Dal malcontento estivo a un lungo inverno di rivolta sociale? Alcune note sul tumultuoso ritorno degli scioperi in Gran Bretagna

Stephen Bouquin*

[Versione aggiornata il 14 novembre]

Gran Bretagna [1] ha assistito a un’ondata di scioperi come non se ne vedevano da decenni. Gli scioperi delle ferrovie, della logistica, del terminal portuale di Felixstowe e della Royal Mail si svolgono in un contesto economico e sociale caratterizzato da profitti record, crisi politica, inflazione alle stelle e recessione imminente. L’ondata di scioperi spontanei in una dozzina di magazzini Amazon è stata forse il momento più inaspettato di questa “estate del malcontento”. [2] .

In questo articolo, vogliamo portare all’attenzione il ritorno dello sciopero come fatto sociale importante, e questo in un Paese che ha vissuto un lungo periodo di “pacificazione sociale forzata”. Dopo aver delineato brevemente gli elementi di contesto nella prima sezione, descriveremo i principali conflitti nella seconda sezione. Svilupperemo poi alcune riflessioni sul proseguimento delle mobilitazioni per lo sciopero nei prossimi mesi. Il quarto punto affronta la questione della fine di un lungo periodo di pacificazione del conflitto sociale, considerando la possibilità di cicli lunghi nell’attività di sciopero basati sul cambiamento delle coordinate strutturali e organizzative che ne determinano l’intensità. Infine, concludiamo tracciando una serie di osservazioni generali.

1 – Singolarità britanniche sotto stress

Nel Regno Unito, le relazioni industriali sono volontarie e scarsamente regolamentate, anche se, al contrario, gli scioperi sono altamente regolamentati. Non esistono organismi di rappresentanza dei lavoratori, per cui si parla di “canale unico”. [3] . Il legislatore ha riconosciuto il fatto sindacale all’interno dell’azienda molto presto (1872), concedendo allo stesso tempo il diritto di organizzare un picchetto pacifico (1875). Nel 1906, i sindacati hanno ottenuto il diritto di sciopero senza essere condannati per danni. Il Trade Unions Council (TUC) è un prodotto diretto del Cartismo, nato nel 1838. [4] . Inizialmente riuniva 180 sindacati di categoria o professionali. A differenza di altri Paesi in cui predominavano le tradizioni rivoluzionarie, il TUC assunse la guida dell’azione politica fondando nel 1900 il Labour Representation Committee, che a sua volta fondò il Labour Party. La rappresentanza politica era un complemento necessario all’azione sindacale essenzialmente “economica”. Nel periodo tra le due guerre si verificarono numerosi conflitti sociali, culminati in un unico sciopero generale nel 1926. Dopo la Seconda guerra mondiale, i sindacati e il Partito Laburista riuscirono a migliorare notevolmente le condizioni di vita della classe operaia. Oltre alla creazione di un sistema di sicurezza sociale universale sotto l’egida di William S. Beveridge, con servizi sanitari accessibili a tutti e finanziati dalla fiscalità, il Paese ha vissuto due decenni di relativa piena occupazione (per gli uomini) con un potente polo industriale pubblico e un’offerta ampliata di servizi sociali (in particolare in termini di alloggi).

In Gran Bretagna la formazione dei salari è altamente decentralizzata. Dal 1945 al 1986, è stata organizzata sulla base di trattative salariali all’interno dei Wages Councils, che coprivano mestieri e professioni su base territoriale con una rappresentanza nominata di datori di lavoro e lavoratori. I Wages Councils hanno elaborato una scala indicativa di tariffe orarie, soglie minime in base all’anzianità e alla qualifica (Dobb, 1952).

Dopo la loro abolizione nel 1986, la contrattazione salariale ha perso gran parte della sua importanza. Allo stesso tempo, in alcuni casi (trasporti, energia), è stata mantenuta a livello settoriale per evitare salari eccessivamente alti o di dumping. Nel periodo recente (2000-2020), nel settore privato, solo il 20% degli aumenti salariali è stato il prodotto della contrattazione collettiva, rispetto al 45% nel settore pubblico. La creazione di un salario minimo orario (1998) – del tutto eccezionale vista la tradizione britannica – è stata giustificata dall’entità dell’impoverimento dei lavoratori, con quasi il 25% dei dipendenti in condizioni di povertà.

Dal 2010 al 2020, gli aumenti salariali sono stati molto moderati, costantemente inferiori al tasso di crescita annuale del PIL. In questo decennio, la retribuzione settimanale mediana (in termini reali) è aumentata solo dello 0,6%, mentre la retribuzione settimanale media è diminuita del 2,4% in termini reali se si prende come riferimento l’ultimo decennio. L’importante aumento nel 2021 è principalmente il risultato della fine del sistema di licenziamento dopo diversi periodi di lockdown.

Fig 1 – Variazione annuale dei salari reali (adeguati all’inflazione)

Lo scorso 2022 aprile, il Times si chiedeva se il Paese avrebbe vissuto un’estate di malcontento. Questo segnalava che alcuni cenacoli del potere stavano già iniziando a prendere coscienza dell’esasperazione sociale. Il numero di conflitti sociali aveva iniziato ad aumentare dal 2020, durante la pandemia. Inizialmente segnati da questioni sanitarie, gli scioperi hanno rapidamente messo sul tavolo la questione dei salari. Lo scorso maggio si sono registrati almeno 300 conflitti industriali dall’inizio dell’anno; un numero sei volte superiore alla media annuale del periodo 2008-2018, che esprime una vera e propria rottura con il lungo periodo di atonia del conflitto sociale.

I salari sono al centro di questi scioperi per un motivo molto semplice. Nell’aprile del 2022, l’Istituto di Management Chartered [5] ha rivelato che la metà delle aziende non aveva previsto alcun aumento salariale, mentre nell’altra metà l’aumento non sarebbe stato superiore al 3%, meno della metà del tasso di inflazione di allora. Secondo la stessa indagine, nel settore pubblico – dove il tasso di sindacalizzazione è del 50% rispetto al 14% del settore privato – l’aumento salariale non supererà il 2% nel 2022.

La Gran Bretagna ha vissuto un lungo periodo di stagnazione salariale a partire dal 2008, durante la crisi finanziaria. Ma questo periodo è stato anche caratterizzato da una bassa inflazione, in media tra l’1,5% e il 2%, che è cambiata bruscamente alla fine del 2021. Inizialmente, nell’autunno del 2021, l’aumento dei prezzi è stato il risultato di una ripresa economica relativamente forte dai confini della pandemia. L’anno 2021 è stato anche caratterizzato da una forte perturbazione del trasporto stradale, in particolare a causa della carenza di autisti di camion, in parte legata alla Brexit. In questo contesto, i prezzi sono aumentati costantemente e l’inflazione ha raggiunto il 5-6% già alla fine del 2021. L’interruzione delle catene globali del valore, ulteriormente amplificata dal contesto insulare dell’economia britannica, ha fatto salire l’inflazione al 7-8%. Poi, nel giugno di quest’anno, in seguito all’aumento dei prezzi dell’elettricità e del gas legato alla guerra in Ucraina, l’inflazione ha superato la soglia del 10%.

L’impennata dei prezzi ha coinciso con ripetuti annunci di profitti straordinari per l’anno 2021. I margini di profitto delle società quotate in borsa (FTSE 350) hanno superato del 73% i livelli pre-pandemia nel 2019. I profitti di queste società sono aumentati dell’11,74% nei sei mesi da ottobre 2021 a marzo 2022. Nello stesso periodo, i redditi da lavoro sono aumentati solo del 2,61% e sono diminuiti dello 0,8% se si tiene conto dell’inflazione. Questa recente impennata dei profitti rappresenta il 58% dell’inflazione degli ultimi sei mesi, rispetto al solo 8,3% del costo del lavoro. Unite ritiene che si tratti di un eccesso di profitti generato dall’aumento dei prezzi e delle rendite di monopolio. [6] . Non si tratta quindi solo di compagnie petrolifere o di poche “mele marce”. Anche escludendo le compagnie energetiche, gli utili delle società del FTSE 350 sono aumentati del 42% tra il 2019 e il 2021.

La combinazione di queste tre realtà – moderazione salariale, profitti (in eccesso) e inflazione – è diventata un cocktail esplosivo. Di fronte alle critiche, anche da parte del suo stesso schieramento, Boris Johnson ha deciso di concedere a ogni famiglia un buono energetico di 400 sterline, finanziato da una tassa sui “profitti in eccesso” dei produttori di energia. [7] . La misura, piuttosto “radicale” per un conservatore neoliberista, ha risvegliato la coscienza sociale delle classi lavoratrici. Alla fine di luglio sono stati annunciati ulteriori aumenti dei prezzi, che hanno fatto lievitare la bolletta energetica annuale di 3.000-4.000 sterline. In un Paese in cui molti lavoratori possiedono case fatiscenti o affittano alloggi sociali, l’aumento dei prezzi dell’energia rappresenterebbe un disastro sociale. L’economista Jonathan Bradshaw dell’Università di York sostiene che un buono da 400 sterline non impedirà all’80% delle famiglie di cadere nella “fuel poverty”, definita come il 10% del reddito disponibile speso per l’energia. [8] .

Di fronte a questa realtà, diversi sindacati si sono impegnati in procedure di consultazione, che la legge britannica rendeva necessarie per indire azioni di sciopero.  Come sintomo dell’esasperazione sociale, i tassi di partecipazione a queste consultazioni superavano sistematicamente l’80%, mentre il voto a favore dello sciopero raggiungeva talvolta il 90% o il 95%, riflettendo una reale determinazione ad agire per ottenere aumenti salariali. Vale la pena notare che l’esistenza di un fondo per gli scioperi è certamente utile in caso di controversie. I dipendenti che guadagnano più di 30.000 sterline possono ottenere fino a 50 sterline al giorno, mentre per i lavoratori a basso reddito che guadagnano meno di 30.000 sterline lorde, l’importo può arrivare a 75 sterline al giorno. La densità sindacale nel settore privato è scesa sotto il 30% nell’ultimo decennio, ma nelle grandi aziende e nei servizi pubblici rimane al 50%.

  1. Gli scioperi sono tornati

Qui presentiamo i conflitti emblematici nei settori delle ferrovie, della logistica, dei servizi postali e dei portuali. Si sono svolti anche altri conflitti più locali. Ma questi conflitti, altrettanto partecipati di quelli nazionali, non contengono questioni nazionali che rendano il ritorno dello sciopero un tema a sé stante.

Quando lo sciopero delle ferrovie fa scattare l’allarme

I ferrovieri sono stati i primi a intraprendere uno sciopero nazionale che ha interessato l’intero settore ferroviario. Non avendo sperimentato scioperi dal 1989, il trasporto ferroviario aveva tutte le caratteristiche di un eden manageriale. Privatizzato nel 1990-1991 con una quindicina di operatori nazionali distinti, il settore è frammentato anche dall’esternalizzazione di un gran numero di servizi tecnici e commerciali. Ma questa realtà frammentata non ha impedito al sindacato RMT di battersi per una contrattazione centralizzata o nazionale sulle questioni salariali. Con 50.000 iscritti o aderenti, l’RMT rimane un sindacato piuttosto “militante” con una presenza sul territorio, compresi gli appaltatori esterni come i servizi di pulizia. Si è disaffiliato dal Labour quando quest’ultimo ha intrapreso un approccio di “terza via” simile al social-liberismo. Ad esso si affianca il sindacato ASLEF, che conta 22.000 iscritti.[9] , che organizza i macchinisti di treni e metropolitane, e il TSSA, un’associazione di categoria indipendente non affiliata al TUC, che organizza il personale di alcuni fornitori di servizi regionali e che si è aperto al settore del trasporto turistico[10] .

Alla fine di maggio 2022, ASLEF e RMT si sono rifiutati di accettare un aumento del 3%, che è molto inferiore a un tasso di inflazione del 9-10%. Per i sindacati, un aumento del 7% è la condizione necessaria per aprire le trattative. In risposta a questo rifiuto, Network Rail ha accettato un aumento salariale del 5%, ma a condizione di accettare una riorganizzazione dei servizi e un aumento dell’orario di lavoro. L’RMT e l’ASLEF hanno rifiutato questo “accordo di favore” e hanno iniziato i preparativi per un’azione di sciopero. Dopo un processo di consultazione molto partecipato, con un’affluenza molto alta del 78% e il 90% dei votanti a favore dell’azione di sciopero, la RMT e l’ASLEF hanno iniziato a preparare lo sciopero. [11] , più di 60.000 dipendenti del settore hanno interrotto il lavoro, prima il 21 giugno, seguita da una seconda giornata di sciopero il 27 luglio, una terza il 20 agosto e infine sabato 1° ottobre, in un primo sciopero congiunto con altri settori.

Gli scioperi ferroviari hanno ricevuto il sostegno di ampi settori dell’opinione pubblica. [12] . Un sondaggio condotto su 2.000 persone [13] alla fine di luglio ha rilevato che il 63% è contrario alla perdita di posti di lavoro e sostiene gli scioperi. La stessa percentuale ritiene che i lavoratori delle ferrovie debbano ricevere un aumento di stipendio “che tenga conto del costo della vita”, mentre il 59% ritiene che i lavoratori delle ferrovie abbiano il diritto di scioperare quando i negoziati falliscono. Più in generale, l’85% degli intervistati ritiene che i profitti dell’industria ferroviaria debbano essere investiti per proteggere i posti di lavoro e migliorare la qualità del servizio. L’opinione pubblica rimane ampiamente favorevole alle azioni di sciopero, in linea con il sostegno alla rinazionalizzazione del settore che è stato prevalente nell’ultimo decennio.

Ogni giorno di sciopero tutti i servizi sono stati paralizzati, anche a Londra. Nel tentativo di dividere il movimento, i datori di lavoro hanno dichiarato di essere disposti a concedere un aumento salariale dell’8%, ma solo per alcuni mestieri. Mick Lynch, intervistato da Skynews il 1° ottobre, ha dichiarato che è inaccettabile che alcuni mestieri vengano discriminati di fronte all’aumento dell’inflazione, che colpisce tutti e supera ormai il 10%. Quel giorno, dopo 15 giorni di lutto per la morte della Regina Elisabetta II, si è svolto un nuovo sciopero nazionale e da allora sono state annunciate altre azioni. Il movimento sociale è quindi ancora in corso e non sta perdendo slancio.

Gli scioperi ferroviari, altamente simbolici, illustrano il ritorno in primo piano dell’azione sindacale. Segnalano il ritorno dello sciopero come forma di lotta. La loro esemplarità simbolica è verificata dal fatto che i lavoratori di altre aziende hanno seguito l’esempio, anche in aziende senza presenza sindacale come Amazon.

Vento di rivolta su Amazon

All’inizio di agosto, il gigante della logistica ha registrato un’ondata di scioperi spontanei che hanno interessato una dozzina di siti, principalmente magazzini di smistamento e raccolta ordini (Fullfilment centres). Tutto è iniziato la mattina del 3 agosto nel deposito LCY2 di Tilbury, a sud di Londra. Dopo aver ricevuto l’informazione che la retribuzione oraria sarebbe stata aumentata solo di 35 penny [14] , circa 600 lavoratori sono usciti e si sono riuniti nel capannone. Nei giorni successivi si sono svolti scioperi a Rugeley, Coventry, Swindon, Rugby, Doncaster, Bristol, Dartford, Belvedere, Hemel Hempstead e Chesterfield.

Questi scioperi a gatto selvaggio si sono distinti per il loro carattere maggioritario e spontaneo e hanno rappresentato un evento sociale che non si vedeva dagli anni ’70 (Darlington& Lyddon, 2001). [15] . Sebbene le azioni fossero sostenute da Unite e dalla GMB, in pratica erano più che altro auto-organizzate da reti informali di colleghi. Le azioni hanno assunto un’ampia varietà di forme, che vanno dall’interruzione del lavoro rimanendo alla propria postazione al rallentamento del ritmo (sciopero del rallentamento) o all’occupazione delle baie di carico o della mensa (sciopero del sit-in).

Tutte queste azioni riguardano la questione dei salari. Amazon è un’azienda che si rifiuta di parlare con un rappresentante sindacale, lasciando che il dipartimento delle risorse umane agisca da solo su questo tema. Un scioperante testimonia che la rabbia covava da tempo:

Normalmente gli aumenti salariali vengono notificati ad aprile. A luglio non c’era ancora nessuna informazione, il che ha aumentato l’impazienza. L’annuncio di un aumento di 35 penny è stato visto come una doccia fredda, poiché tutti si aspettavano un vero aumento di stipendio. Prima molto basso, vicino al minimo legale di 8,50 sterline, lo stipendio iniziale era stato aumentato l’anno scorso a 10,50 sterline, se non a 11,45 sterline a seconda dell’area di impiego. Si badi bene, questa decisione non è stata ispirata da alcun senso di generosità; Amazon stava solo cercando di diventare più attraente nel mercato del lavoro. Di recente, dopo la pandemia, Amazon ha avuto le maggiori difficoltà a reclutare 25.000 lavoratori… Internamente, questo aumento del salario di assunzione alimentava la speranza che tutte le categorie avrebbero ottenuto un adeguamento al rialzo. In un contesto di inflazione ma anche di profitti record – 210 milioni di sterline, un aumento del 20% rispetto al 2020 – e al netto delle imposte, è ovvio che il rifiuto della direzione di concedere un aumento reale era destinato a suscitare il malcontento sociale. Il malcontento si è diffuso a macchia d’olio dal 3 al 12 agosto, con scioperi e scioperanti in quasi tutti i centri di distribuzione”.

Diversi scioperanti hanno sottolineato la loro indifferenza alle minacce della direzione. Il loro rifiuto di cedere alle intimidazioni, di rispondere alle ingiunzioni di tornare al lavoro, anche quando viene sventolata una trattenuta sul salario in caso di sciopero aperto, cioè per l’intera giornata lavorativa interrotta, sembra essere stata una reazione ampiamente condivisa:

Abbiamo deciso di andarcene solo quella mattina. La direzione era completamente all’oscuro di tutto. All’inizio hanno minacciato di trattenere i nostri salari, ma noi abbiamo resistito e siamo rimasti in mensa tutto il giorno. Abbiamo chiesto spiegazioni al rappresentante della direzione. Perché ci stanno dando un’elemosina quando hanno aumentato il nostro salario iniziale di 2 sterline? Perché non hanno potuto aumentare i nostri salari al livello dell’inflazione, quando i soldi scorrevano. Ma la direzione di Amazon nel Regno Unito è rimasta in silenzio e i dirigenti locali non sapevano che cosa fare… Erano completamente sconcertati. Alla fine, dopo diversi giorni di stallo, la direzione ha concesso un aumento di 50 pence l’ora, annunciando un adeguamento dei salari nei prossimi mesi; questo ha fatto ripartire il lavoro”.

Il sindacato GMB sta dando seguito a questi scioperi con una campagna per un salario iniziale di 15 sterline l’ora e un aumento salariale adeguato all’inflazione. Questa posizione offensiva riflette il desiderio del sindacato di utilizzare gli scioperi per ottenere lo status di interlocutore sociale che Amazon ha sempre rifiutato. [16] . Ma secondo Callum Cant, autore di Riding for Deliveroo. Resistance in the New Economy (2019) e uno dei maggiori esperti del settore logistico, Amazon cercherà certamente di ristabilire la sua presa manageriale e farà di tutto per tenere i sindacati fuori dai magazzini. Tuttavia, per lo specialista, è inevitabile che i lavoratori continuino a “prendere coscienza della loro forza”.

