Solidarity and Contentiousness in Migrant Worker Mobilisation: Syndicalist Unionisation in Sweden

Abstract

This article analyses the mobilisation of migrant workers in SAC, the main syndicalist trade union in Sweden. It theorises mobilisation and solidarity from a labour process perspective and, based on ethnography, identifies accessibility, contentiousness and belonging as key mechanisms to explain the union’s form of mobilisation. By drawing on the class struggle unionism framework, it conceptualises two strategies – of ‘collapsing servicing and organising’ and ‘participation follows action’ – to explain why and how SAC is successful in its mobilisation efforts. It shows that SAC’s confrontational methods mobilise a migrant worker community where workers’ intersubjective experiences of migration and precariousness shape solidarity and build associational power. The article concludes that SAC’s mobilisation of migrant workers is groundbreaking in a Swedish context and that class struggle unionism has plenty to offer also to other unions.

Introduction

Работа – сделана!

Зарплата - не выплачена!

Aферист!

Бойся, бойся, мы тебя найдем!

The work is done!

The salary has not been paid!

Villain!

Beware, beware we will find you!

The chant echoes between concrete walls. Members of the Builders’ Syndicate, part of a local branch of the syndicalist labour union Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC), have gathered in front of the gates to the project site. Holding aloft red-and-black flags and banners, and dressed in builders’ helmets and reflective vests, they demand that three of their own are paid the SEK 200,000 (US$ 21,300) the employer owes them.

Unsurprisingly, the employer and the trade union members tell different stories about who is at fault. Although the union has reminded the employer of its liability, the latter refused to negotiate. In response, the Builders’ Syndicate has chosen confrontation and initiated a temporary blockade.

The Builders’ Syndicate emerged from an initiative to organise migrant workers begun by the local SAC branch three years earlier. Having observed that employers were increasingly bending the rules in the labour market, the local branch launched the initiative to specifically target precarious migrant workers. Until then, despite the growing informalisation of labour relations in general, and migrant labour exploitation in particular, Swedish trade unions had had limited success in organising migrant workers. Regardless of Sweden’s international reputation for strong collective bargaining (Kjellberg, 2023), the Builders’ Trade Union (Byggnadsarbetarförbundet), the largest trade union for construction workers in Sweden and a member of the national trade union confederation for blue-collar workers (Landsorganisationen i Sverige, LO) has traditionally nurtured ambiguous and, at times, hostile attitudes towards migrant workers. This has even included reporting undocumented migrant workers on project sites to the authorities (Neergaard and Woolfson, 2017).

Because of its relative success, this initiative has received plenty of public attention in the last few years, though scholarly attention has been limited (for exceptions see Calleman, 2025; Schoultz and Muhire, 2023). Although the Builders’ Syndicate is clearly a trade union initiative, it differs from other forms of trade union activity in Sweden – including the Builders’ Trade Union. The syndicate is a member of SAC, an independent trade union outside of LO, with a decentralised organisational structure. SAC and its members use methods and strategies that, these days, have largely been abandoned by the Builders’ Trade Union in LO, such as direct action and employer confrontation. Yet, despite these differences from established trade unions’ activities, the initiative appears to have been successful.

This article aims to investigate and analyse why SAC has been successful in mobilising migrant workers. To do this, it examines the ways in which SAC is successful, focusing on how solidarity and collective action manifest in its mobilisation efforts. In addition, the article considers the effects of SAC’s contentious collective actions for both migrant workers and the broader Swedish labour market.

To address these questions, the article proceeds as follows. It theorises mobilisation and solidarity as inherent to the labour process (Atzeni, 2010; Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020), and conceptualises SAC’s mobilisation of migrant workers by drawing on the class struggle unionism framework (Ness, 2014; Weghmann, 2023). In doing this, it understands SAC’s structure based on participatory democracy, as grounded in class struggle, contrasting with LO’s representative democracy which fosters bureaucratic domination and class compromises (Jansson, 2012). Through this analysis, the article contributes to the increasing scholarly interest in the mobilisation of migrant workers across Europe (Alberti and Però, 2018; Cini et al., 2022; Però, 2020; Piro, 2023; Weghmann, 2022). Following this, the article contextualises SAC’s mobilisation efforts by describing its internal union structure and its relation to the Swedish labour movement. This is followed by a brief background to the situation for migrant labour in the Swedish labour market, a description of the Swedish model of industrial relations, and a discussion of the research methods used.

In the analysis that follows, the article builds on three mechanisms of particular importance for understanding SAC’s mobilisation efforts: accessibility, contentiousness and belonging. Through a conceptualisation of two key SAC strategies – ‘collapsing servicing and organising’ and ‘participation follows action’ – it demonstrates how SAC moves beyond institutional forms of unionisation, and how its confrontational methods mobilise a migrant worker community such that workers’ intersubjective experiences of migration and precariousness shape solidarity and build associational power. The article concludes by arguing that SAC’s class struggle unionism has both material and non-material rewards for migrant workers, even as it influences the institutionally embedded trade union movement, epitomised by LO’s member trade unions, to reconsider its ambivalent approach to migrant worker unionisation.

