Ofritt arbete i välfärdsstaten?

Representationer av tvång och beroende i fack- och arbetsgivarpress

Abstract

How can the concepts of free and unfree labour help us to understand vulnerability and dependency in the contemporary Swedish labour market? This article examines how union and employer press represent and negotiate coercive elements in the context of labour market policies and labour migration. Focusing on entry, extraction and exit, it analyses how different types of sanctions, deceptions and intersectional inequalities are expressed at different moments in the labour relation. Rather than constituting an anomaly, it is proposed that unfree labour shapes the “free” labour market at the intersection of state regulation, economic interests and political positions on “acceptable” working conditions.