'SUBCONTRACTING BY STEALTH' IN LONDON'S HOTELS: IMPACTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LABOUR ORGANISING

he British economy has undergone marked changed in the last three decades or so. Restructuring driven by a neoliberal political economic agenda has led to the demise of manufacturing as the key sector of the economy and its replacement with producer and consumer services. This shift has been accompanied by a reconfiguration of labour markets, entailing a polarisation of the workforce in terms of both skills and earnings (Sassen 1996; Goos and Manning 2003). The growing globalisation of markets has in turn intensified the pressure on firms to improve their competitiveness, prompting a relentless search for ways of cutting down on labour costs. T

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