All of this, and I'll add that the veneration of "workers" here in the U.S. leads to a near-total exclusion of people who can't work from the national conversation, even conversations about poverty, while inhumane disability aid policies deliberately keep disabled people from accumulating any kind of assets.
I have seen a recent trend of gig workers, white-collar workers, domestic employees, and others who wouldn't usually be thought of as "working class" doing some real labor organizing. I think that's awesome, but it's making clear some ways that the traditional conception of labor organization doesn't quite map to the 21st century. For example, I can't join the union at my company, because I manage one entire staff writer and the National Labor Relations Act says anyone "employed as a supervisor" can't be a union member, but my job is exactly as precarious as the job of any other non-union worker—I could be let go at any time with no mandated process or policy around it other than what my employer decides to self-impose—and I feel much more solidarity with the workers than I do with the managers. We're not in a factory; there's no clear divide between those who do the work and those who give the direction. This is far from my area of expertise and I don't have any idea what to do about that, but I hope some people who do have good ideas are writing about it.
Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-05 06:07 am (UTC)I have seen a recent trend of gig workers, white-collar workers, domestic employees, and others who wouldn't usually be thought of as "working class" doing some real labor organizing. I think that's awesome, but it's making clear some ways that the traditional conception of labor organization doesn't quite map to the 21st century. For example, I can't join the union at my company, because I manage one entire staff writer and the National Labor Relations Act says anyone "employed as a supervisor" can't be a union member, but my job is exactly as precarious as the job of any other non-union worker—I could be let go at any time with no mandated process or policy around it other than what my employer decides to self-impose—and I feel much more solidarity with the workers than I do with the managers. We're not in a factory; there's no clear divide between those who do the work and those who give the direction. This is far from my area of expertise and I don't have any idea what to do about that, but I hope some people who do have good ideas are writing about it.