Labour process theory and class struggle unionism: Conceptualising mobilisation, solidarity and shared experiences of migrant worker precarity

To conceptualise mobilisation and solidarity, this article draws on contradictions in the capitalist labour process (Atzeni, 2010; Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020). It theorises managerial control and the disciplining of labour as motivated by the indeterminate character of labour power as a commodity. That is, for capital accumulation to occur, the capitalist applies various control mechanisms to ensure the realisation of labour power into concrete labour. This transformation of labour power into profitable labour manifests in the workplace as the struggle over value extraction and illustrates the structural antagonism between capital and labour (Thompson and Smith, 2024). It is within the conflictual nature of the capitalist labour process that the roots of – or the ‘embryonic’ forms of (Atzeni, 2010) – workplace solidarity are located. Tassinari and Maccarrone (2020) define workplace solidarity as:

A condition where workers develop collective feelings of reciprocity and responsibility towards one another on the basis of an awareness of their ultimately shared interests and purpose – and are prepared to act upon such feelings through solidaristic actions. (Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020: 39)

However, mobilisation is not prompted by control and authority as such. Rather, the competitive nature of capitalism, and firms’ need to constantly maximise surplus value, eventually disrupt previously accepted compromises in the workplace (Atzeni, 2010: 22–23). These disruptions, such as work intensification and the cheapening of labour costs, do not automatically lead to mobilisation or open conflict in the workplace. In fact, on most occasions they do not. This is because workers are dependent on wage labour for survival, but also because wage labour is normalised in capitalist societies as an equal exchange based on individual choice (Atzeni, 2010: 23–24). In other words, the capitalist exploitation – in terms of extraction of surplus value – is hidden and ‘mystified’ by the wage-relation (Atzeni, 2010: 30).

Nevertheless, because of the capitalist imperative for profitability, the illusion of an equal-exchange relation eventually breaks down and makes workers aware of the structure that constantly produces conditions for conflict in the workplace. This is when solidarity is ‘de-mystified’ and gradually takes on its active form, that is, when the preparedness to act translates into collective action and workers act collectively based on shared interests (Atzeni, 2010). As such, worker mobilisation is always both obstructed and facilitated by their own actions and other historically context-specific factors internal and external to the labour process (Cini et al., 2022; Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020).

To account for the context-specific factors that mobilise migrant worker solidarity in the specific case of SAC, this article adopts a class struggle unionism framework (Ness, 2014; Weghmann, 2022, 2023) and identifies three mechanisms that explain the mobilisation: accessibility, contentiousness and belonging.

Class struggle unionism is characterised by the collectivisation of individual grievances, action, relations of trust and care and escalating confrontation (Weghmann, 2023). As argued by Ness (2014) and Weghmann (2022), syndicalist tactics and strategies therefore fit particularly well with class struggle unionism. This is so because syndicalist strategies emphasise direct action rather than collective bargaining; they build on principles of unionism typically rooted in class solidarity emerging from both the workplace and the wider community. Moreover, and not least, they are based on rank-and-file participation and are fundamentally opposed to bureaucratic domination and class compromises (Hästbacka, 2024; Kuhn, 2014).

These principles and strategies are also what an increasing share of grassroots and independent, so-called indie, unions across Europe have in common (see for example Però, 2020; Piro, 2023; Smith, 2022; Weghmann, 2023). Although not necessarily rooted in syndicalism, often fully migrant run, and despite institutional labour market differences, indie unions play a similar role to that of SAC in Sweden because they explore strategies and methods that more established unions disregard or use less frequently. Situated in opposition to the established labour movement (Smith, 2022), they target ‘unorganisable’ groups of workers that trade unions traditionally have had difficulties in reaching (Bengtsson, 2013; Martínez Lucio et al., 2017; Pulignano et al., 2015), although initiatives of successful migrant worker mobilisation are increasingly frequent also among established unions (Arnholtz and Refslund, 2019; Keizer et al., 2024; Refslund, 2021). With reference to migrant workers specifically, one difficulty is the ‘integration of migrant workers into the overall political strategies of trade unions’ (Weghmann, 2023: 809). Such political strategies are what Connolly et al. (2019) label ‘default-inclusive strategies’, indicating that migrant workers are organised on terms similar to the broader worker collective. This is also what Neergaard and Woolfson (2017) critically refer to as ‘subordinated inclusion’, and point out that such strategies are rarely properly inclusive, because they lack the representation of migrant workers or voice their specific needs. As such, not only do traditional unions neglect the needs of migrant workers, they limit their own accessibility to migrant workers (Weghmann, 2023).

While this illustrates how migrant workers are often seen as passive subjects by established trade unions (Rizzo and Atzeni, 2020), it does not necessarily mean that established unions have no role to play (Marà et al., 2023; Però, 2022). Rather, indie unions are frequently central to trade union renewal. For example, Weghmann (2023) and Smith (2022) show how traditional unions learn from indie unions’ activities, not least in terms of ‘a culture of confrontation, worker-led organising, and solidarity’ (Weghmann, 2023: 810).

One aspect of this is the process of collectivising individual grievances (Weghmann, 2023). This refers to the commitment of indie unions to bottom-up and worker-led initiatives, which ‘shape disputes before they even begin’ (Weghmann, 2023: 815). Since recruitment takes place primarily by word of mouth, workers often join a union because of individual grievances. Individual representation and immediate legal assistance (cf. Schoultz and Muhire, 2023) therefore becomes part of the union’s organising strategy and is in many ways that which motivates and mobilises members. This recalls Pannini‘s (2023) argument that servicing and organising are far from juxtaposed, but instead go hand in hand for indie unions. Servicing is, in other words, a way to be accessible to migrant workers. By offering access to so-called free spaces, what Alberti and Joyce (2023: 231) refer to as ‘micro-spheres of mutualism’, indie unions enable migrant workers to meet and share experiences that nurture processes of social identification and solidarity (Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020).

