Transnationalised labour struggle – Workers’ conflict on the move? The case of striking truck drivers in Gräfenhausen

Abstract

While transnationalisation of work typically has been to the advantage of capitalists, hopes have been uttered that workers could also organise and act transnationally. Yet until now the successes of transnational labour struggles have been limited. This article, however, presents a case where workers successfully used the transnational dimension of work as well as international value chains in their collective action. By drawing on both transnational labour governance and the transnational dimensions of their labour struggle, a group of striking truck drivers and their supporters managed to secure the payment of outstanding wages. Power resources theory contributes to explain how this success was possible by the interaction with existing institutions and organisations, including unions that went outside their normal modus operandi to accommodate the workers’ struggle.