I portuali incrociano le braccia

Il 21 agosto è toccato ai portuali di Felixstowe entrare nella mischia. Situato vicino a Ipswich, Felixstowe è il più grande terminal portuale e rappresenta la metà dell’attività portuale annuale del Paese. Il primo sciopero è durato 8 giorni e ha mobilitato i 1.900 lavoratori portuali, tutti i mestieri messi insieme: operatori di ponte, gruisti, movimentatori, tecnici, ecc. Durante la consultazione che ha preceduto lo sciopero, 9 lavoratori su 10 si sono espressi a favore di un’interruzione del lavoro, paralizzando l’intera attività portuale.

Il proprietario del terminal di Felixstowe è CK Hutchison Holding, di Li Ka-Shin, l’uomo d’affari più ricco di Hong Kong e il 32° uomo più ricco del mondo, i cui conti sono domiciliati in paradisi fiscali. CK Hutchison è il principale operatore di terminal portuali al mondo, con 52 terminal in 26 Paesi e un fatturato di 30 miliardi di dollari. Ancora una volta, la questione dei salari è al centro del conflitto. Non essendo stati aumentati per un decennio, mentre la divisione britannica ha annunciato profitti record – 95 milioni di dollari nel 2021, rispetto ai 64 milioni del 2020 – i portuali hanno dato sfogo alla loro rabbia.

A seguito di questo sciopero, il primo dal 1989, la direzione della compagnia portuale propone un aumento di stipendio del 7% con un bonus una tantum di 500 sterline. Ma per il sindacato Unite, l’aumento dovrebbe essere almeno del 10% e in linea con l’inflazione, a differenza di quanto concesso nel periodo 2010-2020, un periodo di bassa inflazione, è vero. Secondo Sharon Graham, “il terminale di CK Hutchison sta realizzando profitti tali che sarebbe possibile aumentare i salari del 50% senza portare i conti in rosso. Non è irragionevole chiedere un aumento del 10%”.

All’inizio di settembre, di fronte al rifiuto del sindacato di accettare un aumento inferiore all’inflazione, il direttore del terminal portuale ha deciso di chiudere la porta ai negoziati. Da allora, la direzione ha condotto una campagna mediatica contro il sindacato Unite e i portuali, sottolineando l’alto salario di un portuale – circa 50.000 sterline all’anno – e spiegando che gli scioperi causeranno un aumento dei prezzi.

Per i rappresentanti di Unite, i salari sono stati congelati per un decennio, mentre gli aumenti dei prezzi sono il risultato di tariffe più elevate applicate dagli armatori che hanno visto triplicare i loro profitti entro il 2021. La disorganizzazione del trasporto marittimo colpisce in particolare le isole britanniche e dal 2021 solo una nave container su cinque è arrivata in orario. Per i sindacalisti di Unite, dare la colpa dell’aumento dei prezzi allo sciopero dei portuali è uno scherzo di cattivo gusto: “Siamo passati dal just in time al just in case, che non fa altro che rendere i prezzi più cari con ritardi qui e penali là”.

È forse il caso di ricordare che l’intero flusso globale di merci è interessato da una caotica disorganizzazione: o le fabbriche chiudono in Cina, o non ci sono più navi portacontainer disponibili, o vengono dirottate perché non ci sono fasce orarie per scaricare i container in meno di 48 ore. Felixstowe è spesso l’ultimo terminal prima di partire per l’Asia a vuoto. In caso di congestione, le navi scaricano i loro container ad Anversa o Rotterdam piuttosto che aspettare al largo. Questi container devono poi essere trasportati attraverso la Manica, allungando la catena di approvvigionamento e facendo lievitare il prezzo finale. Il settore della vendita al dettaglio ha aumentato la propria capacità di stoccaggio per evitare le scorte. Ma ordinando più merce, non ha fatto altro che aumentare il caos e far lievitare ulteriormente i prezzi.

Il rifiuto del sindacato di accettare un aumento inferiore all’inflazione trasforma lo sciopero dei portuali in un banco di prova. Alla fine di settembre, è stata la volta dei portuali di Liverpool a scioperare per una settimana. Il 29 settembre, i portuali di Felixstowe intrapresero una seconda settimana di sciopero, sostenuti dai portuali di Southampton che si rifiutarono di scaricare le merci dirottate da Liverpool o Felixstowe.

Per il ministro del Tesoro Kwasi Kwarteng, gli scioperi dei portuali sono una forma di terrorismo sociale “che deve essere impedita con ogni mezzo”. Sulla stessa linea, Liz Truss, il nuovo capo del governo recentemente entrato a Downing Street, ha dichiarato di ritenere che la legge del 1973 che vieta l’uso di lavoratori temporanei durante gli scioperi debba essere abrogata al più presto. Le sue recenti dichiarazioni esprimono la volontà di attaccare nuovamente il diritto di sciopero con una panoplia di misure restrittive come l’estensione del periodo di preavviso da 2 a 4 settimane, la limitazione nel tempo della validità di un voto a favore di uno sciopero o l’aumento delle soglie di validità delle consultazioni.

Poste e telecomunicazioni si uniscono agli scioperi

Infine, alla fine di agosto, è stata la volta dei servizi postali ad aderire allo sciopero. La direzione della Royal Mail, privatizzata nel 2013 e ora quotata in borsa, era disposta ad accettare un aumento salariale del 5%. Ma per Dave Ward del Communication Workers Union (CWU), questa proposta non è seria, soprattutto perché combina un aumento lineare del 2% con un assegno di 500 sterline. Per il CWU, è possibile solo un recupero dell’inflazione. Alla fine di luglio, la consultazione ha coinvolto il 77% dei lavoratori, il 96,7% dei quali ha votato a favore dello sciopero. Lo sciopero è stato annunciato in due fasi. Il primo giorno di sciopero, il 31 agosto, ha riguardato solo i 125.000 lavoratori della Royal Mail. A questo è seguito uno sciopero “settoriale” l’8 e il 9 settembre che ha coinvolto 40.000 dipendenti di British Telecom. Lo sciopero del 31 agosto è stato molto partecipato, con oltre 2.000 picchetti.

Secondo le opinioni dei sindacalisti che ho intervistato, lo sciopero è stato seguito anche da alcuni manager di prima linea. Va notato che gli uffici postali sono, per la maggior parte, gestiti come punti vendita al dettaglio o negozi di alimentari che hanno un franchising per le attività legate alla posta. Il grosso dell’attività – per di più redditizia, visto che la Royal Mail ha realizzato 170 milioni di sterline di profitti netti nel 2021 – si concentra nella raccolta, nello smistamento e nella distribuzione di lettere e pacchi. A questo proposito, è chiaro che la Royal Mail ha seguito la stessa traiettoria di molti altri servizi postali che combinano la razionalizzazione neo-tayloriana con una cronica carenza di personale e di attrezzature. Questo spiega anche perché sullo sfondo della questione salariale troviamo l’esperienza del deterioramento delle condizioni di lavoro:

Ci è stato tolto l’orario fisso, che aggiunge lavoro che non sarà mai pagato. Ora ci viene chiesto di venire la domenica, con le festività. [Ho iniziato a lavorare alla Royal Mail tre anni e mezzo fa e posso dire che il carico di lavoro è in continuo aumento. I nostri giri sono sempre più lunghi. Poiché alcuni finiscono prima, a livello di direzione distrettuale ci dicono che dobbiamo fare di più. Questo tipo di manager non è mai stato un “postino”. Non capiscono che viviamo a Luton, Bromley o Bedfordshire… molto lontano da Londra, con più di un’ora e mezza di viaggio. Inevitabilmente, saltiamo la pausa pranzo, che ci permette di finire prima e di arrivare a casa verso le 17-18, sapendo che ci alziamo anche alle 4 del mattino! I calcoli del percorso sono assurdi. In estate abbiamo sempre avuto meno pacchi rispetto a novembre e dicembre, ma a loro non interessa. Basano i giri invernali sui volumi estivi. Una vera e propria fregatura. Inoltre, le nostre attrezzature sono in pessimo stato: non ci sono abbastanza carrelli e dobbiamo arrangiarci. Ci si arrangia e si armeggia. Un collega riempie il furgone fino all’orlo e lascia che alcuni pacchi vengano consegnati in un negozio di alimentari affiliato alla rete. Da lì, un altro collega lo sostituisce e lo include nel suo giro. Il giorno dopo, ci si scambia il giro tra chi va a piedi e chi guida. È normale, non c’è motivo per cui alcune persone debbano avere più difficoltà di altre. La direzione lo sa bene e chiude un occhio. Infatti, molti di loro sono in sciopero con…”.

Come nel settore ferroviario, la direzione sta cercando di scambiare un aumento salariale con l’imposizione di una “modernizzazione delle operazioni”. Ma per la CWU, collegare le due cose è fuori questione “perché significherebbe riprendersi con una mano ciò che è stato concesso con l’altra”. Per Dave Ward, “un aumento del 10% sarebbe molto ragionevole se si considera che la Royal Mail ha realizzato oltre 650 milioni di sterline di profitti nel 2021 e quasi 500 milioni di sterline sono stati distribuiti agli azionisti e al top management”. [17] .

3 – Verso un inverno di rivolta sociale?

La morte della Regina ha certamente messo in pausa le tensioni sociali per qualche settimana. Tuttavia, l’ondata di scioperi non accenna a diminuire. Quindi, se l’estate è ormai alle spalle, c’è anche da chiedersi quale sarà l’esito dello sciopero. La dirigenza farà concessioni o arriverà alla resa dei conti?

È impossibile rispondere a questa domanda se non dicendo, con molta flemma, che non è stato deciso nulla… È vero che il settore pubblico è rimasto piuttosto ai margini fino ad ora. L’Unison, il principale sindacato del settore, sostiene l’orientamento di centro-sinistra del Labour guidato da Keir Starmer, che si dice pronto a governare “con ragione”. A livello di NHS, Unison ha messo ai voti la proposta manageriale di un aumento di solo il 4,5%. Ma questa proposta è stata respinta a stragrande maggioranza e il sindacato è stato costretto a consultare i lavoratori su un’azione di sciopero prima del 27 ottobre. Negli enti locali e nelle scuole pubbliche, le proposte di aumento salariale sembrano essere più significative e potrebbero comportare un importo forfettario di 2.000 sterline e un giorno di ferie in più, il che equivarrebbe a un aumento del 10% per i salari più bassi e del 6-8% per quelli medi e alti. Anche in questo caso, il sindacato ha messo ai voti la proposta di aumento senza prendere posizione.

Nel frattempo, il governo di Liz Truss ha annunciato una drastica riduzione del numero di dipendenti pubblici (90.000 su un totale di 600.000), facendo infuriare il PCS (Public Civil Servants Union), che ha immediatamente avviato le consultazioni per una serie di scioperi a novembre. Nel settore dell’istruzione, anche l’University and College Union (UCU) ha mobilitato i suoi membri, ottenendo già un preavviso di sciopero favorevole in 22 università e college per il mese di ottobre.

È vero che finora nessun conflitto importante ha portato a una vittoria del campo sindacale. Allo stesso tempo, alcune vertenze importanti ma più locali dimostrano che le vittorie sono tutt’altro che irraggiungibili. A Coventry, ad esempio, i netturbini della città hanno ottenuto un aumento salariale del 12,9% dopo sei mesi di sciopero. Lo stesso vale per Thurrock. Sono state vinte numerose vertenze emblematiche su questioni diverse dalla retribuzione. Tra gli esempi vi sono il personale ospedaliero londinese che lotta per essere integrato nella forza lavoro interna; gli autisti degli autobus di Manchester e i lavoratori della British Airways all’aeroporto di Heathrow che lottano contro il sistema “Fire and Rehire”; i lavoratori dell’azienda produttrice di una serie di prodotti e servizi. Ci sono anche i lavoratori del produttore di pallet CHEP, che dopo uno storico sciopero di 20 settimane hanno ottenuto un aumento salariale del 9%.

Recentemente, i portuali di Liverpool e Unite sono riusciti a ottenere un accordo con l’autorità portuale di Peel con un aumento salariale tra il 14,5 e il 18%. Questo dimostra che quando l’equilibrio delle forze cambia a favore dei lavoratori, i datori di lavoro sono pronti a scavare nelle loro tasche.

L’accumulo molecolare – nel senso che rimane “invisibile” finché non esprime il suo impatto dirompente – di vittorie parziali può anche portare i datori di lavoro a irrigidire la loro posizione. Dal loro punto di vista, ogni concessione è pericolosa perché può incoraggiare anche altri a scioperare. Ma non fare concessioni rafforzerà inevitabilmente la posizione della parte sindacale. Per Mick Lynch, segretario generale dell’RMT, i lavoratori hanno visto il loro potere d’acquisto dissolversi mentre i profitti hanno raggiunto nuove vette: Abbiamo visto i salari ristagnare e ora stiamo assistendo a un declino perché i salari non tengono il passo dell’inflazione. Se accettiamo questa situazione, ci ritroveremo con una miseria che ci farà sprofondare nella povertà. Non è possibile!  Per il leader dell’RMT, è ora che la classe operaia passi all’offensiva: “Siamo pronti, soprattutto perché il mercato del lavoro ci sta dando una spinta, dato che i datori di lavoro non trovano più nessuno che lavori in condizioni insopportabili per salari miserabili”. (discorso del 17 agosto all’incontro di lancio di Enough is enough).

Alla domanda se stiamo assistendo alla morte del progetto thatcheriano o semplicemente a un ritorno del conflitto sociale, Lynch ha risposto: “Beh, non so se il Thatcherismo finirà, perché per finirlo bisogna mettere in piedi qualcos’altro. (…) L’unico modo per porvi fine è mettere in atto un sistema, o una serie di riforme, ed è per questo che penso che la leadership laburista sotto Keir Starmer abbia un’opportunità. Allo stesso tempo, il Partito laburista non riflette le aspirazioni sociali al cambiamento. Penso che siano troppo cauti. Penso che siano stati educati in un modo che li rende timorosi del radicalismo”.[18]

In assenza di un adeguato sostegno politico, settori del movimento sindacale hanno deciso di lanciare una campagna unitaria Enough is enough che sta riscuotendo un crescente successo nel Paese. Enough is enough” è stata lanciata dai settori più combattivi del mondo sindacale, in alleanza con le associazioni edilizie, i giovani e la sinistra del Labour, con l’idea che “loro agiscono nel loro interesse di classe, è ora che lo facciamo anche noi”. Per Zarah Sultana, deputata laburista di Coventry, “la crisi attuale è una crisi del costo della vita, è una crisi sociale per il lavoro, non una crisi per il capitale che continua a raccogliere profitti e distribuire milioni di dividendi. [È una crisi non perché non c’è abbastanza ricchezza, ma perché la ricchezza è monopolizzata da una piccola minoranza” (intervento all’incontro del 17 agosto 2022).

Enough is Enough” si batte per la convergenza delle lotte salariali in azioni di sciopero intersettoriali e sociali, con un riferimento esplicito all’unico sciopero generale britannico del 1926. La piattaforma difende l’adozione di misure di emergenza per proteggere il potere d’acquisto di fronte alla spirale inflazionistica (congelamento dei prezzi, adeguamento dei salari all’inflazione) e sostiene una tassa sui profitti in eccesso nel settore energetico. Con la continua pressione sociale, la leadership del TUC ha recentemente adottato una posizione a favore di azioni di sciopero coordinate, un fatto eccezionale per questa confederazione sindacale.

Sabato 1er ottobre, il primo giorno di sciopero congiunto di ferrovieri, postini e portuali è stato un successo. Un evento raro nel Regno Unito, che ha dato luogo a numerose manifestazioni di piazza. Altre giornate di sciopero sono già state annunciate per ottobre e novembre. È molto probabile che il settore pubblico o la sanità si uniscano al movimento, il che potrebbe destabilizzare il nuovo governo appena insediato e portare a elezioni anticipate. La leadership laburista sta adottando una posizione moderata, che in alcuni ambienti ricorda l’era di Antony Blair, alias “Tory”, ma la sinistra laburista e quella sindacale si stanno mobilitando per spingere verso misure di emergenza, spingendo gli editoriali del Guardian di centro-sinistra, del Times e del Telegraph di destra a dire che i sindacati sono ancora una volta “la principale forza di opposizione” nel Paese.

Questa opposizione sociale potrebbe trarre vantaggio da un governo diviso e un po’ caotico. Di recente, la crisi del Partito Conservatore ha preso una piega drammatica quando Liz Truss, appena salita al potere, ha approvato un bilancio che riduce le tasse sui gruppi più ricchi di 45 miliardi di sterline. Tuttavia, lo stesso governo ha deciso di fissare un tetto massimo per le bollette energetiche a 2.500 sterline all’anno, una misura che si prevede costerà tra i 70 e i 140 miliardi di sterline a seconda dell’andamento dei prezzi di base. Anche per il FMI, una simile politica è del tutto incoerente. Anche i mercati finanziari hanno disapprovato il pacchetto, provocando immediatamente una caduta della valuta britannica, che ha messo in pericolo i fondi pensione che traggono una parte considerevole del loro reddito dagli investimenti finanziari. Di fronte al rischio di un crollo del mercato azionario – simile a quello causato dal fallimento di Lehman Brothers nel 2008 – il governo è stato costretto a fare marcia indietro. Da parte sua, la Banca d’Inghilterra persiste nella sua politica anti-inflazionistica aumentando i tassi di riferimento, seguendo l’esempio della FED e della BCE. Questo non può che rendere il credito più costoso e causare il fallimento di un gran numero di aziende. La crisi energetica è lungi dall’essere risolta, anche perché la guerra in Ucraina è in fase di stallo. Anche se la misura di emergenza del tetto alle bollette è riuscita a fermare temporaneamente l’aumento dell’inflazione, se questa rimarrà al 10% ancora a lungo, è chiaro che l’impoverimento di interi strati della forza lavoro non resterà senza conseguenze.

Tuttavia, sul fronte politico, al momento in cui scriviamo, permane il caos. A metà ottobre, il ministro delle Finanze Kwasi Kwarteng è stato licenziato e sostituito da Jeremy Hunt, che ha cercato di saltare successivamente a Downing Street, l’unico modo per evitare elezioni anticipate. Purtroppo per lui, i Tories hanno eletto Rishi Sunak, un multimiliardario, come leader per assumere questa scomoda posizione.

La combinazione di mobilitazioni sociali e scioperi da un lato e caos politico dall’altro forma un vero e proprio cocktail esplosivo, al punto che l’Economist ha titolato la sua edizione del 18 ottobre come Welcome in Britaly. Il disordine all’interno della classe dirigente sta guadagnando terreno, poiché diventa difficile combinare il populismo di destra con la ragione economica neoliberista. 

4 – Almeno la fine di un lungo inverno sociale

Lo sciopero dei minatori del 1984-85 si è tradotto in una sconfitta storica per il movimento sindacale britannico. Questa sconfitta non solo ha demoralizzato i settori più combattivi del movimento sindacale, ma ha anche cambiato l’equilibrio generale del potere, facilitato da una feroce restrizione del diritto di sciopero attraverso una lunga lista di procedure restrittive. [19]. Queste restrizioni sono state recentemente rafforzate quando il governo di David Cameron ha imposto una soglia minima del 50% dell’elettorato e del 70% dei voti a favore delle azioni di sciopero nel 2016.