Previous research on indie unions and self-organised worker initiatives also accentuates the socio-political context of activism and the tradition of contentiousness in which workers are equipped with ideological orientations, resources and skills that support mobilisation (Atzeni and Cini, 2024; Cini et al., 2022). For example, Weghmann (2023) shows that, for indie unions, action is not a last resort after the failure of negotiations and recruitment is not prioritised as a means of gaining recognition in negotiations. On the contrary, for these unions, recruitment follows action. Action, not recognition, is key for indie unions in negotiations and also demonstrates to members with individual grievances that the union is trustworthy (Weghmann, 2023: 813).

Another element of contentiousness in class struggle unionism is the tactic of ‘escalating confrontation’ by confronting employers, engaging in blockades and conducting naming-and-shaming campaigns (Weghmann, 2023). According to Però and Downey (2024), indie unions have much to gain by drawing on discursive power-building practices, such as morally unacceptable poverty wages and different forms of wage theft that effectively generate public support and media attention.

Contentiousness and employer confrontation are particularly relevant to activist leadership (Darlington, 2018; López-Andreu, 2020) and the crucial component of framing an ‘us versus them’ mentality in worker collectives. Activist leadership emerges not from specific bureaucratic positions or a representative democratic structure within the collective, but from practices of grassroots mobilisation and the collective labour process (López-Andreu, 2020: 673). By being close to the protests and taking part in strikes or blockades, local organisers show members that they care and that they ‘have the workers’ backs’ (Weghmann, 2023: 817–818). Such people-focused, emphatic and relational organising builds trust, personal relationships and a sense of belonging to a worker collective as it shapes the momentum of disputes by allowing spontaneity and emotion.

With regards to belonging and migrant worker organisation specifically, Però (2020) introduces the concept of ‘communities of struggle’. He uses this to theorise successful initiatives of migrant workers coming together and forming action-oriented collectives that effectively improve working conditions and build associational power for their members (Però, 2020: 914). A crucial aspect of these communities in developing worker collectivism is the migrant composition of the workforce itself and intersubjective experiences of migrant worker precarity (Alberti and Joyce, 2023). Specifically, it comes from how migrant workers in these multi-ethnic formations negotiate their often hyper-precarious living situations through ‘lived citizenship’ (Però and Zontini, 2025). Rather than the imagined community of a nation-state, lived citizenship refers to the sense of belonging that develops in a community of struggle, including, not least, trust-based personal relationships that encourage mutual care, support, friendship and solidarity (Però and Zontini, 2025; see also Iannuzzi and Sacchetto, 2022). Similar to Fantasia’s (1988) theorisation of active solidarity formation as solidarity that is produced and reproduced during collective action, Però and Zontini (2025) stress the key role of conflict-oriented labour struggles in transforming migrant workers’ political intersubjectivities (Però and Zontini, 2025: 14).

SAC: Decentralisation, direct action and participatory democracy

Founded in 1910, SAC is the oldest and largest syndicalist trade union in Sweden (Hästbacka, 2024). However, in 2024, it had only 3,200 registered members (Kjellberg, 2025) and, like syndicalist unions internationally (see Darlington, 2013), its political influence has historically been limited.

In the Swedish context, the marginal political influence of SAC results from its position as an independent union outside LO, the trade union confederation for blue-collar workers (Calleman, 2025). This is, in turn, a result of the historical divide between syndicalism and social democracy in the early twentieth century (Kuhn, 2014). The ideological differences between SAC and LO persist to this day, illustrated by the unions’ organisational structures, identities and their methods of collective action (Hästbacka, 2024). LO unions have close ties to the Social Democratic Party and build primarily on negotiations and compromises that foster an organisational structure of representative democracy. This has generated a high degree of institutional embeddedness with the Swedish model of industrial relations (Jansson, 2012). By contrast, SAC is an independent union based on participatory democracy, with less institutional embeddedness. It builds on contentious collective action, including direct action, employer confrontation, blockades and strikes (Hästbacka, 2024).

For SAC, the class struggle takes the form of a double class struggle, encompassing both the immediate and daily struggles to improve working conditions and wages in the workplace, as well as acting as a platform for the long-term goal of the democratisation of the workplace by taking control of the means of production (Hästbacka, 2024). The union structure therefore rests on principles of decentralisation and grassroots initiatives. Indeed, SAC is itself a national association of local and cross-sectoral branches (Lokala Samorganisationer) and it is the responsibility of each local branch to support unionisation initiatives and encourage the formation of unions (Driftsektioner) in workplaces. The idea is that every workplace has its own union that organises all workers in the same workplace, irrespective of trade. While all worker unions have responsibility for their own activities, the local branch supports worker unions and administers memberships. On occasion, several worker unions within the same industry in the same local branch may come together and form a syndicate (this was the case with the Builders’ Syndicate discussed in this article) (Hästbacka, 2024).

Because of this organisational structure, SAC relies heavily on grassroots and rank-and-file unionism (Kuhn, 2014). This partly explains SAC’s limited reach, but this participatory form of labour organisation also creates space for manoeuvre for local sections when strategising. For example, SAC’s guiding principle on servicing is to avoid it because of its contradictory and limited effects on long-term worker organisation (Hästbacka, 2024). However, as in the case of the specific branch under scrutiny in this article, local sections frequently use servicing in the form of litigation and immediate legal assistance to support migrant workers (Calleman, 2025; Schoultz and Muhire, 2023). This is similar to indie unions elsewhere. For example, in the United Kingdom, scholars have noted the increasing use of strategic litigation by indie unions. While some see this as key in contemporary worker struggles, others problematise legal mobilisation as potentially negating the radical potential of indie unions (see for example Adams, 2023; Dias-Abey, 2022; Dukes and Kirk, 2024; Kirk, 2018).

