Identity, Solidarity, Opposition: Dimensions of Resistance in Big-box Retail

• In Event: 036 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Worker Cultures, Identities, and Prospects for Resistance

Abstract

This paper examines three dimensions of class consciousness attributable to workplace experience among retail workers at two large firms in New York City. Based on 75 in-depth interviews with frontline workers conducted over a 14-month period, my findings are that occupational identity, coworker solidarity and management opposition are indeed prevalent among contemporary retail workers, contrary to much recent theorizing about the subjective impact of service work, but that these attitudes vary considerably with the level of collectivization and managerial styles employed in particular workplaces. Specifically, I find that many workers at traditional, full-line department stores (Macy’s) voice attitudes of occupational identity and management opposition, but little solidarity, while their counterparts at discount stores (Target) in the same city, voice considerable solidarity, but little opposition or occupational identity. These findings simultaneously challenge classical approaches to the study of class consciousness (Mann 1973) which see it as a one-way trajectory and more recent theories of service work’s alleged mitigation of resistance.

Author

• Peter R. Ikeler, SUNY College at Old Westbury