Labor protests as political responses

This article explores the impact of political reforms on labor protests, and on the unions and organizations supporting them. In doing so, we complement theories centered on economic factors and workplace dynamics as key dimensions influencing labor action with insights from contentious politics. We focus on labor protests in post-2008 Italy, a country deeply affected by the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to these crises, a series of reforms was implemented, significantly impacting workers’ rights, wages, job precarity, and overall working conditions. We examine how the passage of such reforms influenced labor mobilization and reshaped the union and organizational field. We use a dataset built through protest event analysis (PEA) covering 9,527 labor protests. We analyze levels of labor action over time, the unions and organizations involved from 2008 to 2022, with particular attention to variations during periods of reform implementation. The results show that labor protest spikes are closely aligned with the passage of reforms throughout the period. Furthermore, political reforms expand and transform the field of unions and organizations mobilizing workers, though the extent of involvement varies across groups. Throughout the post-2008 crisis, union federations have been the primary actors involved in collective actions. However, the political decisions implemented during the COVID-19 period mark a significant turning point, with both established and grassroots unions showing decreased participation, while professional organizations and non-worker categories experiencing a marked increase. Despite these shifts, our results illustrate that union federations remain resilient to change, maintaining their dominant position within the field throughout the entire period, while newer actors act at the periphery of labor action.