Shaping migrant worker precarity and informalisation: Swedish industrial relations and the role of the state

Established trade unions have traditionally been ambivalent towards labour migration (Doellgast et al., 2018). In Sweden, LO’s strategic approach has historically been to control the supply of migrant labour and to achieve short-term goals of increased salaries and improved working conditions for its existing members (Kjellberg, 2017). LO has rarely targeted migrant workers specifically (Bender, 2023). While initiatives by the Builders’ Trade Union and the Transport-Workers’ unions represent exceptions, these have seldom been successful or sustainable in the long run (Bengtsson, 2013).

In Sweden, social partners in the labour market negotiate salaries based on a system of self-regulation that results in collective agreements (Kjellberg, 2023). However, while collective agreements cover close to 90% of workers, the coverage varies across sectors and industries. For example, labour-intensive industries that rely on migrant labour have less comprehensive cover than others. Nor is there a statutory mechanism that guarantees the general application of collective agreements (Kjellberg, 2025).

Strong collective bargaining and high unionisation rates are, in other words, important for Swedish unions. However, just like in other OECD countries (Visser, 2024), unionisation rates have dropped drastically in Sweden in the last twenty years: while 77% of blue-collar workers were organised in 2006, by 2024 this had fallen to 58% (Kjellberg, 2025). This makes it increasingly difficult for trade unions to uphold their bargaining positions. In addition, two events have had specific impacts on Swedish unions’ efforts to control the supply of migrant labour: the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and the de-regulation of labour migration from third countries in 2008.

The inclusion of new member states in the European Union and the system of posted work (Arnholtz and Lillie, 2020) challenged trade union influence, both on the labour market and in work places. For example, the strength of the Builders’ Trade Union in LO was tested when, in 2007, the Laval ruling allowed foreign building companies to place employees on Swedish project sites governed by the sending countries’ legislation (for an overview see Ahlstrand, 2022). Second, a labour migration reform in 2008 introduced a system of employer-sponsored work visas for third-country nationals with work permits tied to the specific employment (Wright et al., 2017). This dependence on their employers for residency has exposed migrant workers to precarious situations, potentially forcing them to accept unilateral demands and abusive working conditions. In addition, the new system treats all industries as equal, which makes it possible for Swedish companies in labour-intensive industries, such as hospitality, cleaning and building to recruit cheap labour from abroad (Frödin and Kjellberg, 2018).

With the Swedish labour market increasingly connected to a global ‘reserve army of labour’ (Schierup and Jørgensen, 2017), instances of wage theft and other forms of work-related crime have accelerated (Fyrk, 2020; Torp, 2020, 2023). To clamp down on criminal elements in the labour market, there has, since 2018, been a political mobilisation against work-related crime (Arbetsmiljöverket, 2023). In 2023, the government raised the salary requirements for third-country nationals to be eligible for work visas (Migrationsverket, 2025). Now, migrant workers must earn at least 80% of the median income in Sweden – currently around SEK 28,000 (US$ 3,000) – irrespective of their trade. Previously, the salary requirement was SEK 13,000 (US$ 1,400).

While the higher threshold potentially makes it less attractive for Swedish employers in low-wage and labour-intensive industries to recruit new workers from abroad, it does not address the issue of migrant worker representation and organisation; neither does political mobilisation against criminal elements in the labour market. Rather, a ‘criminalising’ discourse risks having adverse effects for those already working in Sweden on work permits, forcing workers to accept unilateral and informal demands by unscrupulous employers as contracts are re-negotiated. More specifically, just like the ideal for wage setting, the relative autonomy and non-interventionist features of the Swedish labour market model also apply to the responsibility for monitoring terms and conditions at work (except for health and safety, which is governed by the Work Environment Authority) (Selberg, 2023). Thus, matters of arbitrary redundancy and wage theft are the responsibility of trade unions. Yet, because of limited initiatives to organise migrant workers from the established trade union movement, workplaces where most or all of the workforce are migrant workers lack representation. This demonstrates a gap in the Swedish model of industrial relations.

Methods

The article builds on an ongoing qualitative study of precarious and informal work in the Swedish labour market. ¹ It uses data gathered through ethnography and in-depth interviews as well as secondary literature and reports from both stakeholders and relevant authorities. The data for this article was primarily collected ethnographically over the course of ten months in 2023, with a local branch of the syndicalist trade union SAC. Following an initial contact with the union via email, and a subsequent invitation to join their activities, the author took part in a variety of organising activities, including membership meetings, blockades and social gatherings. In addition to two full days of workplace blockades, the author attended bi-weekly membership meetings on six occasions between early February and late May 2023, as well as one meeting in September. The ethnographic data collection amounts to approximately 70 hours of participatory observation and consists of fieldnotes, field interviews and informal conversations held during coffee breaks, pizza lunches or at employer confrontations. Ethnographic notes were taken continuously throughout the fieldwork, and all field interviews were meticulously registered. After returning from the field, the author edited and expanded the notes and prepared full fieldnotes for future analytical purposes. Verbal and written information of the study was provided to the participants, including how the data would be used, what questions would be asked, and their right to withdraw from the study at any time. Verbal consent for participating in the research was obtained from all participants, and to protect their anonymity, pseudonyms replace all names and places.