Questo cambiamento epocale potrebbe essere sintetizzato dicendo che il neoliberismo è riuscito a imporre una “pacificazione sociale forzata” e questo si può vedere nel crollo del numero di giornate individuali non lavorate (IDNW) dovute agli scioperi. Infatti, dopo aver raggiunto un picco di 30 milioni di giornate alla fine degli anni ’70, l’attività di sciopero è scesa a 5 milioni nel 1985, per poi ridursi a 150.000-300.000 IDNW all’anno negli anni ’90 e 2000. Ritroviamo questa nozione di pacificazione coercitiva nell’analisi di Dave Lyddon (2007, 2015), per il quale il neoliberismo esprime il costante desiderio di reprimere l’azione sindacale.

Il numero di giorni di sciopero per 1.000 dipendenti, che è un indicatore della densità sociale dell’attività di sciopero, conferma questo dato. Nel Regno Unito, dall’inizio degli anni 2000, la soglia di 50 giorni lavorativi persi per 1.000 dipendenti è stata superata molto raramente. A titolo di confronto, in altri Paesi come Belgio, Francia e Spagna, in anni di scioperi intersettoriali, si registrano picchi di 300-500 giorni di lavoro persi per 1.000 dipendenti, mentre in anni di “calma sociale” l’attività di sciopero si mantiene intorno agli 80-100 giorni di lavoro persi. Non è quindi esagerato affermare che il modello di governance neoliberale è riuscito a rendere l’attività di sciopero residuale e marginale.

Tuttavia, va sottolineato che i dati statistici britannici contano solo gli scioperi di oltre 20 dipendenti che durano almeno un’intera giornata. Ciò lascia da parte le interruzioni del lavoro, che storicamente rappresentano una modalità di azione privilegiata, al punto che questi micro-scioperi sono stati considerati una singolarità delle relazioni industriali britanniche.

A questo punto, è difficile prevedere cosa accadrà in seguito. D’altra parte, è possibile misurare il cambiamento d’epoca e dire che i conflitti sociali sono usciti da un lungo periodo di letargo. Il numero di giornate individuali non lavorate ha già superato i 2 milioni, il che dimostra che gli scioperi non sono più un tabù per i sindacati e che sono pronti a impegnarsi in conflitti sociali come quelli che abbiamo visto in passato.

Resta da vedere se il lungo ciclo di sconfitte e battute d’arresto sociali lascerà il posto a un nuovo ciclo offensivo con un accumulo di conquiste sociali. Questo ci riporta al dibattito dei primi anni Ottanta sull’esistenza di onde lunghe nella lotta di classe e sulla loro relazione con le onde lunghe nell’accumulazione del capitale. Il concetto di onde lunghe è stato introdotto da Nikolaj Kondratieff negli anni ’30 e rielaborato dall’economista marxista Ernest Mandel (Mandel, 1980; Kleinkecht, Mandel & Wallerstein, 1992). Essa postula l’esistenza di sequenze di lunghi periodi di rialzo e ribasso nel ciclo di accumulazione. Alla fine degli anni Settanta, alcuni hanno iniziato a cercare collegamenti tra le onde lunghe e le tendenze della conflittualità che potrebbero avere una relazione indiretta ma reale.

Anche se questo approccio è stato criticato da alcuni per la sua impossibile validazione empirica (Beverly Silver, 1980; 1991), altri, come John Kelly (1998), si sono ispirati ad esso per evidenziare che la conflittualità non solo mantiene una sorta di “dipendenza dal percorso”, ma che esistono anche realtà più strutturali che facilitano o ostacolano l’attività scioperante e, più in generale, gli scioperi. Naturalmente, queste determinanti strutturali si trovano tanto nell’infrastruttura (i rapporti sociali di produzione, il mercato del lavoro) quanto nella sovrastruttura (le regole e le norme, l’egemonia ideologica o la vitalità del movimento sindacale). Tralascerò la controversia sull’onda lunga perché richiede un’indagine adeguata in campo economico e in particolare sull’evoluzione della redditività. D’altra parte, seguendo le intuizioni di John Kelly, è certo che alcune coordinate infra e sovrastrutturali influenzano l’ampiezza e l’intensità degli scioperi e dei conflitti.

Nel caso della Gran Bretagna, il calo della disoccupazione al 3,5% gioca certamente a favore del ritorno del conflitto sociale. Certo, non si tratta ancora di “piena occupazione” (con molta precarietà), ma la domanda di lavoro si sta avvicinando all’offerta di lavoro, il che cambia la situazione dal punto di vista dei lavoratori. Per il CIDP, un centro di ricerca sulle risorse umane [20], in un recente rapporto, le aziende stanno incontrando crescenti difficoltà di assunzione. Secondo l’ultimo barometro dei dipartimenti delle risorse umane della scorsa primavera, sei aziende su dieci stanno affrontando difficoltà prolungate e sarebbero disposte ad aumentare il salario di assunzione per facilitare il reclutamento e rendere il lavoro più attraente.

Va notato che il calo della disoccupazione non è tanto il risultato della creazione netta di posti di lavoro quanto di un doppio cambiamento strutturale, ovvero l’invecchiamento della popolazione e la Brexit. Il primo è comune ad altri Paesi OCSE. La generazione del baby boom, nata tra il 1946 e il 1968, ha iniziato ad andare in pensione, lasciando un numero crescente di posti di lavoro vacanti. Secondo uno studio realizzato nel 2018 dal CEDEFOP (il Centro europeo per lo studio delle competenze e delle qualifiche), 9 posti di lavoro vacanti su 10 in Europa sono ora legati al pensionamento. L’ultimo rapporto sul Regno Unito lancia l’allarme sul rapido aumento del fabbisogno di manodopera. Secondo i calcoli del demografo Ilias Leanos, nel prossimo decennio sarà necessario assumere oltre 15 milioni di persone entro il 2030 nel solo Regno Unito. Anche se questa cifra è una sovrastima del fabbisogno di assunzioni (data la recessione in arrivo), la portata del bisogno è enorme, così come non è lontano dall’evocare un rinnovamento di oltre la metà della popolazione attiva. [21] !  Va inoltre notato che in questo insieme di posti vacanti, la metà riguarda lavoratori semi- o non qualificati. Da un paio d’anni, la carenza di manodopera si fa sentire pesantemente a tutti i livelli di competenza, il che migliora l’equilibrio sociale complessivo a favore dei lavoratori.

Un recente studio dell’Università di Oxford ha rilevato che la Brexit sta giocando un ruolo significativo nell’aumento della carenza di manodopera. [22] . Secondo gli autori dello studio, il sistema di immigrazione post-Brexit ha introdotto l’obbligo di visto per i cittadini dell’UE che in precedenza potevano svolgere qualsiasi lavoro. Ad oggi, a questa offerta di lavoro non è corrisposto l’accesso al mercato del lavoro per i cittadini extracomunitari. Di conseguenza, i lavori a basso salario che si basavano in larga misura sui lavoratori dell’UE non sono più ammissibili ai visti di lavoro. [23] . Indirettamente, la Brexit ha contribuito all’inaridimento del bacino di reclutamento per una serie di lavori nella fascia bassa e media dello spettro di competenze.

Oltre a questi aspetti strutturali legati allo stato del mercato del lavoro, stiamo assistendo anche a un ritorno al “collettivismo”. Questo concetto farà sorridere alcuni – ma non ha nulla a che vedere con il modello sovietico – e porta solo a non limitare l’analisi a un aumento dell’individualismo. Anche se la nozione di collettivismo è assente dalla maggior parte dell’analisi sociologica francofona delle relazioni industriali [24], non è priva di rilevanza poiché ci permette di interrogarci sulla disponibilità a un impegno collettivo, sia esso l’iscrizione al sindacato o l’impegno allo sciopero. Per John Kelly (Rethinking Industrial relations, 1998), il “collettivismo” fa parte della teoria della mobilitazione e si basa su un sentimento di ingiustizia condiviso e sulla convinzione che sia possibile migliorare la propria condizione sociale su base collettiva. Non si tratta quindi di agire solo nell’interesse di se stessi, ma di esprimere anche la consapevolezza che agire insieme può dare risultati migliori rispetto all’essere un “free rider”, anche in modo olsoniano.

A questo proposito, diversi fatti indicano che il collettivismo si riferisce a un processo molecolare di solidarietà reciproca che precede il conflitto sociale. Gli scioperi spontanei di Amazon – che fanno parte di una vertenza non sindacalizzata – indicano che da tempo si stava accumulando un profondo risentimento. Il risentimento e la rabbia sono alimentati da un senso di ingiustizia che si diffonde e finisce per esprimersi in un’interruzione del lavoro.

Oltre a questa specificità dello sciopero selvaggio, è importante sottolineare come la composizione sociale molto eterogenea della classe operaia non abbia in alcun modo ostacolato la mobilitazione. Nel centro Amazon Fullfilment di Tilbury, la maggioranza dei lavoratori ha meno di quarant’anni, un terzo sono donne e più della metà sono “non bianchi” o di origine straniera. La ‘varietà di esperienze e condizioni soggettive’ non ha impedito il coagularsi della rabbia verso l’azione collettiva. Non è sempre così e quindi vale la pena di sottolinearlo. Anche altri settori in sciopero, come le poste o le ferrovie, sono caratterizzati da diversità in termini di genere e identità culturale. Tuttavia, gli scioperi dimostrano, con il loro carattere di maggioranza assoluta, che l’eterogeneità non è più un ostacolo.

Mick Lynch lo conferma a modo suo quando spiega che le questioni di identità, genere, razzializzazione o orientamento sessuale possono essere “articolate alla lotta di classe”. Quest’ultima rimane un fattore unificante, ma a condizione che si combattano anche il razzismo e il sessismo (intervista a Jacobin).  In altre parole, le identità strutturate intorno alle lotte contro specifiche oppressioni hanno un posto nel movimento sindacale. Questo accade da molto tempo, dato che i sindacati britannici hanno applicato il principio dell’auto-organizzazione per gruppi specifici come i neri e le persone di colore, gli asiatici, le donne e le persone LGBT sin dagli anni ’90. È comprensibile che un terzo dei membri della RMT nella metropolitana di Londra appartenga a minoranze razziali. Più in generale, secondo le statistiche governative, la percentuale di dipendenti sindacalizzati è più alta tra i lavoratori “neri e britannici di colore” (26,9%), seguiti dai lavoratori classificati come “misti” (24,1%) e “bianchi” (24%). Nel complesso, il TUC conta più donne che uomini.

Il collettivismo si esprime anche nelle “zone grigie” del mercato del lavoro, dalla parte dei lavoratori ambulanti, con l’emergere di azioni proto-sindacali da parte dei lavoratori delle piattaforme che hanno iniziato a formare una moltitudine di collettivi d’azione. A volte questi collettivi diventano parte di nuovi sindacati, come l’Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, fondata nel 2012 da un collettivo di lavoratori delle pulizie tutti di origine latinoamericana. Gli studi sociologici (Gandini, 2018; Cini, 2022) su queste mobilitazioni osservano una serie di caratteristiche comuni: il rifiuto del cottimo e dello status di lavoratore autonomo, il desiderio di beneficiare della protezione sociale e le dinamiche di mobilitazione basate sulla comunità. La maggior parte di queste strutture collettive combina la mobilitazione e l’azione legale o giudiziaria, ottenendo un’importante vittoria che comincia a costituire un precedente.

La decisione della Corte Suprema del Regno Unito del febbraio 2021 ritiene che gli autisti di Uber debbano essere trattati come lavoratori e non come contraenti indipendenti. Questa decisione unanime dovrebbe avere un impatto significativo sulle aziende della piattaforma, in quanto gli autisti hanno diritto a prestazioni quali il pagamento delle ferie, il salario minimo e una pensione integrativa. Il motivo è semplice: Uber impone tariffe e percorsi senza alcuna negoziazione e impone un regime disciplinare agli autisti in base alle loro valutazioni. Il tribunale, respingendo la prassi consolidata di Uber di trattare i suoi autisti come contraenti indipendenti, ha anche stabilito che gli oltre 70.000 autisti dell’azienda nel Regno Unito dovranno essere pagati per le ore in cui sono collegati all’app Uber, indipendentemente dalla domanda di trasporto.

Dopo questa sentenza, sono stati portati in tribunale diversi casi simili (idraulici di Pimlico, addetti alle consegne di CitySprint ed Excel Services, addetti alle consegne di Bolt) e tutti hanno portato alla conferma della sentenza nel caso degli autisti di Uber. [25] . In termini di status, è interessante notare che le mobilitazioni che combinano azione diretta e azione legale stanno facendo progressi verso il riconoscimento dello status ibrido di “lavoratori limb (b)”, che non sono né freelance né lavoratori autonomi né dipendenti e integrati nella forza lavoro nel senso classico del termine, ma lavoratori dipendenti a cui l’azienda deve pagare il salario orario minimo finché sono collegati dalla loro applicazione, oltre alla protezione sociale e ai giorni di riposo [26] .

In definitiva, è certamente ancora troppo presto per convalidare l’ipotesi di un nuovo ciclo di lotte offensive, ma gli esempi di mobilitazioni si moltiplicano e i varchi si aprono qua e là. Il calo della disoccupazione dovrebbe continuare per ragioni strutturali e la rinascita del collettivismo sta contribuendo a rivitalizzare l’azione sindacale.

5 – Riflessioni conclusive

In primo luogo, è chiaro che il potere d’acquisto, già dimezzato dopo la pandemia, è diventato una questione centrale per i lavoratori di tutti i settori. Il decennio 2009-2019 è stato caratterizzato da una stagnazione salariale, che non è più accettabile in un contesto inflazionistico. La razionalizzazione del processo lavorativo ha portato a un deterioramento delle condizioni di lavoro, che a sua volta ha alimentato la sensazione che lo sforzo debba continuare ad aumentare anche se è sempre meno ben pagato. Il forte calo del potere d’acquisto nella primavera del 2022 è solo un’altra goccia in un vaso che stava per traboccare. Quando il senso di ingiustizia latente è ampiamente condiviso, non ci vuole molto – come l’annuncio di profitti record – perché si trasformi in uno spirito di rivolta. La convinzione che lo sciopero sia necessario è diventata in breve tempo un’idea ampiamente condivisa.

La seconda constatazione è che gli ostacoli normativi all’azione di sciopero sono tutt’altro che insormontabili. Tuttavia, per riuscire a superare la soglia di approvazione, il sindacato deve necessariamente convincere la maggioranza dei lavoratori che l’azione di sciopero è giustificata e che può apportare miglioramenti sostanziali. Per riuscire in una campagna di questo tipo – comunemente chiamata “campagna di sciopero” – è necessario mobilitare l’intero apparato sindacale, i rappresentanti, pubblicare volantini, inviare e-mail e infine inviare sms a tutti i lavoratori. È significativo che sindacati combattivi come CWU, RMT, Unite o PCS lo stiano facendo tanto quanto i sindacati più moderati (Unison, GMB). Ciò indica che la “base” sindacale e, più in generale, i lavoratori sono esasperati dalla perdita di potere d’acquisto dopo un lungo periodo di moderazione salariale. I dirigenti sindacali sono in sintonia con questo sentimento e comprendono che una situazione del genere è insostenibile. Ma in quanto sindacalisti, sentono anche che il movimento sindacale può prendersi una rivincita dopo anni, se non decenni, di sconfitte e concessioni. Questo è ciò che dice Mick Lynch quando annuncia che la classe operaia è tornata.

In terzo luogo, i sindacati, anche se limitati nel loro raggio d’azione, rimangono istituzioni potenti. Negli anni ’70 i sindacati contavano quasi 13 milioni di iscritti. Dagli anni ’80 in poi, hanno perso costantemente iscritti fino a raggiungere i 6,5 milioni, ma dal 2015 almeno 100.000 lavoratori hanno deciso di iscriversi ogni anno. La maggior parte di questi nuovi iscritti sono donne, giovani, persone di recente immigrazione, neri, asiatici e di colore. Ciò riflette la consapevolezza collettiva che il sindacato è uno strumento indispensabile per difendere i propri diritti e interessi. Allo stesso tempo, questo processo riflette la ricomposizione sociale della classe operaia. Se il Labour ha molti problemi a mobilitare il suo elettorato tradizionale, i sindacati hanno mantenuto una base molto ampia, costituendo così l’istituzione centrale di una classe operaia che, in settori importanti, esprime nuovamente la propria esistenza “per se stessa”, in particolare attraverso questi conflitti.

In quarto luogo, il dialogo sociale non è molto istituzionalizzato, il che pone al centro del campo di gioco i sindacati stessi, o addirittura i lavoratori stessi (Amazon), piuttosto che gli organi istituzionali e la distribuzione dei mandati, come invece avviene in Francia. Come è stato sottolineato all’inizio di questo articolo, il modello britannico di contrattazione collettiva non favorisce in alcun modo il “dialogo sociale”. Dato che le relazioni tra datori di lavoro e sindacati si svolgono quasi su base volontaria, con il cosiddetto sistema del “canale unico”, non c’è molta produzione normativa o contrattuale. Di conseguenza, la copertura dei contratti collettivi è dolorosamente bassa, pari al 30%, tra i livelli più bassi dei Paesi occidentali. Anche quando un sindacato è riconosciuto e svolge il ruolo previsto altrove dalle istituzioni di rappresentanza dei lavoratori, il datore di lavoro può accettare o meno di negoziare. Questo “vuoto” istituzionale può anche alimentare il conflitto sociale, in quanto il rifiuto dei datori di lavoro di concedere miglioramenti, a sua volta, può rafforzare la sensazione di ingiustizia e rendere i lavoratori ricettivi all’idea di una vertenza aperta. L’informazione e la consultazione avvengono a discrezione del datore di lavoro. Questa situazione deleteria ha portato il movimento sindacale a riorganizzarsi, a condurre campagne di tesseramento ispirate al modello americano di “organizzazione”. [27] . A livello di sindacati membri del TUC, diversi sindacati si sono riuniti sotto la bandiera di Unite e del GMB. [28] (settore pubblico e privato), mentre diversi sindacati si sono fusi insieme nel settore pubblico (Unison). La leader di Unite, Sharon Graham, sta adottando un approccio molto più antagonista alle relazioni industriali, organizzando anche coalizioni intersettoriali a livello locale.

Il fatto che il conflitto sociale stia tornando in modo così massiccio e tumultuoso dopo quattro decenni di pacificazione forzata non spiega ancora questo fenomeno. Per progredire in questa direzione, dovremo anche tracciare un bilancio approfondito del neoliberismo britannico e mettere in discussione la persistenza di un antagonismo strutturale tra capitale e lavoro. Lo farò in due prossimi articoli: il primo sugli splendori e le miserie del neoliberismo; il secondo sulla profondità delle divisioni e degli antagonismi di classe.

