Beyond wages.
Framing mismatches in job quality between trade unions and care workers and their implications for collective representation
Abstract
Despite the expansion of the care workforce across European welfare states, trade unions have struggled to organize this segment of the labour market. Prevailing explanations emphasise structural constraints linked to marketization and outsourcing, as well as gendered and migrant-related barriers embedded in union cultures and institutions. Drawing on 80 in-depth interviews with caregivers in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Spain, this article re-examines this puzzle by foregrounding workers’ perceptions of unions and representation. The findings reveal a persistent misalignment between unions’ organizing frames and caregivers’ professional identities and workplace grievances. While unions often rely on traditional distributive claims or universal worker categories, caregivers prioritise professional and social recognition, autonomy, and job valorization. The article argues that union revitalization in the care sector requires a reframing of care work centred on recognition-based strategies and collective identity formation. By highlighting the role of framing, the study contributes to debates on trade union renewal and representation in contemporary European industrial relations.
About speaker
Anna Mori is an Associate Professor of Economic Sociology and Industrial Relations at the University of Milan. Her research focuses on comparative industrial relations, with a particular emphasis on the public sector, care services and trade union representation strategies in non-standard segments of the labour market, including workers with multiple jobs and self-employed professionals. She has explored the issue of public procurement and its impact on working conditions across various economic sectors, including care services. She is currently also investigating the impact of organised crime on industrial relations, with a focus on the role of trade unions, labour regulation and relations with businesses.
She has extensive experience in European projects dedicated to the study of industrial relations and collective representation in the care sector, including the DEVCOBA – DEVeloping Collective Bargaining in the Care Sector project, which she coordinated (2023–25).
Her most recent work has been published in international academic journals such as British Journal of
Industrial Relations, European Journal of Industrial Relations, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy e Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. Ha inoltre pubblicato la monografia Employment Relations in Outsourced Public Services. Working Between Market and State con Palgrave (2020).