This chapter examines the role of white- and male-dominated unions in shaping the racial capitalism of the so-called Swedish Model. Inspired by Du Bois’ re-writing of US history, where white (and male) trade unions play a central role in producing and reproducing racial labor and social inequalities, the chapter follows the thread outlined by Du Bois argument, on the centrality of labor unions in understanding the preproduction of racial capitalism. It contributes to the growing literature on racial capitalism in domestic labor and welfare relations—while pointing to both a continuity of an ethno-racial Swedish welfare nation-state as well as the recent neoliberal rupture in it. The chapter departs from the transition from a Keynesian labor market in which racial capitalism was relatively hidden by a project of subordinated inclusion toward a neoliberal labor market characterized by exclusionary subordination with a racialized stratification of employees. The chapter ends with a discussion of how trade unions—which are central to the Swedish Model—may challenge racial capitalism.

I denna studie utforskas relationen mellan lönearbete och ojämlikhet inom servicearbete ur ett feministiskt perspektiv. Teoretiskt förenar avhandlingen ett arbetsprocess- och ett intersektionellt perspektiv med syfte att fånga variationen och mångfalden i de maktrelationer som formar servicearbete. Studien baseras på en kvalitativ ansats och bygger på 24 djupintervjuer med hotell- och restauranganställda verksamma i en svensk storstad.

Avhandlingen visar hur arbetsprocessen är grundläggande för skapandet och återskapandet av ojämlikheter, och att arbetsprocessen formas av arbetsgivares, kunders och anställdas föreställningar, fantasier och maktrelationer. Avhandling visar också hur ojämlika sociala relationer av klass, kön, sexualitet och ”ras”/etnicitet görs i själva arbetsprocessen samt hur fundamentalt lönearbete är för skapande av gemenskap, motstånd och identiteter.

This study explores the relationship between paid work and the reproduction of (gendered) inequalities, with special focus on the hotel and restaurant branch. Theoretically the study takes it points of departure in a feminist re-appraisal of a labour process perspective and in a feminist intersectional understanding of gender relations. Methodologically the research is based on a qualitative study that consists of 24 in-depth interviews with employed in the hotel and restaurant branch located within a large city in Sweden.

The study shows how different forms of inequality are shaped within and through the labour process, a labour process that is also shaped by employers, customers, and employees ideas and fantasies and the power relations between them. The study also shows how fundamental the labour process is in the doing of (unequal) social relations of gender, sexuality, class and “race”/ethnicity and how central paid work is in the construction of identities, forms of resistance and belonging.