Ethnography and participant observation are rewarding means of researching migrant worker organisations. To participate in membership meetings as well as in blockades facilitated understanding of the underpinnings of SAC’s mobilisation efforts. In this case, it gave the author first-hand experience of how SAC’s strategies and methods generate both material and non-material rewards, such as full compensation for withheld salaries, but also a sense of pride, dignity and belonging. This recurrent presence in meetings and activities over a longer period also smoothed the process of building rapport with participants (Gray et al., 2007) and allowed for informal interviews and conversations with migrant workers before and after meetings, which further deepened understanding of their precarious livelihoods and members’ attachment to SAC.

Eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with trade unionists from LO and experts from the Swedish Work Environment Authority supplement the ethnographic accounts of migrant worker mobilisation. Considering the combination of ethnography and semi-structured expert interviews, the sampling process was a mix of strategic and snowball sampling. The semi-structured interviews were digitally recorded and fully transcribed. Together with the ethnographic accounts, the interview data was analysed using abduction, in which empirical observations were contextualised and re-described within a specific theoretical framework and a new set of ideas (Danermark et al., 2019). For example, the in-depth semi-structured interviews built on general questions that reflect previous research, which indicates the research process of identifying relevant mechanisms and events that can, in turn, help explain inconsistencies and contradictions (Smith and Elger, 2014). In this case, the identified mechanisms were accessibility, contentiousness and belonging. These mechanisms were theorised in a wider conceptual framework of class struggle unionism (Weghmann, 2023) to demonstrate how SAC, through participatory democratic structures and by pursuing confrontational politics, manages to mobilise migrant workers.

In investigating migrant worker precarity and migrant worker organisation, both limitations and ethical considerations influenced the research. For example, in terms of data collection, language difficulties limited access to informants: since a Russian-speaking interpreter was not available, it was difficult to engage with many of the Russian-speaking members who, in general, did not speak English. Thus, this article presents mostly the voices of Latin American migrants involved in the union, who were more accessible because of their, in general, better proficiency in English, but also because of the author’s own basic knowledge of Spanish.

Mobilising migrant worker solidarity

It is crowded and the air in the undersized room is stifling. Men and women from all over Latin America are sitting tight together or standing in the doorway, listening to each other’s stories and experiences of exploitation and discrimination. One woman has brought her son, who is watching cartoons on her phone. Some of the participants have been in Sweden for many years, others for just a few months. Most of them work in either cleaning or construction, and while some are attending the meeting for the first time, others are long-standing members. Some have pending cases that await either negotiation between the union and the employer – or a court date where the labour court will settle the dispute. They all share experiences of wage theft and exploitation in the Swedish labour market.

In the room across the hall, a Russian-speaking meeting is taking place. It draws four or five times as many people as the Spanish-speaking meeting. Almost all of them are men from Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan or other countries in the former Soviet Union, working in construction across the city. Most of them do not speak any Swedish, and only a few speak a bit of English. Out of around 100 people in the Russian-speaking meeting, around twenty are there for the first time, to seek advice and legal assistance. (Fieldnotes, membership meeting)

The migrant workers in the two rooms shared similar problems and experiences of working in Sweden. Many had not received the salary that they had agreed to with their employer and some employers had refused to pay them at all. A Ukrainian man, who had been working as a roofer in Sweden for a couple of years, explained:

Most of them [migrant workers] have their work visas tied to their employment contracts, so it is difficult to speak up against your employer, even if you do not get your salary or have to work overtime. . . . Sometimes up on the roof for example, there are no safety measures, but if you speak up the boss might give you the sack and you can get deported. (Serhii, Ukraine)

Serhii’s experiences, as well as those of other migrants in the meeting, highlight the precarious and exploitive situation many migrant workers face in the Swedish labour market (Fyrk, 2020; Torp, 2020, 2023). They also indicate how this situation is the result of neoliberal policymaking. The implementation of employer-sponsored work visas effectively grants a precarious migrant workforce little or no bargaining power in the Swedish labour market (Wright et al., 2017).

However, and importantly, members also expressed anger, frustration and feelings of injustice, which indicates a sense of solidarity and preparedness to act (Atzeni, 2010). In what follows, the article analyses how SAC’s mobilisation efforts transformed Serhii’s and the other members’ preparedness to act into collective action (Atzeni, 2010). More particularly, the analysis shows how the mobilisation not only restored dignity among the workers, but also how SAC’s methods and strategies were a form of community-building, in the sense that migrant workers came to share experiences while also being equipped with skills and resources that shape solidarity and build associational power. The structure of the analysis builds on the three identified mechanisms mentioned previously: accessibility, contentiousness and belonging.

Accessibility and recognition: Strategising beyond institutionalised forms of unionisation

The meetings took place every second Sunday and were a new approach to migrant worker organisation in Sweden. According to local organisers, the growing number of migrant workers in the labour market, who were both exploited and unorganised, required new solutions.

We identified this big group of workers that are almost invisible in the labour market and often very exploited [. . .] they have very little bargaining power because the other unions have failed to reach them [. . .] so we recorded information videos in thirteen different languages and started spreading them. (Mats, negotiator and organiser, SAC)

While the local organiser made it sound like the easiest thing in the world, other unions had tried similar campaigns before. For example, the Builders’ Trade Union in LO had previously run targeted campaigns in different languages, attempting to reach posted workers and broaden their membership base. Yet, these initiatives seldom proved sustainable due to the difficulty of reaching migrant workers for reasons ranging from bureaucracy and high membership fees to migrants’ own previous negative experiences of unions in their home countries (Bengtsson, 2013).

