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The Ends of Union Solidarity: Undocumented Labour and German Trade Unions

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The Ends of Union Solidarity: Undocumented Labour and German Trade Unions THE ENDS OF UNION SOLIDARITY: UNDOCUMENTED LABOUR AND GERMAN TRADE UNIONS MARKUS KIP A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO February 2016 © Markus Kip, 2016 Abstract This dissertation focuses on the contested practices of union solidarity with undocumented migrant workers in Germany. Unionists part ways when it comes to the practical meaning of solidarity with workers who lack work permits. To some union members, undocumented migrant workers ought to be included in the bonds of union solidarity by virtue of being workers. To others, undocumented migrant workers are primarily illegal and unfair competitors undermining existing practices and institutions of solidarity. Since 2008, six union centres for undocumented migrant workers called MigrAr (German “Migration & Arbeit”, English “migration & labour”) have been established by labour activists. Their institutionalization under the umbrella of German unions continues to arouse controversies among their members. This research builds on an activist ethnography following the Extended Case Method. The researcher is positioned as an activist in the MigrAr centre in Berlin. In a critical encounter with Jürgen Habermas's work, the research charts the significance of instrumental and normative rationalities in union controversies around undocumented labour, since it became a topic two decades ago. The fieldwork shows that activists’ engagement for expanding union solidarity cannot be properly understood in relation to Habermas’s account of instrumental and normative rationality alone. The dissertation, moreover, contests Habermas's dismissal of material reproduction, especially in relation to work and citizenship, as significant for the development of solidarity. Contrary to Habermas's premise of symmetrical reciprocity in his notion of solidarity, this research ii demonstrates that activists understand their own practice as being premised on conditions of asymmetry. Differences pertain among activists, as to whether this requires holding on to established labour standards and union procedures, or whether specific measures are required to practice union solidarity under the condition of undocumented workers’ legal, economic, and social vulnerabilities. Affirming the latter approach, activists in the Berlin centre encounter multiple obstacles to implement it in union organizations as the ethnography details. Drawing on participant observations and interviews, I argue that the activist practice of solidarity is motivated by what I call political imagination; the ability to imagine activist practices as a contribution towards realizing an alternative form of union solidarity. iii Solidarität Uns fehlt nicht die Zeit, uns fehlt nicht die Kraft Uns fehlt nicht das Geld, uns fehlt nicht die Macht Was wir wollen, können wir erreichen Wenn wir wollen, stehen alle Räder still Wir haben keine Angst zu kämpfen Denn die Freiheit ist unser Ziel Denn die Freiheit ist unser Ziel Alles, was uns fehlt, ist die Solidarität Alles, was uns fehlt, ist die Solidarität Uns fehlt nicht die Hoffnung, uns fehlt nicht der Mut Uns fehlt nicht die Kraft, uns fehlt nicht die Wut Was wir wollen, können wir erreichen Wenn wir wollen, stehen alle Räder still Wir haben keine Angst zu kämpfen Denn die Freiheit ist unser Ziel Denn die Freiheit ist unser Ziel Alles, was uns fehlt, ist die Solidarität Alles, was uns fehlt, ist die Solidarität [English translation] Solidarity We don't lack the time, We don't lack the strength We don't lack the money, We don't lack the might What we want, we can achieve If we want, all wheels stop turning We are not afraid to fight Because freedom is our goal Because freedom is our goal All we lack is solidarity All we lack is solidarity We don't lack the hope, we don't lack the courage We don't lack the strength, we don't lack the rage What we want, we can achieve If we want, all wheels stop turning We are not afraid to fight Because freedom is our goal Because freedom is our goal All we lack is solidarity All we lack is solidarity Ton Steine Scherben, Solidarität (1971) iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Solidarity was the key ingredient that made this dissertation possible. I wish that I will have the chance to reciprocate the support of so many people. Family, friends and colleagues have put faith into this dissertation over so many years, and I hope that this work does not disappoint them. First of all, I would like to say thanks to my supervisor, Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, as well as to the supervisory committee members Mark P. Thomas and Roger Keil. Their outstanding support helped me clarify ideas in such a way that my various interests finally coalesced to shape this research project. I am humbled when I remember receiving their generous and prudent feedback. Even when I had been out of touch for longer periods, I was always able to count on their responses in a fast and reliable fashion. It is a real privilege to have experienced such steadfast and detailed supervision across the Atlantic. I am also grateful for the support of the Graduate Program in Sociology and, in particular, Audrey Tokiwa. I have never felt so welcome to enter an office room such as hers. Audrey has also been instrumental in enabling me to combine my student status in Toronto with my research (and de facto life) in Berlin. The support of the activists at the MigrAr centres in Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg has been amazing. In particular, I am happy to count the Berlin activists among my comrades and friends, Anna B., Anna F., Burkard, Conny, Jonathan, Martina, Surrayyo, Vivien and many others. v Although at times I felt that my involvement and activist fervour distracted me from the actual research project, in the end, it was the supportive environment that helped me stay on track and remain convinced that my research addressed something real and meaningful. Without the trust, open-mindedness and interest of these comrades, this work, of course, would not have been possible. Discussions with other (activist-) scholars has been extremely important to inspire me, to situate my research within broader debates, to receive helpful material and feedback, and to be alerted colleagially about the dead-ends my research occasionally ventured in. Here, I would like to explicitly thank Nouk Bassomb, Anna Basten, Norbert Cyrus, Shannon Gleeson, Michael Hölzl, Dagmar Lieske, Thorsten Mense, Heike Oevermann, Lisa Riedner, Christoph Sommer, AK Thompson, Ted Walker and Holger Wilcke. A big thank you to the heroes who read chapters of the final draft and helped me with copy-editing, linguistic clarity and feedback: AK Thompson, Alan Bourke, Anthony Pappas, Jesse Carlson, Mary Dellenbaugh, Sheryl Peters, Ted Walker, and Tia Dafnos. There are also several institutions that have provided me with key resources. More than a dozen different public libraries in Toronto, New York and Berlin were uplifting workspaces for several thousand hours. For the past year and a half, I appreciate having been able to work in the office of the Georg-Simmel-Zentrum for Metropolitan Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Through the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York I was also able to receive indispensable financial support for this research. The Catholic Worker houses in New York City were a wonderful community to live and work in and a source of inspiration to draw vi from long after I had moved to Berlin. Without my own experiences at the day labor corner in Williamsburg and the friendship of those workers, it is hard to imagine that I would have ever focused my research on solidarity in the context of undocumented labour. Every time I think of this topic, even when in the most abstract terms, I am reminded that some parts of me are still there at the corner. Last but not least, it is difficult for me to express my gratitude toward those persons closest to me: my partner Miriam and my children, Bennett and Lucy, and my parents, Ernst and Christine. They have accompanied me throughout the ups and downs of the research process and have given me the gift of home. Berlin, March 9th, 2016 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. xii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ xiii List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction: All We Lack is Solidarity! .................................................................................... 1 Context of discussion: Transnational union solidarity .............................................................................. 8 Crisis of trade unionism and the promise of transnational
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