Counter-Landnahme? Labour disputes in the care-work field

• Published date: 21 May 2018
• Date: 21 May 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2017-0028
• Pages: 361-375
• Author: Karina Becker,Klaus Dörre,Yalcin Kutlu
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Counter-Landnahme? Labour

disputes in the care-work field

Karina Becker, Klaus Dörre and Yalcin Kutlu

Department of Sociology, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Jena, Germany

Abstract

Purpose –The thesis of our paper is that the industrial dispute articulates a counter-movement against the

progressive capitalist Landnahme of care work. What is ostensibly a standard wage conflict proves, on closer

scrutiny, to be a dispute that contains a transformative social dynamic. It cannot be conceived either as a

traditional class struggle or as a movement against the market’s unreasonable demands. The paper aims to

discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors draw on a qualitative survey in the social and childcare

services (expert interviews, groups discussions, expert hearings) and two partial-studies on the renewal of

trade unions in East and West Germany (54 expert and 46 employee interviews).

Findings –Professional pride along with confidence in their own professional skills collides with the market-

and competition-driven devaluation of the work of entire groups of employees. Used correctly, a putative

professional consciousness can transform into a source of resilience, protest and collective engagement, which

the authors interpret as counter-Landnahme. A consciousness rooted in professionality develops into a

subjective power resource, the activation of which simultaneously strengthens trade unions’power to

effectuate change.

Originality/value –In the case of the childcare workers, this movement is rooted in a newly awakened

consciousness as skilled labourers. What at first appears as a wage conflict is in fact, upon closer inspection, a

conflict loaded with transformative potential. After all, any greater social recognition of this occupational

group will naturally, at least by tendency, prompt a discussion concerning the modes of financing public

reproductive activities.

Keywords Trade unions, Women workers, Work identity, Landnahme, Power resources

Paper type Research paper

Germany’s labour relations, known to be of a relatively peaceable character in international

comparison, were marred by a series of strikes in 2015 (WSI, 2016). Around 1.1 million

striking employees and 2 million strike days, 90 per cent of which occurred in the service

sector, represented the highest figures for over a decade. Some care-work strikes have been

particularly hard-fought. In the following, we analyse these conflicts based on the example

of the multi-week strike in Germany’s social and childcare services. Our hypothesis is that:

H1. This industrial dispute articulates a counter-movement against the progressive

capitalist Landnahme of care work.

What is ostensibly a standard wage conflict proves –upon closer inspection –to be an

exemplary dispute around the social recognition of professional care work, which is

precisely what makes the movement of childcare workers scientifically intriguing beyond

the individual case.

To substantiate our view, we outline the theoretical framework of the analysis by

introducingthe concept of Landnahme and the ( Jena) power resources approach, first, present

findings on the Landnahme of care work, second, and a case study of the childcare workers’

industrial dispute, third, and conclude by formulating conceptual considerations about the

specificities of reproductive power and the type of movement under analysis, fourth. The

empirical basis of our deliberations consists of two qualitative studies. As part of a study of

trade union renewal in Germany, we conducted a total of 54 expert- and 46 employee

interviews, as well as a labour dispute hearing involving 12 unionists and scientific experts

(cf. Dörre et al., 2017). The experts participating in the hearing received a number of guiding

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 4, 2018

pp. 361-375

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2017-0028

Received 1 February 2017

Revised 16 August 2017

20 September 2017

Accepted 21 September 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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361

Labour

disputes in the

care-work field