 

Siti web con informazioni di base

Notes From Below (con molti resoconti di prima mano)

Tribune Magazine

Socialist Worker

Socialist Appeal

Riferimenti

  • Bellanger, Jacques et Thuderoz, Christian, “Le répertoire de l’opposition au travail”, in Revue Française de Sociologie, 51 (3), luglio-settembre 2010, pp. 427-460.
  • Bertrand, Mathilde, Crowley Cornelius, Labica Thierry (2016), Ici notre défaite a commencé. La grève des mineurs britanniques (1984-1985), éd. Syllepse.
  • Bouquin, Stephen (2020), Les résistances au travail en temps de crise et d’hégémonie managériale, in Daniel Mercure (coord.), Les transformations contemporaines du rapport au travail, Presses de l’Université de Laval, p.177-198.
  • Cant, Callum (2019), Riding for Deliveroo. Resistance in the New Economy, Polity, Londra, 140p.
  • Carré, Jacques (1997), La Grande-Bretagne au 19ème siècle, Parigi, 160 p.
  • Cini, Lorenzo (2022), “Resistere al controllo algoritmico: comprendere l’ascesa e la varietà delle mobilitazioni dei lavoratori delle piattaforme”, in Nuove tecnologie, lavoro e occupazione, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12257
  • Darlington Ralph & Lyddon, Dave, (2001), Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain, 1972, Bookmarks Publications, Londra.
  • Dobb, Maurice M.A (1946), Wages, Cambridge Economic Handbooks, Londres, 223p.
  • Gandini, Alessandro (2018), “La teoria dei processi lavorativi e la gig economy”, in Human Relations, n° 72. 001872671879000. 10.1177/0018726718790002.
  • Kelly, John (1998), Ripensare le relazioni industriali: Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves, Routlegde, Londres, 177 p.
  • Kleinkecht, Alan; Mandel, Ernest e Wallerstein, Immanuel (1992), New Findings in Long Wave research, Londra, macMillan.
  • Lenormand, Marc (2017), ” L’hiver du mécontentement de 1978-1979 : du mythe politique à la crise interne du mouvement travailliste “ in Revue française de civilisation britannique, XXII- hors-série, https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.1683
  • Lyddon, Dave (2007), “Dall’ondata di scioperi alla siccità di scioperi: il Regno Unito, 1968-2005”. (pp.339-365), in Vandervelden, Sjaak; Dribbush, Heiner; Lyddon, Dave; Vandaele, Kurt (2007), Strikes Around the World, 1968-2005, Aksant Academic Publishers, Amsterdam.
  • Lyddon, Dave (2015), “The changing pattern of UK strikes, 1964-2014”, Employee Relations, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 733-745. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2015-0084
  • Mandel, Ernest (1995), Onde lunghe dello sviluppo capitalistico: Un’interpretazione marxista, Verso, 184p.
  • Milkman, Ruth; Bloom Joshua; Narro, Victor (2010), Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy, Cornell University press, 312p.
  • Ravier, Jean-Pierre (1981), Les syndicats britanniques sous les gouvernements travaillistes (1945-1970), Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 278p.
  • Segrestin, Denis (1980), “Les communautés pertinentes de l’action collective : canevas pour l’étude des fondements sociaux des conflits du travail en France “, in Revue française de sociologie, Année 1980, n°21-2, pp. 171-202
  • Silver, Beverly J. (1991), “De klassenstrijd en de kondratieff”, in Vlaams Marxistisch Tijdschrijft, 25ème année, n°1, pp. 42-66.
  • Sumption, Madeleine ; Forde, Chris ; Alberti, Gabriella & Walsh, Peter (2022), How is the End of Free Movement Affecting the Low-wage Labour Force in the UK?, The Migration Observatory COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society), University of Oxford.
  • Thompson, Edward Palmer (1980) The Making of the English Working Class Londra: Victor Gollancz (1963); terza edizione.
  • Woodcock, Jamie (2021), The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy, University of Westminster Press, Londra, 126p.

 

Note

[1] La Gran Bretagna comprende Inghilterra, Scozia e Galles; il Regno Unito include anche l’Irlanda del Nord. Poiché le azioni di sciopero in Irlanda del Nord sono state meno numerose, preferisco chiamarla Gran Bretagna. Allo stesso tempo, dal punto di vista politico, l’entità principale rimane il Regno Unito.

[2] Questa espressione riecheggia l’inverno del malcontento del 1978-1979, durante il quale un’ondata di scioperi aveva messo in difficoltà il governo laburista. Cfr. Marc Lenormand, L'” hiver du mécontentement ” de 1978-1979 : du mythe politique à la crise interne du mouvement travailliste, in Revue française de civilisation britannique, XXII- hors-série | 2017, https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.1683

[3] In altri Paesi con un “sistema duale”, come la Germania, ci sono sia gli IORP, come il Betriebsrät (consiglio di fabbrica, simile al CE, ora CSE), sia i Vertrauwensleute (persone di fiducia), eletti su una lista sindacale. Questo è noto come “doppio canale di rappresentanza”.

[4]Il Chartismo è un’espressione politica del nascente movimento operaio sviluppatosi a metà del XIX secolo in seguito all’adozione della Carta del Popolo. L’imposizione di un sistema elettorale censitario aveva escluso la classe operaia dalla democrazia parlamentare. La Carta del Popolo fu adottata nel 1838 e chiedeva il suffragio universale maschile, la delimitazione equa dei collegi elettorali, l’abolizione della proprietà come condizione di eleggibilità, elezioni parlamentari annuali e il voto segreto. Il movimento rimase attivo fino al 1848 e diede vita a casse di mutuo soccorso, cooperative e al primo movimento sindacale. EP Thompson; Jacques Carré, La Grande-Bretagne au 19ème siècle, Parigi, 1997, 160 p.

[5] I datori di lavoro e i dipendenti si trovano di fronte a una “grande compressione dei costi” perché il sostegno del governo non riesce a sollevare una pressione sufficiente, dicono i dirigenti, 22 aprile, cfr. www.managers.org

[6] Unite Investiga: Il profitto delle imprese e la crisi del costo della vita. Rapporto commissionato da Sharon Graham, giugno 2022, mimeo, 28p.

[7] La nozione di profitti in eccesso si riferisce ai profitti che si aggiungono a quelli già realizzati, per cause esterne al mercato, come ad esempio una guerra. Ma non c’è consenso su questa definizione. Da parte mia, preferisco le nozioni di profitto e di rendita (rendita grazie a posizioni dominanti sul mercato o rendita speculativa).

[8] Jonathan Bradshaw, Università di York, “Fuel Poverty: Estimates for the UK”, disponibile qui; si veda anche https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2022/research/fuel-poverty-uk/.

[9] https://aslef.org.uk/

[10] Associazione del personale retribuito dei trasporti, https://www.tssa.org.uk/

[11] Il 71% dei lavoratori ha partecipato al voto e di questi l’89% si è espresso a favore dello sciopero. https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-declares-overwhelming-mandate-for-national-strike-action-on/

[12] Si veda in particolare https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/mick-lynch-rmt-rail-strike-poll-b2113181.html

[13] https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-on-opinium-poll/ La maggioranza dei giovani e degli utenti dei trasporti li sostiene, ma gli anziani (over 50) o i residenti delle aree rurali tendono ad opporsi. Sebbene quasi il 70% degli elettori laburisti si esprima a favore degli scioperi ferroviari, Keir Starmer, leader laburista di centro-sinistra succeduto a Jeremy Corbyn, ritiene che il Partito laburista debba rimanere neutrale prima di tutto, il che gli consente di invitare i parlamentari laburisti a non partecipare ai picchetti. Si veda Katherine Swindells, “Where does public opinion stand on the rail strikes?, Younger are far more likely than older people to support striking train workers”, in New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/chart-of-the-day/2022/07/public-opinion-stand-on-rail-strikes.

[14] Ci vogliono 100 penny per fare una sterlina.

[15] In inglese, questi scioperi spontanei sono chiamati wildcat strikes, in riferimento alle azioni di sciopero non annunciate dagli attivisti dell’Industrial Workers of the World, un’organizzazione sindacale rivoluzionaria degli Stati Uniti. Questi scioperi avevano lo scopo di interrompere la produzione per protestare contro le decisioni dei dirigenti. In questo caso, si tratta di scioperi che non seguono le normali procedure che portano allo sciopero (consultazione e preavviso).

[16] Nel 2001, Amazon ha deciso di contrastare una campagna per il riconoscimento del sindacato cacciando alcuni membri del sindacato e concedendo un aumento di stipendio del 10%. Di conseguenza, il sindacato ha ricevuto decine di lettere di dimissioni e ha subito una dolorosa battuta d’arresto, con l’80% dei lavoratori che ha votato contro il riconoscimento del sindacato.

[17] Per una panoramica dei risultati per il 2021, si veda https://www.internationaldistributionsservices.com/media/11687/royal-mail-plc-fy-2021-22-results-19-5-22.pdf.

[18] Cfr. Jacobin, 10 giugno 2022, https://jacobin.com/2022/10/mick-lynch-profile-rmt-general-secretary-strikes )

[19]. Mathilde Bertrand, Cornelius Crowley, Thierry Labica, C’est ici que notre défaite a commencé. La grève des mineurs britanniques(1984-1985), ed. Syllepse, 2016.

[20] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/latest-research

[21] Ilias Leanos, Cedefop, Skills forecast United Kingdom, cfr. https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/cedefop_skills_forecast_2018_-_united_kingdom_0.pdf Oltre all’analisi più globale del mercato del lavoro post-pandemia https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/news/baby-boomers-retiring-wake-pandemic

[22] https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/how-is-the-end-of-free-movement-affecting-the-low-wage-labour-force-in-the-uk/

[23] Madeleine Sumption, Chris Forde, Gabriella Alberti e Peter Walsh (2022), How is the End of Free Movement Affecting the Low-wage Labour Force in the UK? first report, 15 AUG 2022, The Migration Observatory COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society), University of Oxford.

[24] – In Francia, questo “collettivismo” è dato per scontato, oppure è assente, sulla base di un’analisi che constata l’atomizzazione dei collettivi di lavoro, l’onnipresenza del consenso e della servitù, della docilità e della fedeltà. Esiste tuttavia la possibilità di pensare le cose in modo più dialettico, mobilitando, ad esempio, la nozione di resistenza sul lavoro o quella di “comunità rilevanti di azione collettiva” proposta da Denis Segrestin (1980). Si veda S. Bouquin (2020), Bellanger e Thuderoz (2012) o, sul tema dell’azione collettiva, D. Segrestin (1980).

[25] https://scesolicitors.co.uk/news/update-on-gig-economy-case-law-and-developments

[26] Ai sensi dell’articolo 230 dell’Employment Relations Act 1996, un lavoratore è definito come un individuo che ha stipulato o sta lavorando in base a (a) un contratto di lavoro o (b) qualsiasi altro contratto, esplicito o implicito, orale o scritto, con il quale l’individuo si impegna personalmente a svolgere o eseguire lavori o servizi per un’altra parte del contratto il cui status non è, in virtù del contratto, quello di un cliente di una professione o di un’attività commerciale svolta dall’individuo. Le persone che non sono dipendenti, ma che soddisfano i requisiti del paragrafo (b) di cui sopra, sono a volte indicate come lavoratori di categoria (b). Vedi anche https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/19/uber-drivers-workers-uk-supreme-court-rules-rights

[27] L’organizing è una nuova pratica sindacale emersa negli Stati Uniti all’inizio degli anni Duemila, che mira a conquistare settori di lavoratori di un’azienda con un voto a maggioranza a favore del riconoscimento del ruolo di interlocutore. Oggi è criticato per il suo approccio molto istituzionalista, e alcuni lo contrappongono al modello del deep organizing, che si riferisce all’azione in profondità basata sulla costituzione di reti semiclandestine, ispirata in particolare all’IWW. Si veda Milkman R., Bloom J., Narro V. (2010), Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy.

[28] Unite the Union, nato dalla fusione di Amicus e TGWU, organizza un maggior numero di lavoratori nei settori dell’industria, della logistica e delle costruzioni. Ha 1,2 milioni di iscritti; il GMB, ex sindacato generale, municipale, dei calderai e degli alleati, ha 640.000 iscritti impiegati nell’industria, nella vendita al dettaglio, nella sicurezza, nelle scuole, nella distribuzione, nei servizi pubblici, nei servizi sociali, nel Servizio sanitario nazionale (NHS), nei servizi di ambulanza e nelle amministrazioni locali.

 

Strikes in France: Between strong social eruptions and a weak tradition of collective bargaining

In both international literature and in popular belief, France retains the image of a country in which a high level of social conflict1 has always existed. Can France be said to be the country of strikes and social conflict, or even class struggle par excellence? Many might be temped to answer in the affirmative. At the outset we need to underline that this representation is fed by a history of large-scale mobilizations of the population onto the streets to demonstrate against government measures in ‘social explosions’ which are all the more remarkable given the historically low level of unionization. This representation is at times nourished even in trade union circles, which bemoan the existence of a ‘culture of conflict and opposition’ and envy other European, in particular Scandinavian, countries for their ‘culture of social dialogue’. This vision strikes us, however, as a departure from reality. We will therefore begin by reminding our readers of certain aspects that are often neglected in the standard representations. This will enable us to better analyse the particularities of the French situation in terms both of trade union activity and of strikes. We will then look more closely at the evolution of strike activity and, beyond this, of social conflict. Finally we will conclude by examining the present situation and possible future trends.

The full book chapter in pdf can be downloaded from here

The book was edited by Sjaak Vandervelden, Heiner Dribbush, Dave Lyddon and Kurt Vandeaele ; and published in 2007 by Aksant (Amsterdam)

Coupe du monde. Quand la surexploitation, les pétrodollars et le grand spectacle font bon ménage

Le coup d’envoi a été donné. Plus d’un million de supporters sont attendus pour assister aux matchs de l’édition 2022 de la Coupe du monde. Des centaines de vols sont programmés chaque jour. Tous ces supporters résideront dans des hôtels flambant neufs et prendront place dans des stades entièrement climatisés, construits par des centaines de milliers de travailleurs migrants.

En 2010, la Fifa a décidé, par un vote de 14 voix contre 8, d’attribuer au Qatar l’organisation de la Coupe du monde de football 2022. Cette décision – que l’ancien dirigeant de la Fifa Sepp Blatter regrette – a été arrachée grâce à une opération de corruption de grande envergure. En 2011, Jack Warner, vice-président de la Fifa, a publié des preuves que le Qatar avait versé 5 millions de dollars à des dirigeants de la Fifa, en échange de leur soutien à la candidature de Doha. Le média Qatari Al Jazeera aurait fait don de 880 millions de dollars à la Fifa.

 Les médias ont amplement commenté l’impact écologique désastreux, les stades air-conditionnés les pelouses arrosées avec de l’eau désalinisée (10 000 litres par terrain par jour), sans oublier les centaines de vols quotidien, les millions de mettre cube de béton et d’hectolitres de gasoil utilisés pour ériger les infrastructures. Que le Qatar soit un pays notoirement répressif à l’égard des droits des femmes, des LGBTQ+ ou tout simplement des droits syndicaux est également dénoncé à juste titre. Mais le coût social et humain de cette coupe de monde est sans commune mesure.

L’enfer du travail forcé

Depuis plusieurs années, le Qatar est au centre d’une polémique à propos de la maltraitance des travailleurs migrants. Si les conditions de travail sont déplorables et les salaires misérables, ce sont surtout les 6 500 décès, un chiffre absolument ahurissant, qui fait scandale.

Sept nouveaux stades ont été construits, ainsi qu’un nouvel aéroport, plusieurs lignes de métro, un système routier et plus d’une centaine d’hôtels. En réalité, c’est une ville entièrement nouvelle qui a été édifiée de toutes pièces en quelques années. Le coût de l’opération dépasse les 200 milliards de dollars, là où la Coupe du monde en Russie (2018) avait coûté 18 milliards de dollars et celle du Brésil, 19 milliards de dollars.

Pour organiser cette Coupe du monde, il fallait bien construire des infrastructures capables d’accueillir, pour quelques semaines, plusieurs centaines de milliers de personnes. Or le Qatar, qui est un petit pays (11 600 km2), ne compte que 350 000 habitants mais près de 3 millions d’étrangers, essentiellement des travailleurs migrants. Parmi eux, plus d’un million a travaillé dans le secteur du bâtiment et environ 200 000 sont à l’œuvre comme travailleuses domestiques.

La plupart des travailleurs migrants sont originaires du Bangladesh, du Népal, de l’Inde ainsi que du Kenya et des Philippines. Selon une enquête publiée par The Guardian (21/02/2021) au moins 6 500 travailleurs y sont décédés au cours des dix dernières années, soit une moyenne de 12 morts par semaine[1]. Ces chiffres sont basés sur les décès répertoriés par les ambassades des principaux pays pourvoyeurs de main-d’œuvre. Plusieurs ambassades, dont celle du Kenya et des Philippines, ont refusé de transmettre des informations, ce qui suggère que le nombre de décès serait certainement supérieur…

Le Bureau international du travail (BIT) et la Confédération européenne des syndicats (CES) indiquaient que, en 2021, plus de 50 travailleurs sont décédés et plus de 30 000 ont été blessés au cours d’accidents survenus pendant leur travail. Pour le gouvernement qatari, seuls 34 travailleurs seraient morts sur les chantiers. C’est possible, mais les chiffres officiels n’intègrent ni les décès par infarctus, ni les suicides, ni ceux liés aux conditions de vie. La vague de travailleurs qui se sont suicidés une fois qu’ils ont constaté qu’il leur était impossible d’envoyer de l’argent à leur famille reste hors champ. Pour obtenir une place sur un chantier au Qatar, les travailleurs doivent soudoyer les recruteurs et verser de 2 000 à 4 000 dollars. Après leur arrivée au Qatar, leur maigre salaire est réduit de moitié par les recruteurs qui remboursent le prêt concédé aux candidats. On a relevé également plusieurs incendies dans les dortoirs ayant entraîné la mort par asphyxie. Dans un autre cas, des pluies torrentielles ont provoqué des inondations et l’électrocution des résidants. En Inde, des familles de défunts ont formé des collectifs pour éclaircir les raisons du décès des membres de leur famille.

Citons un cas emblématique : Madhu Bollapally, 43 ans, a laissé sa femme Latha et son fils Rajesh, 13 ans, en Inde, pour un emploi au Qatar en 2013. Ils ne l’ont jamais revu. Une nuit de fin 2019, lorsque son colocataire est rentré dans le dortoir, il a trouvé le corps de Bollapally sur le sol. Comme des milliers d’autres décès soudains et inexpliqués, son décès a été enregistré comme étant dû à une insuffisance cardiaque pour causes naturelles. Bien qu’il ait travaillé pour son employeur pendant six ans, sa femme et son fils n’ont reçu que 114 000 roupies (1 120 livres sterling) en compensation et en salaire non versé. Rajesh n’a aucune idée de la raison du décès de son père. « Il n’avait aucun problème de santé, a-t-il déclaré. Il n’y avait rien d’anormal chez lui. » (The Guardian, 21/02/2021.)

Selon les données obtenues par l’équipe de journalistes, 69 % des décès des travailleurs indiens, népalais et bangladais sont classés comme naturels. Chez les travailleurs Indiens, ce taux atteint 80 %. En 2016, une enquête d’Amnesty International[2] révélait que des centaines de milliers de travailleurs continuaient à travailler dans des conditions extrêmes : 10 heures par jour même à 45 °C à l’ombre, sans nécessairement être pourvus de façon suffisante en eau potable. A la suite de ces divulgations, le gouvernement a décidé d’interdire le travail en extérieur de 11 h 30 à 15 h pendant les mois de juin à août. Mais cela n’empêchait nullement la poursuite du travail à l’intérieur, avec des températures toujours très élevées [3].

Faut-il s’étonner que les décès par infarctus, considérés comme « naturels », frappent des jeunes travailleurs de moins de 30 ans ? Selon l’OMS, le seuil maximal de WGBT (wet-bulb globe temperature, indice tenant compte de l’humidité et de la température de l’air) serait de 28 °C. Au-delà de ce seuil, le corps humain est sévèrement menacé par un stress thermique lorsque les durées d’exposition dépassent 15 minutes toutes les heures.

