This debate brings together researchers and trade union activists in a discussion about strategies for trade union mobilisation in the context of the current pandemic. While lockdowns and restrictions are taking place across the globe, trade unions have not stopped organising, negotiating, and advocating for worker’s rights. In fact, precarity and asymmetries in labour relations have been exacerbated by the pandemic, making organised labour as necessary as ever. Speakers will draw on their experiences to consider how trade unions have adapted their practices to respond to the crisis and its effects on workers.

Speakers:
Danilo Moreira (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores de Call Centers, Portugal)
Jenny Jansson (Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden)
Torsten Geelan (Sociology Department, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Moderator: Bia Carneiro (RETS/CES)


Bio notes

Danilo Moreira is a union leader with the Call Centre Workers Union (STCC, tás logado?). He is also an activist and passionate about human rights, constantly seeking to make the connection between human rights and the reality of workers on the ground. For this reason, he has integrated different causes and civil society organisations that have as a main focus the creation of synergies, such as Climáximo, Consciência Negra, Rede Unitária Antifascista (RUA), Rádio Gabriela, Dínamo, and many others. He is a trainer and call centre operator.

Jenny Jansson is an Associate Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. Her research interests include class formation, identity formation in the trade union movement, labor leaders during the interwar period in Europe, and the labor movement in the age of digitalisation. She is the author of the book 'Crafting the Movement' published by Cornell University Press, which discusses trade union identity in the Swedish organised labour movement.

Torsten Geelan is an incoming Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen. His new project is titled Transitioning to a Low Carbon Economy: Trade Unions and the ‘Jobs versus Environment’ Dilemma. He completed his PhD and MPhil in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. His doctorate thesis examined the role of media and communication in Danish and British trade union responses to the 2008 North Atlantic financial crisis. He is currently working on two collaborative projects. The first project is as Co-PI on a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant examining the role of Twitter in the 2018-2020 UK higher education strike together with PI Professor Athina Karatzogianni. The second project is a special issue in New Technology, Work and Employment co-edited with Dr. Andy Hodder titled The Internet, Social Media and Labour Movement Revitalization: Still behind the Digital Curve or Catching up?

Bia Carneiro is a PhD Sociology candidate in the programme "Labour Relations, Social Inequalities and Trade Unionism" at the Centre For Social Studies/Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra. She is a founding member of the research group "Labour Relations and Society", inserted within the Social Policies, Labour and Inequalities (POSTRADE) research group of the Centre for Social Studies. In between her academic pursuits, Bia has gained more than fifteen years of professional experience in the areas of communication and international development. Her current research interests are social movements, young workers, Web 2.0, and digital methods.
 

Organisation: Grupo de Estudos Relações de Trabalho e Sociedade (RETS)  | Within TRABALHO E SOCIEDADE | 2020-2021 Series

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