of the Opposition and the media has become much more toxic. Society as a whole is also becoming more precarious, with the cost of living continuing to rise while the welfare state is further eroded.
Yet there are increasingly examples from abroad that can overcome the imposed isolation facing migrant workers: the establishment of autonomous spaces, workers’ centres, industry-specific newsletters are just some of the grassroots initiatives that are happening. Small steps – but vital and growing. This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of that process.
No comments:
Post a Comment