Même si le Qatar a ratifié les six conventions de base du BIT, comme l’interdiction du travail forcé et l’obligation de mettre en place un service d’inspection du travail, la réalité est toute autre. Jusqu’en 2020, les travailleurs avaient besoin d’une autorisation de leur employeur pour pouvoir quitter le pays ou changer d’employeur. A l’instar d’autres pays du golfe Persique, le Qatar appliquait jusqu’il y a très récemment le système kafala. La « kafala » rend l’employeur « responsable » du travailleur étranger recruté (suprême ironie, il est considéré comme son « parrain »). C’est donc l’employeur qui détermine les entrées et sorties du territoire, qui garde le passeport et qui assure la fourniture d’un logement pour lequel il est autorisé à retenir des frais d’entretien.

En 2020, l’ONG Human Right Watch publiait un rapport d’enquête sur les conditions de travail du pays. Autour de Doha, des centaines de milliers de travailleurs migrants ont vécu dans des baraquements sans isolation, avec la possibilité de prendre seulement deux douches par semaine, en travaillant 6 jours sur 7, en général 12 heures par jour. Attirés par la promesse d’être payés 350 dollars par mois, en réalité ils n’en touchent que 250, après déduction des frais d’entretien que l’employeur avance.

« Les conclusions de ce rapport montrent que dans tout le Qatar, les employeurs, ainsi que les sociétés pourvoyeuses de main-d’œuvre, retardent, retiennent ou déduisent arbitrairement les salaires des travailleurs. Les employeurs retiennent souvent le paiement des heures supplémentaires garanties par contrat et les indemnités de fin de service, et ils violent régulièrement leurs contrats avec les travailleurs migrants en toute impunité. Dans les cas les plus graves, les travailleurs ont confié à Human Rights Watch que les employeurs avaient tout simplement cessé de leur verser leur salaire, et qu’ils avaient alors du mal à se nourrir. Traduire les employeurs et leurs entreprises devant le les comités de résolution des conflits du travail [mis sur pied en 2018, NDLR] est difficile, coûteux, long, inefficace et peut souvent entraîner des représailles. Les travailleurs décrivent l’action en justice comme un ‘catch 22’, – un dilemme car ils seront endettés qu’ils introduisent une procédure ou pas. »

Plus de 18 millions de travailleurs migrants des pays du Golfe seraient encore soumis au système Kafala. A la suite de résolutions votées au Parlement européen, des missions d’enquête de la Commission des droits de l’homme de l’ONU, le Qatar a néanmoins commencé à modifier ses réglementations en matière de droit du travail[4]. Mais procéder ainsi au moment où les chantiers s’achèvent relève avant tout d’une grande hypocrisie.

Ainsi, depuis 2021, les travailleurs ont théoriquement le droit d’adhérer à un syndicat, sauf qu’il n’en existe pas. Lorsqu’ils quittent leur employeur au cours de la première année après leur recrutement, l’employeur suivant a l’obligation de rembourser les frais de formation au précédent. Fait unique dans le golfe Persique, le Qatar a introduit un salaire minimal de 1 000 riyals (274 dollars), une somme dérisoire quand on sait qu’un grand nombre de travailleurs migrants financent leur recrutement, et qu’il leur faut au minimum un an pour rembourser les sommes dues. De fait, la fixation contrainte de la main-d’œuvre demeure la norme en vigueur. Ce régime de travail forcé s’appuie également sur le système de « dortoirs » tandis que le retard systématiquement dans les arriérés de paiement des salaires permet de d’enfermer les travailleurs dans la servitude.

Les pétrodollars ont trouvé leur paradis artificiel

 Faut-il le rappeler, le foot est un business qui rapporte tellement d’argent que le nombre de clubs rachetés par des investisseurs du golfe Persique, des oligarques (avant la guerre en Ukraine) ou des multimillionnaires se comptent désormais par dizaines en Europe.

Pour le Qatar, la Coupe du monde est une bénédiction qui ne peut que consolider les sommes astronomiques investies dans le secteur du football. Outre le PSG et le FB Barcelone, propriété de la famille Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, il ne faut pas oublier le Manchester City, Newcastle, Aston Villa et Sheffield qui sont tombés dans l’escarcelle d’investisseurs d’Arabie saoudite, des Émirats arabes unis ou d’Égypte.

En dépit d’une perte totale des recettes de la vente de places pour les matchs de la saison 2020-2021, le marché européen du football a connu une croissance de 10 % de ses recettes et atteint désormais la somme astronomique de 27,6 milliards d’euros. Dans son rapport annuel sur les finances du foot, Deloitte observe que, au cours de la saison 2020-2021, malgré la fermeture des stades, le revenu moyen par club de Premier League a dépassé, pour la quatrième fois, le montant de l’année précédente. Avec un chiffre d’affaires total de 5 milliards de livres sterling, en hausse de plus de 2 400 % par rapport à la moyenne des années 1990, le foot est un business qui coûte peu par rapport à ce qu’il rapporte. Et les perspectives sont radieuses puisque les revenus des clubs de Premier League devraient dépasser les 6 milliards de livres sterling lors de la saison 2022-2023, notamment grâce aux nouveaux accords de diffusion et au retour à des stades complets.

Le football féminin commence à peine à se développer et suscite déjà un engouement du côté des investisseurs. Les prévisions pour la Coupe du monde sont tout aussi mirobolantes. Elle devrait rapporter au minimum 5 milliards de dollars, dont 3 milliards rien qu’en de droits de retransmission. Le solde devrait être pourvu grâce aux revenus publicitaires et à la vente des billets d’entrée. Il faut savoir qu’une place sur les gradins à l’arrière coûte déjà 250 euros tandis que qu’une place pour la finale vaut près du triple. Faites le calcul vous-même : 32 matchs avec une assistance moyenne de 40 000 spectateurs multipliés par 250 euros…

Le sport-spectacle, quintessence de l’aliénation ?

Il est n’est sans doute pas inutile d’opérer un retour aux sources de la critique du sport comme phénomène politique, idéologique et économique. Sur ce plan, on peut difficilement laisser de côté la contribution de Jean-Marie Brohm, sociologue émérite de l’université de Montpellier. Pour Brohm, le sport-spectacle est à la fois une arme idéologique, un mode de gouvernance politique et une activité extrêmement profitable sur le plan économique. Au niveau idéologique, le sport permet de reconstituer le corps sur des bases capitalistes : en travaillant les gestes, les mouvements, l’agilité et la dextérité, le sport mobilise les corps et les esprits dans une logique compétitive, en valorisant l’excellence, par l’entraînement, le renoncement. Quelle que soit la discipline sportive, la compétition devient le mode de sélection et de hiérarchisation, du local au global. Pour Brohm, le sport-spectacle capitaliste se représente comme un « apaiseur social », comme un « intégrateur social » qui réduirait la violence et canaliserait les pulsions sexuelles alors qu’en réalité, il exacerbe le culte de la performance. Sur le plan politique, le sport de masse est devenu un outil d’encadrement et de mobilisation des ferveurs et des passions, une source d’identification nationale et un exutoire des frustrations sociales. Last but not least, le sport de masse que le football incarne de la manière la plus complète, est un spectacle qui mobilise des « foules solitaires » qui permettent une accumulation capitalistique absolument disproportionnée par rapport à son utilité sociale réelle.

Il est indéniable que cette critique du sport capitaliste va jusqu’à la racine des choses. En même temps, elle me semble aussi très élitiste et beaucoup trop fonctionnaliste. A l’origine, le football était cette « religion laïque du prolétariat » comme le disait l’historien marxiste Eric Hobsbawn. Pour Albert Camus, « tout ce que je sais avec certitude à propos de la moralité et des obligations, je le dois au football… ». Quant à Antonio Gramsci, dans un court article de 1918 publié dans Avanti, il considérait que « le football incarne un modèle de société individualiste qui exige l’initiative, la compétition et le conflit. Mais il est également régulé par la règle non écrite du fair-play. Paysage ouvert, libre circulation de l’air, poumons sains, muscles forts, toujours tendus vers l’action. (…). »

Certes, ces points de vue datent et depuis les années 1990, la marchandisation et la commercialisation ont dénaturé le football, les championnats européens et bien sûr les coupes du monde. Depuis l’arrêt Bosman (1995), le nombre de joueurs étrangers n’est plus limités, ce qui a démultiplié les transferts et accru les montants qui les accompagnent. La starification et les paris ont accompagné un accroissement continu des droits de retransmission qui ont à leur tour généré des revenus exorbitants.

Mais à l’origine, le football n’était rien d’autre qu’une activité sportive ludique, un loisir ouvrier au même titre que la course cycliste. Il s’agit aussi d’un sport collectif au demeurant, à l’inverse de l’athlétisme, du tennis ou du golf. Au début de la professionnalisation, un joueur ne pouvait gagner plus de deux fois le salaire d’un ouvrier…

Même si le football s’est « gentrifié », massifié, globalisé et qu’il est devenu une activité extrêmement lucrative pour les investisseurs, un grand nombre de clubs sportifs gardent une identité classiste, avec des clubs de supporters marqués à l’extrême gauche, parfois protagonistes dans les choix de gestion du club. Il suffit de penser aux clubs tels que FC Livourne, le Borussia Dortmund, Standard de Liège, Sankt Pauli Hambourg, Celtic Glasgow, Liverpool, Beşiktaş d’Istambul, Hapeol de Tel Aviv ou l’AEK d’Athènes. Les ultras de ces clubs se manifestent comme syndicalistes, pro-accueil des réfugiés, opposés au sexisme à l’homophobie, antiracistes, propalestiniens, favorables au boycott de la coupe du monde et prennent parfois la défense de manifestants contre la répression policière, …  Comme aliénation, il y a pire… Mais ce sont aussi des réalités minoritaires. Assister à un match de première ligue est devenu un passe-temps très onéreux. Au Royaume-Uni, le prix moyen d’un billet dans les tribunes de clubs comme Manchester United ou Liverpool a connu augmentation de 750% ou 1 100 % depuis les années 1990. Ne parlons pas des déplacements ou de la participation à des tournois. De ce point de vue-là, il n’y a aucun doute : excepté les noyaux durs d’inconditionnels, les supporters de football qui assistent au match n’appartiennent que marginalement au monde ouvrier et populaire…

Dans l’ombre des stars, le « footballeriat » des travailleurs sportifs

Dans l’histoire du football, l’ascension du club de foot de Göteborg est assez singulière et révélatrice que le documentaire « Les derniers prolétaires du foot » raconte avec brio. Göteborg est un club amateur qui connait une ascension en première ligue dans les années 1970. Formé par des amateurs, tous ouvriers (plombiers, cuisiniers, soudeurs, chaudronniers, mécaniciens) et syndicalistes, le FC Göteborg perce en coupe en d’Europe et gagne en 1982 la finale de l’UEFA contre Hambourg par 3 – 0. En 1986, Göteborg joue la demi-finale contre le FC Barcelone et gagne à nouveau par 3 – 0 à domicile. Lors du match retour, l’arbitrage aurait été des plus injuste et après avoir gagné par 3-0, les tirs au but donnent le Barça le ticket pour la finale de l’UEFA.

Depuis lors, le monde du foot a bien changé. Les montants drainés par les retransmissions dépassent les milliards d’euros dans chaque pays. Le mercato mobilise chaque année des sommes astronomiques : 900 millions rien qu’en Angleterre, 650 millions en Espagne et 300 à 500 millions en Italie, Allemagne ou en France. Les rémunérations des joueurs brassent également des centaines de millions d’euros, tout comme les recettes publicitaires, qui, de la marque des crampons aux maillots des joueurs, dépassent les millions aussi.

Avec une massification des retransmissions à l’échelle mondiale, seuls quelques championnats attirent les gros investisseurs, laissant dans l’ombre et l’oubli les compétitions dans les pays périphériques ou les ligues de deuxième ou de troisième division. Cela signifie aussi que dans l’ombre des stars qui ramassent des millions à la seconde errent des dizaines de milliers de joueurs qui se forment dès le plus jeune âge, qui s’entraînent, sacrifient leur vie de famille dans l’espoir d’entrer un jour dans le panthéon des joueurs multimillionaires.

Pour le sociologue et ancien joueur de football Pierre-Cédric Tia, il y a lieu de parler d’un « footballeriat » comme espace social à la fois objectif et subjectif où évoluent les ex-apprentis, des joueurs forgés par une persévérance vocationnelle, portant en bandoulière un ethos sportif qui proscrit tout abandon[5]. Même si 90 % des apprentis ne seront jamais des joueurs professionnels, ils continuent « à y croire » pendant des années, en supportant la précarité et l’incertitude quant à leur destin sportif. De ce point de vue-là, on peut dire que le marché des travailleurs sportifs est une sorte de modèle idéal-typique du marché du travail tout court où la précarité est souvent vécue et acceptée comme un mal nécessaire avant la rédemption par l’ascension sociale. Celle-ci n’est qu’une illusion puisque seul une infime minorité finira par entrer dans le cercle restreint des stars. De ce point de vue-là, on peut dire aussi que le « footballeriat » est un prolétariat qui s’ignore. Ce qui n’est pas forcément le cas de ceux qui ont construit les stades où de celles qui nettoient les chambres d’hôtel…

 

Références

  • Brohm, J-M (1992), Sociologie politique du sport, 1976, deuxième édition, Presses Universitaires de Nancy.
  • Lire ici un entretien avec J-M. Brohm 
  •  Tia, Pierre-Cédric (2019), « Les paradoxes de l’excellence : enquête sociologique dans le footballariat hexagonal », Thèse de doctorat en Sociologie, sous la direction de Stephen Bouquin, Soutenue le 02-12-2019, à l’Université Paris-Saclay

 

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35931031

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/oct/02/revealed-hundreds-of-migrant-workers-dying-of-heat-stress-in-qatar-each-year

[4] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/24/qatar-significant-labor-and-kafala-reforms

[5] voire aussi Pierre-Cédric Tia, « Rebondir après « l’échec » en centre de formation : analyse séquentielle des trajectoires socioprofessionnelles d’ex-apprentis footballeurs », in Temporalités [En ligne], 25 | 2017, mis en ligne le 21 septembre 2017, consulté le 22 novembre 2022. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/temporalites/3702 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/temporalites.3702 et  https://www.liberation.fr/sports/2019/08/12/le-football-ne-suspend-que-temporairement-les-inegalites-sociales_1744971

The summer of discontent or the tumultuous return of strikes in Great Britain

Great-Britain [1] has seen a wave of strikes the likes of which it has not seen for decades. Strikes at the railways, logistics, the Felixstowe port terminal and the Royal Mail are taking place against an economic and social backdrop of record profits, a political crisis, soaring inflation and an upcoming recession. The wave of spontaneous strikes in a dozen Amazon warehouses was perhaps the most unexpected moment of this ‘Summer of discontent’ [2] .

In this article, we want to bring to the attention to the return of the strike as a major social fact, and this in a country that has experienced a long period of “forced social pacification”. Having briefly outlined the contextual elements in the first section, we will describe the main conflicts in the second section. We will then develop some thoughts about the continuation of strike mobilisations in the coming months. The fourth point deals with the question of the end of a long period of pacification of social conflict, by considering the possibility of long cycles in strike activity based on the change in structural and organizational coordinates that determine its intensity. Finally, we will conclude by drawing up a series of general observations.

1 – British singularities under stress

In the United Kingdom, industrial relations are voluntary and poorly regulated, although, conversely, strikes are highly regulated. There are no employee representative bodies, which is why the term ’Single channel’ is used [3] . The legislator recognized the trade union fact within the company very early on (1872), while at the same time granting the right to organise a peaceful picket (1875). In 1906, trade unions were given the right to strike without being liable to a conviction for damages. The Trade Unions Council (TUC) is a direct product of Chartism, which was born in 1838 [4] . Initially, it brought together 180 trade or professional unions. Unlike other countries where revolutionary traditions predominated, the TUC took the lead in political action by founding the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, which in turn founded the Labour Party. Political representation was a necessary complement to the essentially ‘economic’ trade union action. During the inter-war period there was a great deal of social conflict, culminating in a single general strike in 1926. After the Second World War, the trade unions and the Labour Party succeeded in making major improvements to the living conditions of the working class. In addition to the creation of a universal social security system under the aegis of William S. Beveridge, with health services accessible to all, financed from taxation, the country experienced two decades of relative full employment (for men) with a powerful public industrial pole and an expanded offer of social services (particularly in terms of housing).

Wage formation is highly decentralized in Great Britain. From 1945 to 1986, it was organized on the basis of wage negotiations within the Wages Councils, which covered trades and professions on a territorial basis with appointed representation of employers and employees. The Wages Councils drew up an indicative scale of hourly rates, minimum thresholds according to seniority and qualification (Dobb, 1952).

After their abolition in 1986, wage bargaining lost much of its importance. At the same time, in some cases (transport, energy), it has been maintained at sectoral level to avoid excessively high or dumping wages. Over the recent period (2000-2020), in the private sector, only 20% of wage increases were the product of collective bargaining, compared with 45% in the public sector. The creation of an hourly minimum wage (1998) – quite exceptional given the British tradition – was justified by the extent of the impoverishment of workers, with almost 25% of employees in poverty.

From 2010 to 2020, wage increases have been very moderate, consistently falling below the annual growth rate of GDP. Over this decade, median weekly earnings (in real terms) increased by only 0.6%, while average weekly earnings fell by 2.4% in real terms if the past decade is taken as a benchmark. The important increase in 2021 is mainly the result of furlough system ending after several periods of lockdown.

Annual change in real wages (adjusted for inflation) / source ONS UK

Last April, the Times asked whether the country would experience a summer of discontent. This signaled that some in the cenacles of power were already beginning to become aware of social exasperation. The number of social conflicts had begun to increase since 2020, during the pandemic. Initially marked by health issues, the strikes very quickly put the question of wages on the table. Last May, there were at least 300 industrial disputes since the beginning of the year; a number six times higher than the annual average for the period 2008-2018, which expresses a real break with the long period of atony in social conflict.

Wages are at the heart of these strikes for a very simple reason. In April 2022, the Chartered Management Institute [5] revealed that half of all companies had not planned any pay rises, while in the other half the increase would be no more than 3%, less than half the rate of inflation at that time. According to the same survey, in the public sector – where the unionization rate is 50% compared to 14% in the private sector – the wage increase would not exceed 2% in 2022.

Britain has had a long period of wage stagnation starting in 2008 during the financial crisis. But this period was also characterized by low inflation averaging between 1.5% and 2%, and this changed abruptly at the end of 2021. Initially, in the fall of 2021, the price increase was the result of a relatively sharp economic recovery from the confines of the pandemic. The year 2021 was also marked by a major disruption in road transport, notably due to a shortage of lorry drivers, partly linked to Brexit. In this context, prices were rising steadily and inflation was already reaching 5-6% by the end of 2021. The disruption of global value chains, further amplified by the insular context of the UK economy, pushed inflation up to 7-8%. Then, in June this year, following the rise in electricity and gas prices linked to the war in Ukraine, inflation crossed the 10% threshold.

The price surge coincided with repeated announcements of extraordinary profits for the year 2021. Profit margins for listed companies (FTSE 350) were 73% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Profits for these companies jumped by 11.74% in the six months from October 2021 to March 2022. Over the same period, labour incomes rose by only 2.61%; and fell by 0.8% after accounting for inflation. This recent surge in profits accounts for 58% of the inflation in the last six months, compared to only 8.3% for labour costs. Unite sees this as excess profits generated from higher prices and monopoly rents [6] . So it is not just about oil companies or a few ‘rotten apples’. Even excluding energy companies, the profits of FTSE 350 companies increased by 42% between 2019 and 2021.

