What is a Worker? Framing People in the Informal Economy as Part of the Trade Union Constituency in Kenya and Tanzania

IF 1.3 Q3 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR
L. Riisgaard
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引用次数: 5

Abstract

This article investigates the ongoing efforts of trade unions in Kenya and Tanzania to enlarge their constituency by reconceptualising the notion of workers to include people in the informal economy. How this process plays out is of immense importance as it challenges established understandings of who a worker is; this in turn poses very difficult questions about rights, representation and the distribution of power both internally in the union movements and in society at large. Based on original interview data, the article unpacks this highly contested and politicised process. The article shows how union efforts reflect different ways of tackling the need to constitute people working informally as workers and union members in order to increase the social base, and thereby increase political clout. However, these processes are juxtaposed with the urge to maintain traditional boundaries and protect established privileges and power structures, both internally in the unions and externally in the fragile compromise inscribed in the existing tripartite structures. KEYWORDS: informal workers; informal economy; trade unions; Kenya; Tanzania
什么是工人?将非正规经济中的人视为肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚工会选区的一部分
本文调查了肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚工会正在进行的努力,通过重新定义工人的概念,将人们纳入非正规经济,扩大他们的选区。这一过程的运作方式非常重要,因为它挑战了对工人身份的既定理解;这反过来又对工会运动内部和整个社会的权利、代表权和权力分配提出了非常棘手的问题。根据最初的采访数据,这篇文章揭示了这个充满争议和政治化的过程。这篇文章展示了工会的努力如何反映出不同的方式来解决将非正式工作人员组成工人和工会成员的需求,以增加社会基础,从而增加政治影响力。然而,这些进程与维护传统边界和保护既定特权和权力结构的冲动同时存在,无论是在工会内部,还是在现有三方结构中脆弱的妥协外部。关键词:非正式工人;非正规经济;工会;肯尼亚;坦桑尼亚
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来源期刊
Global Labour Journal
Global Labour Journal INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR-
自引率
12.50%
发文量
26
审稿时长
39 weeks
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