Dignity and bargaining power: Insights from struggles in strawberries

Abstract

While solidarity is widely understood as key to worker capacity to improve terms and conditions of employment, the creation of solidarity has received less attention. This article advances the theory that dignity is the creative process, based on a psycho-social understanding of dignity not as an outcome but an interpersonal exchange. Mutual recognition of each other's capacities to participate in social rules creates solidarity, thereby catalysing collective action and making workplace improvements more likely. The argument is developed through comparison of three cases of worker struggles in the strawberry sector that produced varied outcomes, from steady improvements through union collective bargaining to persistence of poverty wages and gender-based violence. The proposed model of dignity-based worker power suggests both functional and psychological effects of democratic practice within worker organizations, coalitions and workplaces.