Purpose – This paper aims to examine the more militant response of a minority of workers to collective redundancy and restructuring in Britain since 2007. Design/methodology/approach – The paper deploys secondary sources to develop a series of grounded micro‐factors to help explain the...

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on “Collective worker responses to redundancy and restructuring”. Design/methodology/approach – The editorial provides an overview and introduces the papers which make up the special issue. Findings – The six...

Purpose – Restructuring has assumed a significant importance across Europe due to the growing pressures of internationalisation affecting transnational capital. By drawing from two case‐studies in the public health service and the manufacturing sector in Belgium, this paper aims to present...

Purpose – This article aims to examine recent labour struggles against mass redundancies in France. It seeks to understand the well reported incidences of direct action within the terrain of how industrial relations operate and are governed. Design/methodology/approach – Primary and...

Purpose – The relative absence of worker occupations in recent years in a context of major restructuring and unemployment has raised issues in Spain as to the changing nature of specific forms of direct action. This paper seeks to argue that it is important, in the case of Spain, to discuss...