Positional, associative and social power of immigrant workers in strikes in the Italian logistics sector

Based on a case study, this article analyzes the strikes of migrant workers in the Italian logistics sector since 2008. Extending Erik Olin Wright’s “power resources approach,” it distinguishes three types of resources that have enabled the emergence and persistence of these mobilizations: a “structural power” that stems from the strategic position of workers within the economic system, an “associative power” that comes from the intervention of grassroots unions in the sector, and a “social power,” a concept introduced by the author. The article focuses on this last resource, which is endogenous in nature and situated within the reproductive sphere, where the territorial anchoring of migrant communities provides specific identity-related and material resources.