The combination of the three realities – wage moderation, (excess) profits and inflation – has become an explosive cocktail. Faced with criticism, including from his own camp, Boris Johnson decided to grant each household an energy voucher of £400, financed by a tax on the ‘excess profits’ of energy producers [7] . The measure, quite ‘radical’ for a neoliberal conservative, awakened the social conscience of the working classes. At the end of July, further price increases were announced, raising the annual energy bill by £3,000 to £4,000. In a country where many working people either own run-down homes or rent social housing, higher energy prices would spell social disaster. Economist Jonathan Bradshaw of the University of York says that a £400 voucher will not prevent 80% of households from falling into ‘fuel poverty’, defined as 10% of disposable income spent on energy [8] .

Faced with this reality, several unions engaged in consultation procedures, which British law made necessary in order to call for strike action.  As a symptom of social exasperation, participation rates in these consultations systematically exceeded 80%, while the vote in favor of strike action sometimes reached 90% or 95%, reflecting a real determination to take action to obtain wage increases. It is worth noting that the existence of a strike fund is certainly helpful when disputes arise. Employees earning more than £30,000 can get up to £50 a day, while for low earners earning less than £30,000 gross, the amount can be as much as £75 a day. Union density in the private sector has fallen below 30% over the past decade, but in large companies and public services it remains at 50%.

2. Strikes are back

Here we present the emblematic conflicts in rail, logistics, postal services and dockers. Other, more local conflicts also took place. But these conflicts, which are just as well attended as the national strike conflicts, do not contain national issues that make the return of the strike a separate issue.

When the rail strike sets the ball rolling

The railworkers were the first to embark on a nationwide strike affecting the entire rail sector. Having not experienced strikes since 1989, rail transport had all the characteristics of a managerial Eden. Privatized in 1990-1991 with some fifteen separate national operators, the sector is also fragmented by the outsourcing of a large number of technical and commercial services. But this fragmented reality has not prevented the RMT union from campaigning for centralized or national bargaining on pay issues. With 50,000 members or adherents, the RMT remains a rather ‘militant’ union with a presence on the ground, including external contractors such as cleaning services. It disaffiliated from Labour when the latter embarked on a ‘third way’ approach similar to social liberalism. Alongside it is the 22,000-strong ASLEF union[9] , which organises train and underground train drivers, and the TSSA, an independent trade association not affiliated to the TUC, which organises staff of some regional service providers and which has opened up to the tourist transport sector[10] .

At the end of May 2022, ASLEF and RMT refused to accept an increase of 3%, which is much lower than an inflation rate of 9-10%. For the unions, a 7% increase was the necessary condition for opening negotiations. In response to this refusal, Network Rail agreed to a 5% pay rise, but this was conditional on accepting a reorganization of services and an increase in working hours. RMT and ASLEF rejected this ‘sweetheart deal’ and began preparations for strike action. After a well-attended consultation process, with a very high turnout of 78% and 90% of voters in favor of strike action [11] , more than 60,000 employees in the sector stopped work, first on 21 June, followed by a second strike day on 27 July, a third on 20 August and finally on Saturday 1st of October, in a first joint strike with other sectors.

The rail strikes have received support from large sections of the public [12] . A poll of 2,000 people [13] at the end of July found that 63% are against job losses and do support strikes. The same percentage believe that rail workers should receive a pay rise ‘that takes into account the cost of living’, while 59% believe that rail workers have the right to strike when negotiations fail. More broadly, 85% of respondents believe that the profits of the rail industry should be invested in protecting jobs and improving service quality. Public opinion remains broadly supportive of strike action, which is consistent with the support for re-nationalization of the sector that has been prevalent for the past decade.

On each day of the strike, all services were paralyzed, including in London. In an attempt to divide the movement, employers said they were prepared to concede an 8% pay rise, but only for certain trades. Mick Lynch, interviewed on Skynews on the 1st of October, said it was unacceptable that some trades were being discriminated against in the face of rising inflation, which was affecting everyone and was now in excess of 10%. On that day, after 15 days of mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a new national strike took place and other actions have been announced since then. The social movement is therefore still ongoing and far from losing momentum.

The highly symbolic rail strikes illustrate the return of trade union action to the forefront. They signal the return of the strike as a form of struggle. Their symbolic exemplarity is verified by the fact that workers in other companies have followed suit, even in companies without a union presence such as Amazon.

Wind of revolt at Amazon

At the beginning of August, the logistics giant experienced a wave of spontaneous strikes affecting a dozen sites, mainly sorting and order-picking warehouses (Fullfilment centres). It all started on the morning of 3 August at the LCY2 depot in Tilbury, south London. After receiving information that the hourly wage would only be increased by 35 pennies [14] , about 600 workers walked out and gathered in the hall. Over the next few days, walkouts took place in Rugeley, as well as Coventry, Swindon, Rugby, Doncaster, Bristol, Dartford, Belvedere, Hemel Hempstead and Chesterfield.

These wildcat strikes were distinctive in that they were both majoritarian and spontaneous, and represented a social event not seen since the 1970s (Darlington& Lyddon, 2001) [15] . Although the actions were supported by Unite and the GMB, in practice they were more self-organized by informal networks of colleagues. The actions took a wide variety of forms, ranging from stopping work while remaining at one’s workstation to slowing down the pace (slow down strike) or occupying loading bays or the canteen (sit-down strike).

All these actions are about the issue of wages. Amazon is a company that refuses to talk to a union representative, leaving the human resources department to act alone on this issue. A striker testifies that the anger has been brewing for some time:

‘Normally, salary increases are notified in April. In July, there was still no information, which added to the impatience. The announcement of a 35 penny increase was seen as a cold shower as everyone was expecting a real pay rise. Previously very low, close to the legal minimum of £8.50, the starting salary had been increased last year to £10.50, if not £11.45 depending on the employment area. Mind you, this decision was not inspired by any sense of generosity; Amazon was just trying to become more attractive in the job market. Recently, after the pandemic, Amazon had had the greatest difficulty in recruiting 25,000 workers… Internally, this increase in the hiring salary fed the hope that all categories would get an upward adjustment. In a context of inflation but also of record profits – £210 million, a 20% increase on 2020 – and net of tax, it is obvious that management’s refusal to grant a real increase was bound to provoke social discontent. This spread like wildfire from 3 to 12 August, with strikes and walkouts taking place in almost all fulfilment centres’.

Several strikers stressed their indifference to management’s threats. Their refusal to give in to intimidation, to respond to injunctions to return to work, even when he is waving a deduction from wages in case of an open strike, i.e. the entire interrupted working day, seems to have been a widely shared reaction:

‘We only decided that morning that we were going to walk out. The management was completely clueless. They first threatened to withhold our wages, but we held out and stayed in the canteen all day. We asked the management representative for an explanation. Why are they giving us a handout when they have increased our starting wages by £2? Why couldn’t they raise our wages to the level of inflation, when the money was flowing. But Amazon’s UK management remained silent and the local managers didn’t know what to do… They were completely baffled. In the end, after several days of stalling, management conceded a 50 pence per hour increase while announcing a wage adjustment in the coming months; this got the work going again.’

The GMB union is following up these strikes with a campaign for a starting wage of £15 an hour and an inflation adjusted pay rise. This offensive stance reflects the union’s desire to use the walkouts to gain the status of social interlocutor that Amazon has always refused [16] . But according to Callum Cant, author of Riding for Deliveroo. Resistance in the New Economy (2019) and a leading expert on the logistics sector, Amazon will certainly try to re-establish its managerial grip and do everything it can to keep the unions out of the warehouses. However, for the specialist, it is inevitable that workers will continue to ‘become aware of their strength’.

Dockers cross their arms

On 21st of August, it was the turn of the dockers at Felixstowe to enter the fray. Located near Ipswich, Felixstowe is the largest port terminal and accounts for half of the country’s annual port activity. The first strike lasted 8 days and mobilized the 1,900 dockworkers, all trades combined: bridge operators, crane operators, handlers, technicians, etc. During the consultation prior to the strike, 9 out of 10 workers were in favor of a work stoppage, paralyzing the entire port activity.

The owner of the Felixstowe terminal is CK Hutchison Holding, Li Ka-Shin, Hong Kong’s richest businessman and the 32nd richest man in the world, whose accounts are domiciled in tax havens. CK Hutchison is the world’s leading port terminal operator, owning 52 terminals in 26 countries with a turnover of $30 billion. Once again, the issue of wages is at the centre of the conflict. Having not been increased for a decade, while the British division has announced record profits – $95 million in 2021, compared to $64 million in 2020 – the dockers have given vent to their anger.

Following this strike, the first since 1989, the port company’s management is proposing a 7% pay rise with a one-off bonus of £500. But for the Unite union, the increase should be at least 10% and in line with inflation, in contrast to what was conceded during the 2010-2020 period, a period of low inflation it is true. According to Sharon Graham, ‘CK Hutchison’s terminal is making such a profit that it would be possible to increase wages by 50% without putting the accounts in the red. It is not unreasonable to demand a 10% increase.’

In early September, faced with the union’s refusal to accept a below-inflation increase, the port terminal manager decided to close the door on negotiations. Since then, the management has been waging a media campaign against the Unite union and the dockers, pointing to the high salary of a docker – around £50,000 a year – while explaining that strikes will cause prices to rise.

For Unite’s representatives, wages have been frozen for a decade while price increases are the result of higher rates charged by shipowners who have seen their profits triple by 2021. The disorganization of maritime transport particularly affects the British Isles and since 2021, only one in five container ships has arrived on time. For the Unite trade unionists, blaming the price increase on the dockers’ strike is a bad joke: ‘We’ve gone from just in time to just in case, which only makes prices more expensive with delays here and penalties there.’

It should perhaps be recalled here that the entire global flow of goods is affected by chaotic disorganization: either factories are shut down in China, or there are no more container ships available, or they are diverted because there are no time slots to unload containers in less than 48 hours. Felixstowe is often the last terminal before leaving for Asia empty. In case of congestion, ships unload their containers in Antwerp or Rotterdam rather than waiting offshore. These containers then have to be transported across the Channel, lengthening the supply chain and pushing up the final price. The retail sector has increased its storage capacity to avoid stock-outs. But by ordering more goods, it has only added to the chaos and pushed prices even higher.

The union’s refusal to accept a below-inflation increase turns the dockers’ strike into a test case. At the end of September, it was the turn of Liverpool dockers to strike for a week. On 29 September, the Felixstowe dockers embarked on a second week of strike action, supported by the Southampton dockers who refused to unload goods diverted from Liverpool or Felixstowe.

For Treasury Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, the dockers’ strikes are a form of social terrorism ‘which must be prevented by all means’. In the same vein, Liz Truss, the new head of government who recently joined Downing Street, said she believed that the 1973 law banning the use of temporary workers during strikes should be repealed as soon as possible. Her recent statements express the will to attack again the right to strike with a panoply of restrictive measures such as the extension of the notice period from 2 to 4 weeks, the limitation in time of the validity of a vote in favor of a strike or the increase of the thresholds of validity of consultations.

Post and telecoms join the strikes

Finally, at the end of August, it was the turn of the postal services to join the strike. The management of the Royal Mail, privatized in 2013 and now listed on the stock exchange, was willing to accept a 5% pay rise. But for Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), this proposal is not serious, especially as it combines a 2% linear increase with a £500 cheque. For the CWU, only a catch-up with inflation was possible. At the end of July, the consultation involved 77% of the workforce, 96.7% of whom voted in favor of strike action. The strike was announced in two stages. The first day of strike action, on 31 August, concerned only the 125,000 Royal Mail workers. This was followed by a ‘sectoral’ strike on 8 and 9 September involving 40,000 British Telecom employees. The 31 August strike was very well attended, with over 2,000 pickets.

According to the views of trade unionists I interviewed, the strike was also followed by some frontline managers. It should be noted that post offices are, for the most part, run as retail outlets or grocery shops that have a franchise for mail-related activities. The bulk of the business – and a lucrative one at that, given that the Royal Mail has made £170 million in net profits in 2021 – is concentrated in the collection, sorting and distribution of letters and parcels. In this respect, it is clear that the Royal Mail has followed the same trajectory as many other postal services that combine neo-taylorian rationalisation with chronic understaffing and under-equipment. This also explains why we find in the background of the pay issue the experience of deteriorating working conditions:

‘We have been taken away from fixed hours, which adds work that will never be paid. Now we are being asked to come in on Sundays, with the festive season. [I started at the Royal Mail three and a half years ago and I can say that the workload is increasing all the time. Our tours are getting longer and longer. As some people finish early, at district management level they tell us we have to do more. These kinds of managers have never been a ‘postie’. They don’t understand that we live in Luton, Bromley or Bedfordshire… a long way from London with more than an hour and a half to travel. Inevitably, we skip the lunch break, which allows us to finish earlier and arrive home around 5-6pm, knowing that we also get up at 4am! The route calculations are absurd. We have always had fewer parcels in the summer than in November and December, but they don’t care about that. They base the winter rounds on the summer volumes. A real rip-off. What’s more, our equipment is in a terrible state: there aren’t enough trolleys and we have to make do. We make do and we tinker. A colleague will fill the van to the brim and leave some of the parcels to be delivered at a grocery store affiliated to the network. From there, another colleague takes over and includes it in his round. The next day, we swap rounds between the one who walks and the one who drives. It’s normal, there’s no reason why some people should have a harder time than others. The management knows this very well and they turn a blind eye. In fact, a lot of them are on strike with …’

As in the railway sector, the management is trying to exchange a wage increase for the imposition of a ‘modernisation of operations’. But for the CWU, linking the two is out of the question ‘as it would mean taking back with one hand what was conceded with the other’. For Dave Ward, ‘a 10% increase would be very reasonable given that the Royal Mail has made over £650 million in profits in 2021 and almost £500 million has been distributed to shareholders and top management’ [17] .

3 – Towards a hot winter?

 The death of the Queen has certainly put social tensions on hold for a few weeks. However, there is no sign that the strike wave will abate. So, if the summer is behind us, there is also the question of the outcome of strike action. Will management make concessions or engage in a showdown?

It is impossible to answer this question except to say, with a great deal of phlegm, that nothing has been decided… It is true that the public sector has remained rather on the sidelines until now. Unison, the main union in this sector, supports the centre-left orientation of Labour led by Keir Starmer, who says he is ready to govern ‘with reason’. At the level of the NHS, Unison put to the vote the managerial proposal of an increase of only 4.5%. But this was overwhelmingly rejected and the union was forced to consult workers on strike action before 27 October. In the local authority and public schools, the pay rise proposals appear to be more significant and could involve a flat rate of £2,000 and an extra day’s holiday, which would amount to a 10% rise for the lowest paid and 6-8% for middle and high earners. Again, the union put the proposed increase to the vote without taking a position.

Meanwhile, the Liz Truss government announced a drastic reduction in the number of civil servants (90,000 out of a total of 600,000), angering the PCS (Public Civil Servants Union), which immediately launched consultations for a series of strikes in November. In education, the University and College Union (UCU) has also mobilized its members, having already obtained a favorable strike notice in 22 universities and colleges for October.

It is true that no major conflict has so far resulted in a victory for the trade union camp. At the same time, some important but more local disputes show that victories are far from being out of reach. In Coventry, for example, the city’s refuse collectors won a 12.9% pay rise after six months of strike action. The same is true in Thurrock. A number of emblematic disputes on issues other than pay have been won. Examples include London hospital staff fighting to be integrated into the internal workforce; Manchester bus drivers and British Airways workers at Heathrow airport fighting against the ‘Fire and Rehire’ system; and workers at the manufacturer of a range of products and services. There are also the workers at pallet manufacturer CHEP, who after a historic 20-week strike won a 9% pay rise.

Very recently, Liverpool dockers and Unite succeeded to secure a deal with Peel Port authority with a pay increase between 14.5 and 18%. This demonstrates that where balance of forces change in favor of the workers, employers are ready to dig into their pockets.

The molecular accumulation – in the sense that this remains ‘invisible’ until it expresses its disruptive impact – of partial victories can also lead employers to harden their position. From their point of view, any concession is dangerous because it may encourage others to strike too. But not making concessions will inevitably strengthen the position of the trade union side. For Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, workers have seen their purchasing power melt away while profits have reached new heights: ‘We’ve seen wages stagnate and now we’re seeing a decline because wages are not keeping up with inflation. If we accept this, we will end up with a pittance that will plunge us into poverty. No way!  For the leader of the RMT, it is time for the working class to go on the offensive: ‘We are ready for it, especially since the job market is giving us a boost since employers can no longer find anyone to work in unbearable conditions for miserable wages. (speech 17 August launch meeting Enough is enough).

Asked whether we are witnessing the death of the Thatcherite project, or simply a return to social conflict, Lynch replied, ‘Well, I don’t know if Thatcherism will end, because to end it you have to put something else in place. (…) The only way to end it is to put in place a system, or a set of reforms, and that’s why I think Labour leadership under Keir Starmer has an opportunity. At the same time the Labour Party does not reflect the social aspirations for change. I think they are too cautious. I think they’ve been brought up in a way that makes them afraid of radicalism.[18]

In the absence of adequate political support, sectors of the trade union movement decided to launch a unitary campaign Enough  is  enough  that is meeting with a growing response in the country. ‘Enough is enough’ was initiated by the most combative sectors of the trade union world, in alliance with housing associations, youth and the left of Labour, with the idea that ‘they are acting in their class interests, it’s time we did too’. For Zarah Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry, ‘the current crisis is a cost of living crisis, it is a social crisis for labour, not a crisis for capital which continues to reap profits and distribute millions in dividends. [It is a crisis not because there is not enough wealth, but because wealth is being monopolized by a tiny minority’ (speech at the meeting on 17 August 2022).

‘Enough is Enough’ campaigns for the convergence of wage struggles into cross-industry and societal strike action, with explicit reference to Britain’s only general strike in 1926. The platform defends the adoption of emergency measures to protect purchasing power in the face of the inflationary spiral (price freeze, wage adjustment to inflation) and advocates a tax on excess profits in the energy sector. As social pressure continues to mount, the TUC leadership has recently adopted a position in favor of coordinated strike action, which is exceptional for this trade union confederation.

On Saturday 1er October, the first day of joint strikes by railway workers, postal workers and dockers was a success. A rare occurrence in the UK, it gave rise to numerous street demonstrations. Other strike days are already announced for October and November. It is very likely that the public sector or health care will join the movement, which could destabilize the new government just in place and lead to early elections. The Labour leadership is adopting a moderate stance, reminiscent in some quarters of the Antony aka ‘Tory’ Blair era, but the Labour left and the trade union left are mobilizing to push for emergency measures, prompting editorial writers in the centre-left Guardian, the Times and the right-wing Telegraph to say that the unions are once again ‘the leading opposition force’ in the country.

This social opposition may be able to take advantage of a divided and somewhat chaotic government. Very recently, the crisis in the Conservative Party took a dramatic turn for the worse when Liz Truss, having just come to power, approved a budget that would reduce taxes on the wealthiest groups by £45 billion. However, the same government decided to cap energy bills at £2,500 per year, a measure that is expected to cost between £70 and £140 billion depending on the evolution of basic prices. Even for the IMF, such a policy is completely inconsistent. The financial markets also disapproved of the package, immediately causing the British currency to fall, which endangered the pension funds that derive a considerable fraction of their income from financial investments. Faced with the risk of a stock market collapse – similar to that caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 – the government was forced to back down. For its part, the Bank of England is persisting in its anti-inflationary policy by raising key rates, following the example of the FED and the ECB. This can only make credit more expensive and cause a large number of companies to go bankrupt. The energy crisis is far from being resolved, not least because the war in Ukraine has stalled. Even if the emergency measure of capping bills has succeeded in temporarily halting the rise in inflation, if it remains at 10% for much longer, it is clear that the impoverishment of entire layers of the workforce will not go unchallenged.