For a long time, neither SAC nor the Builders’ Trade Union assisted new members if the individual grievance concerned matters that took place before the membership was registered. SAC also had a so-called qualifying period; it would only assist you with your case if you had been a member for three months. Considering they had often arrived only recently and had temporary status in Sweden, this disqualified many migrant workers from receiving support, because they turned to the union only when experiencing problems at work. Therefore, recognising that the needs of migrant workers are different from the majority workforce (Weghmann, 2023), and in an attempt to reach migrant workers, the local branch of SAC decided to remove the qualifying period and extend its support to new members. Ana, a negotiator and organiser with a background as undocumented for many years herself, elaborated on the decision when discussing the situation of a Bolivian worker:

Now we can help him [. . .] as soon as he registers today. This is important because it is hard and mostly impossible for many of the workers to get what is rightfully theirs. The employers have all the power. (Ana, negotiator and organiser, SAC)

With no qualifying period, the union became more accessible for migrant workers. It was now attracting new members en masse and more than doubled its membership. It also successfully challenged employers and won negotiations on a weekly basis (Boss, 2024). In 2025 alone, the Builders’ Syndicate brought in SEK 16 million (US$ 1.79 million) in withheld salaries and awarded damages to their members through negotiations and lawsuits (Semenov, 2026). In other words, the decision to remove the qualifying period demonstrates the importance of strategising beyond institutionalised forms of unionisation in mobilising migrant workers (Smith, 2022; Weghmann, 2023).

The initiative to remove the qualifying period has received mixed reactions, both internally within SAC, but also from LO unions. Many union officials were sceptical and hesitant, and questioned whether servicing was legitimate union activity:

It seems more as if they are helping and servicing, not organising. [. . .] I am not saying it is wrong that they are helping them, but if it is going to be sustainable, then you cannot view people like victims [. . .] but that you are building something side by side. [. . .] That we mobilise and unionise, that we demand collective agreements and not end up doing charity [. . .] It might help the individual in that moment, but I would rather see a structural change. (Regional union official, Transport Workers’ Union)

First, to contextualise what the union official is saying here; servicing is a non-issue for LO unions because of the institutionalisation of servicing for their members through collective agreements, workplace representatives and unemployment insurance. Nonetheless, by supporting migrant workers who otherwise cannot access such services, and employing a strategy of what is here termed ‘collapsing servicing and organising’, SAC effectively addresses a gap in Swedish industrial relations. Interestingly, the union official questioned the initiative to support precarious migrant workers because of the risk of providing aid to opportunists. Rather than organising new members interested in collective action for structural change, she feared that servicing might produce passive recipients of aid (cf. Rizzo and Atzeni, 2020). However, the urgency with which SAC proceeds to take action, actually ‘shape[s] disputes before they even begin’ (Weghmann, 2023: 815). That is, considering how recruitment to SAC takes place primarily by word of mouth, individual representation becomes part of the union’s organising strategy and is, in many ways, that which motivates and mobilises new members (cf. Pannini, 2023; Weghmann, 2023). This way, the strategy of collapsing servicing and organising gives recognition to migrant workers as individuals and workers with rights and restores their dignity as part of a worker collective. Artyom from Ukraine, elaborated on this:

What they [SAC] do and the way they work, it is also who I am [. . .] I share the same values and I think they do good [. . .] the Builders’ Trade Union works so differently – they did not help me because my problems were old, from before I joined [. . .] and they never talked to me! Only sent mail and I call on the phone but they cannot help me, only with how I pay membership fees [. . .] but here at SAC people are good! Kristoffer, Mats – and I’m going to engage and help also, because they do good. (Artyom, construction work, Ukraine)

Artyom’s feeling of restored dignity and belief in SAC’s work were shared by other members, and are key factors in generating group cohesion (López-Andreu, 2020) among an otherwise fragmented group of hyper-precarious workers. Thus, servicing through litigation and immediate legal assistance generates a collectivisation of individual grievances (Pannini, 2023; Weghmann, 2023).

As an independent union on the fringes of the Swedish labour market model, SAC shapes political strategies – such as the removal of the qualifying period – that go beyond contemporary and institutionalised forms of unionisation. By acknowledging that migrant workers have different needs than others, SAC highlights a gap in the Swedish labour market model. The strategy of collapsing servicing and organising effectively provides a space for migrant workers outside of work where they can meet and share experiences that nurture processes of social identification and solidarity (cf. Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020).

Belonging and contentiousness: Communities of struggle

Dressed in reflective vests and protective helmets, we squeeze in behind the banner as one of the organisers takes the megaphone and declares (in Russian) that the project site is under a temporary blockade. A crowd of neighbours and passers-by quickly gather in the street, and photographers from the newspapers that joined us in the morning take photos. Another organiser is quick and catches up with some Latin American workers who are returning from their break in the barracks on the other side of the street. I see how she hands out leaflets and explains in Spanish what is going on. In this case, members of the syndicate have worked for a subcontractor without pay for several months. We cannot find the general contractor’s site management, but the members who have been working here without pay know where the office is so we go there.

