The study brings forward the specificities of grassroots service sector trade unionism and investigates the construction of agency in the lives of shop stewards. The objects of the study are the subjective meanings of trade union activity and the changing employment relations and trade union culture in Finland. In addition to this, the dissertation studies the gendered and gendering character of the trade union activity. It also concentrates on shop steward’s position and interactions with employers and employees.
The dissertation is positioned theoretically in the fields of feminist employment relations and sociology of work. The key theoretical concepts of the study are agency, affective practices, emotion work, employee voice and subjective career theory.
The study asks, 1) how is the shop steward’s agency manifested in the daily practices of service work, and how is it realized in the everyday life of the shop stewards 2) what kind of image of trade union activist is being produced in the meanings attached to shop steward action, 3) how is shop steward’s agency attached to gender and other differences?
The research data was collected during multiple periods between 2009 - 2014. The ethnographic field data was produced in five shop steward courses, one shop steward meeting (call centre work) and three workplaces (retail, warehouse, and cleaning). It also contains the total of 27 individual and pair interviews and two group discussions. The dissertation consists of four articles and this summary chapter. The analytical approach is ethnographic, narrative, and discursive.
The study shows that private services offer a challenging environment for grassroots trade unionism and shop steward action, because of low trade union density, high proportion of small workplaces and workforce mainly consisting of young employees, students, and immigrants with relatively short labour market experience. It highlights how the service workplaces are difficult to organize, because employees feel fear in the workplace about their future in the company. The task requirements for shop stewards are becoming more demanding. They must be able to make quick decisions and perform emotion work so that they get their voices heard. Emotion work is a key component of shop steward’s tasks in the negotiations between the workers and the employer.
The results of the study also bring forward the changing conditions of Finnish trade union movement and how the trade union activity in the private services is in flux. The study discusses the weakening power of trade unions, which creates a need for a new kind of grassroots trade unionism and shop steward action.
The doctoral dissertation of MA (Education) Ville Kainulainen in the field of gender studies titled Ay-aktiivien uusi arki? Ammatillisen edunvalvonnan muuttuvat käytännöt matalapalkkaisella ja naisvaltaisella yksityisellä palvelusektorilla will be publicly examined the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University on Saturday 22 August 2020 at 12 o'clock in the Main building auditorium A1, Kalevantie 1. The Opponent will be docent Mika Helander from Åbo Akademi. Professor Johanna Kantola will act as the Custos.
Only a limited amount of persons can participate in the event and the participants need to register by email to the doctoral candidate.
It is possible to follow the event via a remote connection,
meeting ID: 658 0941 8421
The dissertation is available online at
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-1603-7