However, on the political front, at the time of writing, chaos remains. In mid-October, the finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked and replaced by Jeremy Hunt who tried to jump after that to Downing Street, the only way to avoid early elections. Unfortunately for him, the Tories have elected Rishi Sunak, a multibillionaire, as leader in order to take this uncomfortable position.

The combination of social mobilisations and strikes on the one hand and political chaos on the other forms a veritable explosive cocktail, to the point where The Economist headlined its 18 October edition as Welcome in Britaly. The disarray within the ruling class is gaining ground, as it is becoming difficult to combine right-wing populism with neoliberal economic reason.

4 – At least the end of a long social winter

The miners’ strike of 1984-85 resulted in a historic defeat for the British labour movement. This defeat not only demoralized the most combative sectors of the trade union movement but also changed the overall balance of power, facilitated by a fierce restriction on the right to strike through a long list of restrictive procedures [19] . These restrictions were recently reinforced when David Cameron’s government imposed a minimum threshold of 50% of the electorate and 70% of the vote in favor of strike action in 2016.

This epochal shift could be summarized by saying that neoliberalism has succeeded in imposing a ‘forced social pacification’ and this can be seen in the collapse of the number of individual days not worked (IDNW) due to strikes. Indeed, after peaking at 30 million days in the late 1970s, strike activity fell to 5 million in 1985 and then declined to between 150,000 and 300,000 IDNWs per year in the 1990s and 2000s. We find this notion of coercive pacification in the analysis of Dave Lyddon (2007, 2015) for whom neoliberalism expresses the constant desire to repress trade union action.

Data: Office of National Statistics – UK.

The number of strike days per 1,000 employees, which is an indicator of the social density of strike activity, confirms this finding. In the UK, since the early 2000s, the threshold of 50 working days lost per 1,000 employees has very rarely been exceeded. By way of comparison, in other countries such as Belgium, France and Spain, in years of cross-industry strikes, there are peaks of 300 to 500 days lost per 1,000 employees, while in years of ‘social calm’, strike activity remains at around 80 to 100 days lost. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the neoliberal governance model has succeeded in making strike activity residual and marginal.

Source: ETUI – Kurt Vandaele.

However, it should be pointed out that the British statistical data only count strikes of more than 20 employees lasting at least a whole day. This leaves aside work stoppages, which historically represent a privileged mode of action, to the point these micro-strikes were considered a singularity of British industrial relations.

At this point, it is difficult to prejudge what will happen next. On the other hand, it is possible to measure the change of era and to say that social conflicts emerged from a long period of hibernation. Already, the number of Individual Days Not Worked has exceeded 2 million, which shows that strikes are no longer a taboo for trade unions and that they are ready to engage in social conflicts such as we have seen in the past.

It remains to be seen whether the long cycle of defeats and social setbacks will give way to a new offensive cycle with an accumulation of social conquests. This brings us back to the debate of the early 1980s about the existence of long waves in the class struggle and their relation to long waves in capital accumulation. The notion of long waves was initiated by Nikolaj Kondratieff in the 1930’s and reframed by the Marxist economist Ernest Mandel (Mandel, 1980; Kleinkecht, Mandel & Wallerstein, 1992). It postulates the existence of sequences long periods of upswing and downswing in the cycle of accumulation. In the late 1970s, some started to seek after linkages between longs waves and trends in conflictuality that could have an indirect but real relationship.

Even if this approach has been criticized by some for its impossible empirical validation (Beverly Silver, 1980; 1991), others, such as John Kelly (1998), were inspired by it to highlight that conflictuality not only maintains a sort of ‘path dependency’ but that there are also more structural realities that facilitate or hinder striker activity and, more broadly, strikes. Of course, these structural determinants are located as much in the infrastructure (the social relations of production, the labour market) as in the superstructure (the rules and norms, the ideological hegemony or the vitality of the trade union movement). I will leave the long wave controversy aside because it requires a proper investigation in the economic field and in particular the evolution of profitability. On the other hand, following here the insights of John Kelly, it is certain that certain infra and super-structural coordinates influence the amplitude and the intensity of strikes and conflict.

In the case of Great Britain, the fall in unemployment to 3.5% certainly plays in favor of the return of social conflict. It is certainly not yet ‘full employment’ (with a lot of precariousness) but the demand for labour is approaching the supply of labour, which changes the situation from the workers’ point of view. For the CIDP, a HR research centre [20], in a recent report, companies are experiencing increasing difficulties recruitment . According to their latest barometer of HR departments last spring, six out of ten companies are facing prolonged difficulties and would be willing to increase the hiring salary to facilitate recruitment and make the job more attractive.

It should be noted that the fall in unemployment is less the result of net job creation than of a double structural change, namely the ageing of the population and Brexit. The first is common to other OECD countries. The baby boom generation, born between 1946 and 1968, has started to retire, leaving a growing number of job vacancies. According to a study made in 2018 by CEDEFOP (the European Centre for the Study of Skills and Qualifications), 9 out of 10 job vacancies in Europe are now linked to retirement. The latest report on the UK sounds the alarm about the rapidly increasing need for labour. According to the calculations of demographer Ilias Leanos, in the coming decade will need to recruit over 15 million people by 2030 in the UK alone. Even if this figure is an overestimation of recruitment needs (given de coming recession), the scale of the need is enormous, as is not far from evoking a renewal of more than half of the working population [21] !  It should also be noted that in this set of vacancies, half of them concern semi- or unskilled workers. Since a couple of years, the labour shortages are severely felt at all skill levels, which improves the overall social balance of power in favor of the workers.

A recent study by Oxford University has found that the Brexit is playing a significant role in the surge in labour shortages [22] . According to the authors of the study, the post-Brexit immigration system has introduced visa requirements for EU citizens who could previously work in any job. To date, this labour supply has not been matched by access to the labour market for non-EU citizens. As a result, low-wage jobs that relied heavily on EU workers are no longer eligible for work visas [23] . Indirectly, the Brexit has contributed to the drying up of the recruitment pool for a number of jobs at the lower and middle end of the skills spectrum.

In addition to these structural aspects linked to the state of the labour market, we are also witnessing a return to ‘collectivism’. This concept will make some people smile – but it has nothing to do with the Soviet model – it only leads not to limit analysis to a rise in individualism. Even if the notion of collectivism is absent from most of French-speaking sociological analysis of industrial relations [24], it is not without relevance since it allows us to question the availability for a collective commitment, whether it be union membership or commitment to strike action. For John Kelly (Rethinking Industrial relations, 1998), ‘collectivism’ is part of mobilization theory and is based on a feeling of shared injustice and the conviction that it is possible to improve one’s social condition on a collective basis. So it is not only acting in the interest of oneself but express also the awareness that acting together can deliver more than being a ‘free rider’, even in the olsonian way.

In this respect, several facts indicate that collectivism refers to a molecular process of mutual solidarity that precedes social conflict. The spontaneous strikes at Amazon – which are part of a non-unionized dispute – indicate that deep resentment had been building up for some time. Resentment and anger are fueled by a sense of injustice that spreads and ends by expressing itself in a work stoppage.

In addition to this specificity of the wildcat strike, it is important to underline how the very heterogeneous social composition of the working class in no way hindered the mobilisation. In the Amazon Fullfilment centre in Tilbury, the majority of workers are under forty, a third are women and more than half are ‘non white’ or of foreign origin. The’ variety of subjective experiences and conditions did not prevent the coagulation of anger towards collective action. This is not always the case and it is therefore worth emphasizing. Other sectors on strike, such as the postal service or the railways, are also marked by diversity in terms of gender and cultural identity. However, the strikes demonstrate, by their absolute majority character, that heterogeneity is no longer an obstacle.

Mick Lynch confirms this in his own way when he explains that questions of identity, gender, racialization or sexual orientation can be ‘articulated to the class struggle’. The latter remains a unifying factor, but on condition that racism and sexism are also fought (Jacobin interview).  In other words, identities structured around struggles against specific oppressions have a place in the trade union movement. This has been the case for a long time, as British unions have been applying the principle of self-organisation for specific groups such as black and colored people, Asians, women and LGBT people since the 1990s. It is understandable that one third of the RMT’s members in the London Underground are from racialized minorities. More generally, according to government statistics, the proportion of unionized employees is highest among ‘black and black British’ workers (26.9 per cent), followed by workers classified as ‘mixed’ (24.1 per cent) and ‘white’ (24 per cent). Overall, there are more women than men in the TUC.

Collectivism is also expressed in the ‘grey areas’ of the labour market, on the side of gig workers, with the emergence of proto-union action by platform workers who have begun to form a multitude of action collectives. Sometimes these collectives become part of new unions, such as the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, founded in 2012 by a collective of cleaning workers all of Latin American origin. Sociological studies (Gandini, 2018 ; Cini, 2022) on these mobilisations observe a number of common features: rejection of piecework and self-employed status, the desire to benefit from social protection and community-based mobilisation dynamics. Most of these collective structures combines mobilisation and legal or court action, resulting in an important victory that is beginning to set a precedent.

The UK Supreme Court’s February 2021 decision considers that Uber drivers should be treated as workers, not as independent contractors. This unanimous decision is expected to have a significant impact on platform businesses as drivers are entitled to benefits such as holiday pay, minimum wage and a supplementary pension. The reason is simple, Uber imposes fares and routes without any negotiation and imposes a disciplinary regime on drivers based on their ratings. The court, rejecting Uber’s long-standing practice of treating its drivers as independent contractors, also ruled that the company’s more than 70,000 UK drivers will have to be paid for the hours they are logged on to the Uber app, regardless of the demand for transport.

Since this judgement, a number of similar cases (Pimlico plumbers, CitySprint and Excel Services delivery workers, Bolt delivery workers) have been brought to court and have all resulted in a confirmation of the judgement in the Uber drivers’ case [25] . In terms of status, it is interesting to note that the mobilisations combining direct action and legal action are making progress towards the recognition of the hybrid status of ‘Limb (b) workers’, who are neither freelancers nor self-employed nor employed and integrated into the workforce in the classical sense of the term, but dependent workers to whom the company must pay the minimum hourly wage as long as they are connected by their application, as well as social protection and days off [26] .

In the end, it is certainly still too early to validate the hypothesis of a new cycle of offensive struggles, but the examples of mobilisations are multiplying and the gaps are opening up here and there. The decline in unemployment should continue for structural reasons and the revival of collectivism is helping to revitalise trade union action.

5 – Conclusive reflections

Firstly, it is clear that purchasing power, already at half mast since the pandemic, has become a central issue for workers in all sectors. The 2009-2019 decade was one of wage stagnation, and this is not accepted anymore in an inflationary context. The rationalization of the work process has led to a deterioration in working conditions, which in turn has nourished the feeling that effort must continue to increase even though it is less and less well paid. The sharp drop in purchasing power in the spring of 2022 is just one more drop in a pot that was about to overflow. When the latent sense of injustice is widely shared, it does not take much – such as the announcement of record profits – for it to turn into a spirit of revolt. The conviction that strike action is necessary has become a widely shared idea in a very short time.

The second finding is that the regulatory obstacles to strike action are far from insurmountable. But to succeed in crossing the threshold of approval, the union must necessarily convince a majority of workers that strike action is justified and that it can bring about substantial improvements. To succeed in such a campaign – commonly called a ‘strike ballot campaign’ – it is necessary to mobilise the whole union apparatus, the reps, publish leaflets, emails and ultimately text every worker. It is significant that combative unions such as the CWU, RMT, Unite or PCS are doing this as much as the more moderate unions (Unison, GMB). This indicates that the trade union ‘base’ and more broadly the workers are exasperated by the loss of purchasing power after a long period of wage moderation. The union leadership is in tune with this feeling and understands that such a situation is untenable. But as trade unionists, they also feel that the trade union movement can take revenge after years, if not decades, of losing and conceding much. This is what Mick Lynch says when he announces that the working class is back.

Thirdly, trade unions, even limited in their scope of action, remain powerful institutions. In the 1970s, unions had almost 13 million members. From the 1980s onwards, they have been steadily loosing membership to 6,5 million members but since 2015 around at least 100,000 workers have decided to join every year. The majority of these new members are women, young people, people with recent migrant background, black, asian and colored people. This reflects a collective awareness that the union is an indispensable tool for defending one’s rights and interests. At the same time, this process reflects the social recomposition of the working class. If Labour has a lot of trouble mobilizing its traditional electorate, the unions kept a very broad base and thus formed the central institution of a working class which, of which important sections do express again it’s existence ‘for itself’ again, particularly through these conflicts.

Fourthly, social dialogue is not much institutonalized, which puts the unions themselves, or even the workers themselves (Amazon), at the centre of the playfield, rather than the institutional bodies and the distribution of mandates, which is much more the case in France. As was pointed out at the very beginning of this article, the British model of collective bargaining in no way favors ‘social dialogue’. Since these relations between employers and trade unions operate almost on a voluntary basis, around what is known as the ‘single channel’ system, there is not much normative or contractual production. As a result, the coverage of collective agreements is painfully low at 30%, which is among the lowest levels in Western countries. Even when a trade union is recognized and plays the role provided elsewhere by employee representative institutions, the employer may or may not agree to negotiate. Such an institutional ‘vacuum’ can also fuel social conflict, as employers’ refusal to concede improvements, which in turn may reinforce the feeling of injustice and make workers receptive to the idea of an open dispute. Information and consultation is done at the whim of the employer. This deleterious situation has led the trade union movement to reorganize, to conduct membership campaigns, inspired by the American model of ‘organizing’ [27] . At the level of TUC member unions, several unions have come together under the banner of Unite and the GMB [28] (public and private sector) while several unions merged together  in the public sector (Unison). The leader of Unite, Sharon Graham, is taking a much more antagonistic approach to industrial relations also organizing cross-sectoral coalitions at local level.

The fact that social conflict is making such a massive and tumultuous return after four decades of enforced pacification does not yet explain this phenomenon. In order to make progress in this direction, we will also have to draw up an in-depth assessment of British neoliberalism and question the persistence of a structural antagonism between capital and labour. I will do this in two forthcoming articles: the first on the splendours and miseries of neoliberalism; the second on the depth of class divisions and antagonisms.

 

Stephen BOUQUIN

21st of October 2022 (updated 14th of November).

* I would to thank Michael Roberts, Erik Demeester and Nicola Cianferoni for their suggestions and comments.

Websites with background information

Notes From Below   (with a lot of first hand reports)

Tribune Magazine

Socialist Appeal

Socialist Worker

References

  • Bellanger, Jacques et Thuderoz, Christian, « Le répertoire de l’opposition au travail », in Revue Française de Sociologie, 51 (3), juillet-sept. 2010, pp. 427-460.
  • Bertrand, Mathilde, Crowley Cornelius, Labica Thierry (2016), Ici notre défaite a commencé. La grève des mineurs britanniques (1984-1985), éd. Syllepse.
  • Bouquin, Stephen (2020), Les résistances au travail en temps de crise et d’hégémonie managériale, in  Daniel Mercure (coord.), Les transformations contemporaines du rapport au travail, Presses de l’Université de Laval, p.177-198.
  • Cant, Callum (2019), Riding for Deliveroo. Resistance in the New Economy, Polity, London, 140p.
  • Carré, Jacques (1997), La Grande-Bretagne au 19ème siècle, Paris, 160 p.
  • Cini, Lorenzo (2022), « Resisting algorithmic control: understanding the rise and variety of platform worker mobilisations », in New Technology, Work and Employment, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12257
  • Darlington Ralph & Lyddon, Dave, (2001), Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain, 1972, Bookmarks Publications, London.
  • Dobb, Maurice M.A (1946), Wages, Cambridge Economic Handbooks, Londres, 223p.
  • Gandini, Alessandro (2018), « Labour process theory and the gig economy », in Human Relations, n° 72. 001872671879000. 10.1177/0018726718790002.
  • Kelly, John (1998), Rethinking Industrial Relations : Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves, Routlegde, Londres, 177 p.
  • Kleinkecht, Alan ; Mandel, Ernest et Wallerstein, Immanuel (1992), New Findings in Long Wave research, London, macMillan
  • Lenormand, Marc (2017), « L’hiver du mécontentement de 1978-1979 : du mythe politique à la crise interne du mouvement travailliste » in Revue française de civilisation britannique, XXII- hors-série, https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.1683
  • Lyddon, Dave (2007), “From strike wave to strike drought: the United Kingdom, 1968-2005.” (pp.339-365), in Vandervelden, Sjaak; Dribbush, Heiner; Lyddon, Dave; Vandaele, Kurt (2007), Strikes Around the World, 1968-2005, Aksant Academic Publishers, Amsterdam.
  • Lyddon, Dave (2015), “The changing pattern of UK strikes, 1964-2014”, Employee Relations, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 733-745. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2015-0084
  • Mandel, Ernest (1995), Long Waves of Capitalist Development : A Marxist interpretation, Verso, 184p.
  • Milkman, Ruth; Bloom Joshua; Narro, Victor (2010), Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy, Cornell University press, 312p.
  • Ravier, Jean-Pierre (1981), Les syndicats britanniques sous les gouvernements travaillistes (1945-1970), Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 278p.
  • Segrestin, Denis (1980), “Les communautés pertinentes de l’action collective : canevas pour l’étude des fondements sociaux des conflits du travail en France », in Revue française de sociologie, Année 1980, n°21-2, pp. 171-202
  • Silver, Beverly J. (1991), « De klassenstrijd en de kondratieff », in Vlaams Marxistisch Tijdschrijft, 25ème année, n°1, pp. 42-66.
  • Sumption, Madeleine ; Forde, Chris ; Alberti, Gabriella & Walsh, Peter (2022), How is the End of Free Movement Affecting the Low-wage Labour Force in the UK?, The Migration Observatory COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society), University of Oxford.
  • Thompson, Edward Palmer (1980) The Making of the English Working Class London: Victor Gollancz (1963); third edition.
  • Woodcock, Jamie (2021), The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy, University of Westminster Press, London, 126p.

 

Footnotes

[1] Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales; the UK also includes Northern Ireland. As there has been less strike action in Northern Ireland, I prefer to call it Great Britain. At the same time, politically, the primary entity remains the United Kingdom.

[2] This expression echoes the winter of discontent of 1978-1979, during which a wave of strikes had put the Labour government in difficulty. See Marc Lenormand, L’« hiver du mécontentement » de 1978-1979 : du mythe politique à la crise interne du mouvement travailliste, in Revue française de civilisation britannique, XXII- hors-série | 2017, https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.1683

[3] In other countries with a ‘dual system’, such as Germany, there are both IORPs such as the Betriebsrät (works council, similar to the CE, now the CSE) and Vertrauwensleute (people of trust) who are elected on a trade union list. This is known as a ‘dual channel of representation’.

[4] Chartism is a political expression of the nascent labour movement that developed in the mid-19ème century following the adoption of the People’s Charter. The imposition of a censal electoral system had excluded the working class from parliamentary democracy. The People’s Charter was adopted in 1838 and called for universal male suffrage, fair constituency boundaries, the abolition of property ownership as a condition of eligibility, annual parliamentary elections and the secret ballot. The movement remained active until 1848 and gave rise to mutual aid funds, cooperatives and the first trade union movement. EP Thompson; Jacques Carré, La Grande-Bretagne au 19ème siècle, Paris, 1997, 160 p.