While the twenty or so of us are pressing in through the small lobby to reach the lifts, the lift doors open with both the site manager and the project manager in there. The organiser who has taken the lead asks if any of them is the site manager. He explains that we are from the Builders’ Syndicate and that we have just declared the project site under blockade, because some members have worked but not been paid by one of the subcontractors. All of us accompany the three of them out in the street. The organiser has done this before and does not waste any time; negotiations start immediately while walking, and the managers try to explain themselves. (Fieldnotes, blockade of construction site)

As the fieldnotes suggest, the syndicalist tradition of direct action and employer confrontation is an effective way to pressure employers into negotiation because it generates attention. Particularly in contrast to LO’s approach, of negotiating and seeking compromise, which has, in the last twenty years, contributed to a steady decline in conflict in the Swedish labour market (Jansson and Uba, 2023). National media, through broadcasts and newspapers, covered the Builders’ Syndicate on multiple occasions during the course of this study (see for example DN, 2023a, 2023b; SR, 2023; SVT, 2023). In addition, the organisers wrote opinion pieces and released a book compiling 100 of their members’ stories and experiences of labour exploitation (Boss et al., 2023; DN, 2025). Altogether, such discursive and power-building practices (Però and Downey, 2024) generate a reputation among other migrant workers in similar situations, among sketchy employers and companies, among the established trade union movement, and also among the public.

The contentiousness that blockades and employer confrontation signal is specifically attractive for migrant workers. The collective invasion of the project site, the confrontation with the management and, not least, the organisers’ ‘activist leadership’ (Darlington, 2018) and wholehearted engagement with the workers’ cause, boosted confidence and the will to participate among the members, and also emphasised the class struggle (cf. Weghmann, 2023). Watching the negotiations from a few metres away, Alberto, an undocumented worker from Colombia, quietly said, ‘They’re not so tough now. . . We’re strong together!’ and smiled. On another occasion, during a confrontation concerning withheld wages that took place at the top of the stairs, a subcontractor pushed the organiser. Luckily, a group of Russian members were right behind him in the stairway and caught him before he fell. In yet another blockade, Swedish workers shouted racist slurs and tried to force the syndicate to leave the project site by encouraging a truck driver to drive over members who had blocked the entrance. The organisers stood firm and encouraged the members to do the same. By taking the lead in this manner and showing courage, the organisers show that not only do they believe in the migrant workers’ cause, but that they are willing to participate in the struggle. There is more to leadership than representation alone, and participation also plays a key role (Darlington, 2018).

This also shows how direct action welds members together, and how SAC, as an independent and syndicalist union, is well-positioned to offer representation to a group of workers that lacks representation elsewhere (cf. Cini et al., 2022). Meanwhile, as migrant workers participate in the blockades, they are equipped with ideological orientations and new practical knowledge that support (further) mobilisation (Atzeni and Cini, 2024; Cini et al., 2022). This strategy, which may be described as ‘participation following action’, shows the members the value of standing together and of having each other’s back and illustrates how class consciousness is acquired through action and how it produces and reproduces solidarity (Fantasia, 1988).

Importantly, class struggle unionism, and the ‘activist leadership’ (Darlington, 2018) of organisers and rank-and-file members that is so prominent in SAC’s mobilisation efforts, also build relations of trust and care (Weghmann, 2023). They create belonging and a narrative of us versus them (López-Andreu, 2020). This sense of belonging was evident in the meetings and blockades attended by the author. For example, Ernesto, a man in his forties from Nicaragua, who had been working in construction in Sweden for almost a decade, said:

It is quite simple; the union has our back in a very different way than the other unions, they go the extra mile for their members, including also the migrants. . . It is this, the togetherness, to be a part of something. It contributes to a feeling of security. . . It [SAC] is also better because it is more radical, and does not have so many rules that prevent them from helping the workers. (Ernesto, construction work, Nicaragua)

Most members voiced similar sentiments: that through their activist leadership (Darlington, 2018), SAC organisers show that they are serious and that they get results. Importantly, their engagement with the cause expresses a commitment beyond that of a trade union: it is the commitment of a community, and in this case, a migrant worker community (Però, 2020).

The migrant element of the community was particularly important for most of the members. Walter, a long-standing member from Bolivia, explained that:

The other times I quit because the other Spanish-speaking people dropped off as time passed. . . Now it is fun to be here again. It is a big Spanish-speaking group and you feel that you are part of something. I enjoy the social aspect a lot. (Walter, unemployed, Bolivia)

Walter was unemployed after an arbitrary dismissal and looked forward to the meetings every second Sunday. He was always one of the first to arrive. It is not only the things that were said, but also the things they did that bore witness to a sense of togetherness and belonging in a migrant worker community (Però, 2020). For example, in a meeting attended by the author, a wife of one of the members stayed home to babysit another member’s children. In a WhatsApp group, members shared questions and information on everything from banking to health issues, which companies and employers to avoid and how to access free Swedish-language courses. In other words, members draw on their shared experiences of migrant worker precarity (Alberti and Joyce, 2023) to navigate both labour relations and other social relations in a new country of residence: what Però and Zontini (2025) refer to as ‘lived citizenship’.

Through their strategies and methods, the local branch and the organisers actively support this sense of belonging. They also organise non-labour-related events, such as potlucks for Christmas. One time, they organised a trip to go canoeing in the countryside. Such activities build friendships and strengthen belonging as they consolidate not only the worker collective, but also the migrant worker community (Però, 2020; Però and Zontini, 2025), helping to alleviate subjective feelings of precarity (Alberti and Però, 2018).

