Work

Organising Beyond the Employment Relationship: Scaling Up and Institutional Power in Own-Account Unions

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Sex workers lack structural power; they cannot withdraw their labour to stop production and most do not have a single employer with whom to collectively bargain. The absence of ‘wage-effort bargaining’ has led to conclusions that these workers cannot form successful unions. Yet own-account informal workers in the Global South have routinely organised outside employment relationships and wage-effort bargaining. Organisational forms amongst such workers are generally characterised as spontaneous and non-traditional, with demands focused on social welfare at the municipal scale. Drawing on 32 interviews in Guatemala and Colombia, we demonstrate that sex workers have established formal unions and accessed ‘institutional power’, including re-scaling contestation from the municipal scale to the nation state. We theorise formal union recognition as an enduring vital strategy, with direct material implications for the conditions of work inside the workplace.

Source: Work Employment and Society

DOI: 10.1177/09500170251410861

Authors: Megan Rivers-Moore, Kate Hardy

Institutions: Carleton University, University of Leeds

Language: English

Topic: Labor Movements and Unions

Subfield: Public Administration

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities, Gender equality

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900