Mobilizing and bargaining at the edge of informality: The '3 Cosas campaign' by outsourced migrant workers at the University of London

In September 2012 a group of outsourced service workers at the University of London, many from Latin America, launched the ‘3 Cosas Campaign’ demanding equal treatment with in-house employees. Drawing from qualitative interviews and social media analysis this article explores the extent to which formal and informal mechanisms of union voice provide effective bargaining and mobilization tools to low-paid outsourced workers. The rank-and-file autonomous union that led the campaign, although excluded from union recognition, developed powerful strategies to expose the employer publicly obtaining key improvements for the workers. The central argument is that a mix of strategies ‘at the edge of informality’ including unpredictable direct action, community mobilization and media campaigns provide additional leverage to outsourced workers confronting their multiple employers, while union recognition remains a key strategy of legitimization for relatively disenfranchised migrant workers.