We based our discussion on Charlie Post’s article in Jacobin, “We’re all precarious now” - a response to the British academic Guy Standing and others who maintain that younger unemployed and underemployed workers, indigenous peoples, single mothers, and other low-income groups constitute a new class, the “precariat”, with interests apart from those of the unionized workforce.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/precarious-labor-strategies-union-precariat-standing/
Some of our conclusions:
1. We agreed with Post that the condition of the working class under capitalism, except during the mid-20th century expansion of the welfare state, has always been precarious.
2. We noted that the concept of the precariat as a a distinct class had been appropriated by employers and governments who are trying to pit younger unorganized workers against unionized ones by blaming collective agreements for the lack of hiring by business. The gutting of trade union rights and wage levels, disguised as “labour market reform” has been the centrepiece of the neoliberal austerity agenda.
3. We don’t accept the view that the precarious living standards of the current generation of young workers is owing to strong unions wanting to protect their privileged position against the unorganized. Quite the opposite: they’re the result of the decline of the once powerful international socialist and trade union movement.
4. We traced the decline to the revolution in communications and transportation technology which coincided with the opening of vast new zones of exploitation following the collapse of the USSR and the economic transformation of China.
5. These developments promoted job-killing automation at home and the outsourcing of production and services abroad, affecting all sectors and layers of the working class. Large reserve armies of unemployed, part-time, and temporary workers have been created in advanced capitalist economies where full-time, secure employment was once the norm.
6. The crisis of trade unionism has to be seen in the context of several structural factors: a) job insecurity, which makes workers more hesitant to organize and strike; b) a predominantly service economy, where the workforce is more fragmented and dispersed and difficult to organize than the large, highly concentrated industrial workplaces of the past; and c) the predominance in the labour movement of public sector unions, which lack the industrial unions’ power to shut down production, and risk losing public support when they disrupt essential services.
7. The crisis has been reflected in a very low incidence of strike action, union organizing, and other traditional forms of militancy. It was noted that class consciousness results from workers’ participation in strikes and other forms of collective action, but that most contemporary union struggles are defensive ones which typically end in concessions. These outcomes have greatly reduced the appeal of trade unions for the mass of unorganized workers, though reactionary labour laws are at least equally to blame for the decline in union density.
8. There was strong criticism of the conservative trade union leadership and bureaucracy for having contributed to the weakening of the unions through their focus on lobbying governments and the public shaming of employers. These are complementary tactics but no substitute for strengthening union power in the workplace through sustained education, organization, and mobilization of the ranks.
9. We agreed with Post and the militant wing of the trade union movement that union leaders and their members have to be prepared to defy the labour boards and the law when necessary. The institutionalized systems of collective bargaining imposed by the state have obscured the fact that the historic gains of unions were mainly won through sit-ins, walkouts, mass picketing, and other forms of illegal industrial action.
10. We detected the first stirrings of a revival of trade unionism in the recent mass campaigns for a $15 minimum wage, a pickup of organizing in the retail sector, the Verizon strike, and the wholly unexpected support for pro-union, self-described socialist politicians like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. We attributed this in large part to a historic change in material conditions; the current generation of young workers, many of them with post-secondary education, is the first since the 30’s Depression to face the prospect of declining rather than improving living standards.