This alleviation of precarity is also apparent in situations when the established members of the community support newer members in their grievances. For example, at one of the meetings, another Bolivian man in his mid-twenties explained that he had worked on a project site for a subcontractor for fifteen days, but never received his salary. He had never met the person who hired him: the only contact had been through the WhatsApp messaging app. While telling the story, he had his head slightly bowed, and was clearly very uncomfortable and embarrassed. However, all the others in the room had had experience of similar situations and they quickly reminded him that he had done nothing wrong; the recruiter was at fault. The unanimous view was that he had acted in good faith and accepted the terms only because of his vulnerable situation. Unfortunately, he had learnt his lesson the hard way, but at least now, he knew who and what he was up against. The message from his fellows was also this: there is only one way to handle such situations. We fight back and we fight together because we are stronger together. Thus, the shared experiences of migrant worker precarity help members identify with each other because of their collective feelings of reciprocity and responsibility – of solidarity (Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020). That the mobilisation takes place under the SAC umbrella moulds an action-oriented collective in which class struggle and direct action are explicit features of collective action. In this case, the contentiousness is key for the transformation of migrants’ political subjectivities (Però and Zontini, 2025: 14): the confrontational and uncompromising element helps frame a joint enemy and sense of comradeship rooted in their migrant worker community (Però, 2020; Però and Zontini, 2025).

Concluding discussion

This article sets out to analyse SAC’s successful mobilisation of migrant workers in Sweden. Based on labour process theory (Atzeni, 2010; Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020) and drawing on the class struggle unionism framework (Weghmann, 2023), this article provides valuable insights into a previously under-researched area of Swedish industrial relations, while it contributes to the growing field of inquiry into migrant worker organisation across Europe. More particularly, it demonstrates how the local branch of an independent union, through confrontational methods, mobilises migrant workers and challenges the growing informalisation of labour relations. It argues that the community-oriented dimensions of SAC’s mobilisation efforts are particularly noteworthy, and illustrate how marginalised groups of migrant workers in low-wage and labour-intensive industries develop solidarity actions and build associational power by drawing on their intersubjective experiences of migration and precariousness.

Theoretically, the article contributes to research on migrant worker organisation and demonstrates the relevance of class struggle unionism (Weghmann, 2023). With reference to SAC, the prominence of direct action and employer confrontation highlight the specific role that syndicalist trade unions can play for hyper-precarious and marginalised groups of workers such as migrants. The conceptualisation of the two strategies: on one hand, collapsing servicing and organising and, on the other, participation following action, adds to the theoretical contribution by illustrating how institutionally embedded trade unions need to move beyond institutionalised forms of organising. More specifically, these conceptualisations highlight the enforcement gap in the Swedish labour market model: specifically, how unorganised migrant workers involved in low-wage and labour-intensive industries have few possibilities to stand up against unilateral demands from unscrupulous employers precisely because they are left unorganised by the established trade union movement.

Through the strategy of collapsing servicing and organising, the article shows how SAC recognises that migrant workers have different needs than other workers (Weghmann, 2023). Specifically, the institutionalised forms of servicing that cover the majority of workers in Sweden through collective agreements and workplace representatives do not cover unorganised migrant workers. To be able to reach out to and access these groups of workers, unions need to move beyond institutionalised forms of organisation. In the case of SAC, this involves the removal of the qualifying period for new members and the decision to take on individual grievances through immediate legal assistance and litigation processes (Calleman, 2025; Schoultz and Muhire, 2023). This has not only brought in a wave of new members but, more importantly, it has given recognition to a group of workers in the labour market who are rarely recognised as individuals and workers with rights. Such recognition restores dignity (López-Andreu, 2020). In combination with the space that SAC provides for migrant workers to meet and share experiences, servicing facilitates a collectivisation of individual grievances (Pannini, 2023; Weghmann, 2023).

The strategy of participation follows action, on the other hand, demonstrates how action and confrontation are key in mobilising a fragmented and marginalised workforce (Weghmann, 2023). Through direct action, blockades of project sites and employer confrontation, SAC effectively draws nationwide public attention to a matter that previously received close to none. Such discursive power-building practices (Però and Downey, 2024) are crucial also for the formation of a worker collective and the framing of an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Through activist leadership (Darlington, 2018; López-Andreu, 2020), both organisers and rank-and-file members engage personally in matters concerning members. This boosts confidence and willingness to participate among members. Moreover, such relations of trust and care (Weghmann, 2023) create special bonds and togetherness – a community.

In the case discussed in this article, the community is theorised as an action-oriented migrant worker collective (Però, 2020). The article thus demonstrates how the composition of the workforce and their intersubjective experiences of migrant worker precarity are key to members navigating hyper-precarious living situations in a foreign country, but also to how these experiences consolidate their togetherness (Alberti and Joyce, 2023). Understanding these actions as rooted in the community (Però and Zontini, 2025) reveals the transformation of migrant workers from individuals to collective workers (Atzeni, 2010), and the alleviation of subjective feelings of precarity (Alberti and Però, 2018) as the members develop collective feelings of mutualism and solidarity (Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020).

This article has demonstrated how SAC’s mobilisation of migrant workers is groundbreaking in a Swedish context and that class struggle unionism also has plenty to offer other unions. Indeed, SAC’s mobilisation has both material and non-material rewards for its members. As illustrated by the Builders’ Trade Union in LO, which has recently launched an initiative targeting migrant workers, the successes of SAC’s mobilisation pressures and influences the institutionally embedded trade union movement to reconsider its ambivalent approach to migrant worker unionisation.