[5] Employers and employees face a “great cost squeeze” as government support fails to lift sufficient pressure say managers, 22 April, see www.managers.org

[6] Unite Investigates: Corporate profiteering and the cost of living crisis. Report commissioned by Sharon Graham, June 2022, mimeo, 28p.

[7] The notion of excess profits refers to profits that are added to those already made, due to causes external to the market, such as a war. But there is no consensus on this definition. For my part, I prefer the notions of profit and rent (rents thank to dominant positions on the market or speculative rent).

[8] Jonathan Bradshaw, University of York, “Fuel Poverty: Estimates for the UK”, available here; see also https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2022/research/fuel-poverty-uk/  

[9] https://aslef.org.uk/

[10] Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, https://www.tssa.org.uk/  

[11] 71% of the workforce took part in the vote and of those, 89% were in favor of strike action. https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-declares-overwhelming-mandate-for-national-strike-action-on/    

[12] See in particular https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/mick-lynch-rmt-rail-strike-poll-b2113181.html   

[13] https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-on-opinium-poll/  A majority of young people and transport users support them, but older people (over 50) or residents of rural areas tend to be opposed. Although almost 70% of Labour voters express support for rail strikes, Keir Starmer, Labour’s centre-left leader who succeeded Jeremy Corbyn, believes that the Labour Party should remain neutral above all else, which allows him to call on Labour MPs to stay off the picket line. See Katherine Swindells, “Where does public opinion stand on the rail strikes?, Younger people are far more likely than older people to support striking train workers”, in New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/chart-of-the-day/2022/07/public-opinion-stand-on-rail-strikes

[14] It takes 100 pennies to make a pound.

[15] In English, these spontaneous strikes are called wildcat strikes, referring to the unannounced strike action taken by activists of the Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary trade union organisation in the United States. These strikes were aimed at disrupting production in order to protest against management decisions. In this case, they are strikes that do not follow the normal procedures leading to a strike (consultation and notice).

[16] In 2001, Amazon decided to counter a campaign for union recognition by kicking out some union members while giving a 10% pay rise. As a result, the union received dozens of resignation letters and suffered a painful setback with 80% of workers voting against union recognition.

[17] For an overview of the results for 2021, see https://www.internationaldistributionsservices.com/media/11687/royal-mail-plc-fy-2021-22-results-19-5-22.pdf   

[18] See Jacobin, 10 June 2022, https://jacobin.com/2022/10/mick-lynch-profile-rmt-general-secretary-strikes )

[19]. Mathilde Bertrand, Cornelius Crowley, Thierry Labica, C’est ici que notre défaite a commencé. La grève des mineurs britanniques(1984-1985), ed. Syllepse, 2016.

[20] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/latest-research

[21] Ilias Leanos, Cedefop, Skills forecast United Kingdom, see https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/cedefop_skills_forecast_2018_-_united_kingdom_0.pdf

As well as the more global analysis of the post-pandemic labour market https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/news/baby-boomers-retiring-wake-pandemic

[22] https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/how-is-the-end-of-free-movement-affecting-the-low-wage-labour-force-in-the-uk/

[23] Madeleine Sumption, Chris Forde, Gabriella Alberti & Peter Walsh (2022), How is the End of Free Movement Affecting the Low-wage Labour Force in the UK? first report, 15 AUG 2022, The Migration Observatory COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society), University of Oxford.

[24] – In France, either this ‘collectivism’ is taken for granted, or its absence is, based on an analysis that notes the atomisation of work collectives, the omnipresence of consent and servitude, docility and loyalty. There is, however, a possibility of thinking about things in a more dialectical way, by mobilizing, for example, the notion of resistance at work or that of ‘relevant communities of collective action’ proposed by Denis Segrestin (1980). See S. Bouquin (2020), Bellanger and Thuderoz (2012) or, on the subject of collective action, D. Segrestin (1980).

[25] https://scesolicitors.co.uk/news/update-on-gig-economy-case-law-and-developments

[26] Under section 230 of the Employment Relations Act 1996, a worker is defined as an individual who has entered into or is working under (a) a contract of employment or (b) any other contract, whether express or implied, whether oral or written, by which the individual undertakes personally to do or perform work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not, by virtue of the contract, that of a client of a profession or business carried on by the individual. Persons who are not employees but who meet the requirements of paragraph (b) above are sometimes referred to as Limb (b) workers. See also https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/19/uber-drivers-workers-uk-supreme-court-rules-rights  

[27] Organizing is a new trade union practice which emerged in the United States in the early 2000s and which aims to win over sectors of workers in a company to a majority vote in favor of recognition of the role of interlocutor. It is now criticized for its very institutionalist approach, and some people oppose it to the deep organizing model, which refers to in-depth action based on the constitution of semi-clandestine networks, inspired in particular by the IWW. See Milkman R., Bloom J., Narro V. (2010), Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy.

[28] Unite the Union, a merger of Amicus and TGWU, organises more workers in the industrial, logistics and construction sectors. It has 1.2 million members; the GMB, formerly the General, Municipal, Boilermakers’ and Allied Trade Union, has 640,000 members employed in industry, retail, security, schools, distribution, public services, social services, the National Health Service (NHS), ambulance services and local government.

 

 

Conflict beyond law and regulation. From the Gilets Jaunes uprising to the spontaneous strike wave in Italy at the early stage of the pandemic

Paper presented at the 40th International labour Process Conference in Padua (Italy) 22-24th of April 2022

In recent years, we have observed the resurgence of unregulated and disruptive conflict, with a lot of uncertainty regarding usefulness of social regulation. Our paper will investigate two major cases. The first is the well known Gilets Jaunes revolt in France. This revolt was initiated in November 2018 against hiking prices and impoverishment but developed itself as a huge social uprising against Macron and his governance. This mobilisation, which lasted several months, was not supported by instituted and representative structures such as trade unions. Second, we will analyse the spontaneous strike movement in Italy that occurred at the early stage of the pandemic, in order to stop production and to hold back contaminations of Covid-19. The paper proposes to investigate this kind of conflict at three levels:

1 What are the commonalities, beyond the singularities of each mobilisation? Does the exteriority towards institutional and legal frameworks have common origins? Is it assumed or rather imposed, or both?

2 What are the class dynamics involved, formulating the hypothesis that there is a class-based community of destiny, in formation. This process is also marked by the main narratives held by the actors themselves as much as by the strength of the mobilisation and the opposition it encounters.

3 Is it possible to identify a common horizon and a level of agreement regarding the means to achieve this or should we first of all recognize the heterogeneity and fragmentation, both on the objective and subjective level?

My paper is based on qualitative field research among the Gilets Jaunes (January-March 2019), the analysis of a large scale survey with 4000 respondents as well as an ongoing survey among trade union activists  and workers in Italy.

To download the paper =>

ConflictBeyondLaw-Bouquin-ILPC-Padua

No truce in sight. Labour in times of managerial hegemony

1 – Introduction

In the 1950s, French sociology of work and labour relations distinguished itself from North-American social psychology by recognising the conflicting dimension of work and the emancipatory stakes this could contain. From the 1980s onwards, sociological analyses focused more on social interactions, and above all on the internalisation by employees of the logic of performance and management standards. It is also during this last period, from 1990 to 2010, that the issue of domination emerged, favouring an analytical grid where employees have ceased to oppose management.

During my doctoral studies, and throughout my research activities of the last two decades, I favoured an approach that continued to integrates conflict and resistance into the analysis of work and labour. This is as much a theoretical choice as it was and remained an empirical observation. Such a conceptualisation of work and labour does not consider conflict as an ‘anomaly’ but recognises the antagonistic nature of labour relations at the very core of them. From there on, I took a position in some sociological controversies regarding work, labour and its ongoing transformations by asserting that these are at least partially determined by the need for management to increase or to maintain the level of surplus extraction as well as resistance and oppositional behaviour by labour.

Certainly, the wage relationship contains several types of conflicts. Competition between employees can be characterised as a kind of ‘horizontal’ conflict that can take on many faces, ranging from competition for favours, disassociation, harassment or some kind of inter-statutory and intergenerational conflicts. Still, there is always also, even in a minimal way, a ‘vertical’ conflict which opposes the workforce to the management and the employer. This conflict is not only fuelled by issues of power, as pointed out by Michel Crozier and Alain Touraine[2], but also by a conflict of interests concerning the partition of surplus value and the monetary and symbolic recognition of the effort made.

At the origin of my approach, a disagreement can be found with a conceptualisation of work that limits the definition of it to the exercise of a constraining activity, or an expenditure (skilled or not) of energy surrounded by exchanges of information. Such an approach limits the sociological analysis to the concrete way it’s being carried out, to gestures and postures and to symbolic interactions within the workplace. These aspects are important, but they tend to leave aside structuring dimensions such as inequalities of power, the division of labour as well as the impact of wage labour, both at the domestic level and at the level of the public space (labour market and normative regulations). The aspect of pay, or work-effort bargaining is an aspect that is quite often disregarded or even neglected by French sociology of work. Apart from the institutional separation of academic disciplines such as sociology and political economy, another more silent explanation can be found in the strong Proudhonist tradition – and the concomitant marginal Marxist traditions – that can be found among scholars as well as trade unionists. The fact that paid work or labour is not limited to the execution of tasks, that it does not exist in itself, but is carried out against the background of a social relationship of exploitation[3], under control of management is not quite often acknowledged. The fact that this reality will affect social behaviour as well as the relationship to work that people tend to adopt even less. A sound analysis of wage labour implies integrating the existence of the employer, the company, and management as well as recognising that the constrained act of working involves surplus extraction which will be embodied in a higher workload and / or a partial or false recognition of one’s contribution and commitment.

In other words, wage labour remains based on an antagonistic social relationship in which employers cannot fail to try to maximise profits by making people work more for the same wage, or by reducing the latter in relation to the work done (productivity increases). At the same time, wage workers cannot refrain themselves to try to be better paid for their efforts or ask to be better paid on the basis of increased efforts. Insisting on this aspect should not make us forget that this social relationship is also asymmetrical and that it therefore implies a ‘subsumption’– a term I prefer to that of ‘domination’ – whose faces can vary enormously, ranging from factory despotism based on coercion and repression to ‘controlled autonomy’ through targets, performance, strong work ethos, the occupational culture of corporate chauvinism.

To put it differently, when we understand wage labour as a social relationship, we have to do so from two opposite viewpoints, both that of the employees and that of the employers. From this double viewpoint, the observation that there is no ‘truce in sight’ is even truer. Almost all managerial reorganisations can be understood as acts promoting more effort on the part of ‘living labour’, more creativity and commitment, in view of stagnant or slightly increasing pay, in view of the efforts made.

This critique, which can be identified as Marxian, extends the analysis of André Gorz[4], from when he considered wage labour as a heteronymous reality, or elaborated by Jean-Marie Vincent[5] when he recalled the extent to which real subsumption always nourishes oppositions and a critique of work. The reality of ‘domination’, so often evoked in sociological literature, refers basically to the domination of abstract labour over concrete labour, which does not mean this domination is ever completed, definitive nor absolute. Firstly, because it is not insensitive to the balance of power between employers and trade unions (when the latter are present), neither to the legal-administrative frameworks of industrial relations (particularly the right to strike), as well as it involves both bodies and minds mobilised during working time. Faced with various intensities of psychological sufferingor or the resentment of not being sufficiently recognised for one’s contribution, sooner or later employees may lose their credulity towards management and slide into various kinds of opposition. We could also mention Oscar Negt [6], member of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, who remobilised Marx and the concept of ‘living labour’ (lebentige arbeit) to emphasise the extent to which this ‘living’ nature of the workforce, in opposition with the ‘death labour’ (tote arbeit, i.e. capital), implies also a permanent uncertainty towards the concrete course of the labour process. Other works, quite often ignored by French labour sociologists, such as those of Cornelius Castoriadis [7], could also be cited. Apart form his early writings as member of the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie and political group, Castoriadis is characteristic for an analysis articulating social relations of production with state and the development of civil society institutions, considering the pacification of work and labour as harder to achieve than it is the case on the level of a political regime.

A whole series of research investigations confirm the approach of work situations as incessantly conflicting, even without necessarily adopting a Marxian conceptualisation. One example is the historian Alf Lüdtke [8], who studied work behaviour in the context of the Nazi regime in the nineteen thirties finding traces of ‘rebellious subjectivity’ through shopfloor reports from hierarchical superiors, sanction vouchers and testimonies of middle management. These traces revealed that a productive activity was accompanied by a permanence of oppositional behaviours, even after the elimination of trade union presence. Following Alf Lütdke, this kind of conduct can be identified as Eigensinn which he defined as a kind of silent but stubborn oppositional attitude – such as ‘I tend do only doing what I want to do’ – expressing also a kind of undisciplined individualism.

2 – The blind spot of French sociology of work

The publication of a collective reader Résistances au travail in 2008 [9] was an opportunity to reopen the discussion on how ‘atmosphere at work’ did evolve the last decade. The expression of ‘athmospère’ or ambiance was used by the labour historian Nicolas Hatzfeld when he referred to shopfloor situations marked by informal behaviour [10]. Being himself a former ‘établi’ –political activists choosing to work in factories as ordinary workers in order to be among ordinary working people – he tended to acknowledge variations of work commitment that were mots of the time intentional.  Others such as Jean-Pierre Durand [11] after having elaborated a typology of wage relationship configurations in the automotive industry focussed research upon consent and ‘voluntary servitude’ – a notion borrowed from Gustave de la Boëtie – considering the workplace as pacified since the unions lost all bargaining power, the workers fear to lose their jobs and most of them are subjugated by the hegemonic ideology of effectiveness. Danièle Linhart, in a quite same way, emphasised the disappearance of the ‘collective worker’ in the face of omnipotent management[12]. In addition to this, there was the idea, defended in particular by Stéphane Beaud and Michel Pialoux, that workers wanted to be considered as technicians or operatives but certainly not as members of the working class. It should be noted that the mainstream definition of the ‘classe ouvrière’ is quite restrictive and limit the class boundaries to blue collar workers, to productive labour (in opposition to unproductive labour in services sector) which concern only a section of the labouring class if we apply a larger definition of the labouring class [13].

The new forms of work organisation imported from Japan in the 1990s, such as team work, Kaizen or Kanban, certainly succeeded to obtain greater involvement of work groups and to guarantee better quality[14]. These new forms of organisation aimed to obtain from workers a degree of implication in correspondence with demanding standards of lean management and the ongoing juts-in-time flow of production.  This had to be done through the mobilisation of informal resources and tacit knowledge in order to increase productivity. However, by the end of the 1990s, productivity gains were also obtained through intensification and other elements of degrading of working conditions (health and safety), which resulted in a minimalist and consequently worn-out workforce. In some cases, this translated itself into a return of open social conflict, while in others, opposition remained invisible. A detailed analysis of the emergence and spread of lean production in the automotive industry (such as Bouquin, 2006) shows how and why it has become a hegemonic model.

It is true that, like Taylorism, there are many variants of this new ‘one best way’, but the fundamentals can be identified quite easily: cutting costs at all levels, not only of labour but also regarding capital (investment), intensification of work and extension of the use of technical installations, recurrent evaluation of oneself and colleagues; versatility and reduction of stocks and immobilised capital; segmentation of workforce according to status and imposition of team (or project) work; fragmentation of the labour process through subcontracting and the introduction of business units acting like small firm supplying to each other[15]. In the end, while lean management certainly led to increases in productivity, it can also be said it acted as a source of wasting human energy, just as it can give way to quality losses, serial defects and ruptures in the labour process [16].

However, the main sociological analysis in France asserted that workers where defeated, collective workers was atomised and has chosen to reconcile themself with work and management. Contrary to this interpretation, I maintained the opposite: firstly, that there was no definitive pacification possible, secondly, that in some productive spaces, open conflicts (strikes) where still present even if the bargaining power of unions was losing ground; thirdly, that oppositional practices and behaviours at the shopfloor level demonstrate both the necessity for employees to cope with the situation as well as their unwillingness to consider this situation as ‘fair enough’ [17].

The sociological study of work settings, factories or shopfloors should not only look at (apparently) pacified situations but also integrate atypical cases which contradict the thesis of pacification, as I was able to do on the basis of case studies about the Renault Trucks assembly plant in Caen, the factories of Chausson (specialised in vans and camping cars) in Parisian suburbs and in Picardy or the Volkswagen-Audi assembly plant in Belgium (Brussels).

Following the hypothesis that the way employees realise their work tasks not necessarily match their opinions, I started to look after traces of critical reflexivity about work[18]. Even in the late nineties, one could already find such traces in surveys. Let us mention, for example, the survey done by Christian Baudelot and Michel Gollac[19] at the end of the 1990s showing that 74% of white-collar employees had ‘the feeling that they were being exploited’, much more than the 45% blue-collar workers thought. It should be noted that these beliefs appeared in combination with the feeling of being treated unfairly and basically express the expectation for professional recognition that management refuse to honour. Of course, these opinions do not necessarily question the social order of capitalism as such, but that is not really the point. Indeed, let us not forget that such a critique occurs most of the time during exceptional and relatively short periods, such as before or during social upheavals or general strikes such as the ones of 1936 and 1968 in France.

Given the fact that work settings and labour relations are much more heterogeneous than one might suppose, it is essential to analyse the labour process as far from pacified and normalised. In reality, the approaches centred upon domination do suffer from a double flaw. The first flaw is heuristic or empirical. Very often, they neglect social behaviour and opinions that do not consent to managerial domination, under the pretext of their great marginality. However, what exists now has not always been and will not necessarily be the case in the future. Unless we affirm that nothing has ever changed and will never change, sociology must also seek to integrate contradictory trends unfolding and recognize that any present situation contains a range of possible futures. The second flaw is both theoretical and ethical. Through publications, lectures at the university and debates in the public arena, sociology had always a public character, which means that sociologists should acknowledge that their narratives also structure representations of social reality. When sociological analysis is reducing actors to consent and ‘voluntary servitude’, this may end up in the reproduction of a discourse – wrapped or not in an academic format – that contribute to deprive actors of their capacity for action. Even if the performative effect of sociological narratives is reduced, in France, they find audience among trade union activists, who are looking after explanations for their lack of effectiveness. With some help of structural-functionalist sociology, the explanation is ready-made: collective action is doomed to be ineffective because the employees do not want it, since they have internalised the performance injunctions and adhere to management. Paradoxically, where the sociological reflexivity which was called by Pierre Bourdieu should allow for a better understanding of social reality, it ends up proclaiming the status quo as unsurpassable, which has never been the case anyway.

Broadening the field of analysis nevertheless requires precautions. Following Jean-Claude Passeron in Le Raisonnement sociologique[20], the first pitfall of an approach aimed at restoring some kind of heuristic justice is to substitute ‘populism’ for ‘miserabilism’. In other words, to project wishes and expectations onto the conduct of actors, where miserabilism expresses the disappointment of these expectations on the part of the researcher. It is therefore necessary to take all methodological precautions and to avoid hasty theorisations. But to me, the basic premise remains, namely not to ‘freeze’ a social situation by locking actors into behaviours not all of them had or will have, and by qualifying their opinions as manufactured and alienated. That is why I kept up to a certain amount of caution in the analysis of the social behaviours grouped together under ‘resistance au travail’ defined in the following way:

“Resistance is certainly ambivalent and coexists with practices that allow for adjustment, adaptation and (partial) reappropriation of work situations. However, they differ from the latter since they express latent and informal forms of dissent, opposition, of refusal to conform or to comply. Resistance at work refers to behaviour that is to a certain extent disruptive and intolerable for those who supervise, employ and put others to work”[21].

Other sociologists in France favour a very specific restrictive definition of ‘resistance’, which corresponds to intentional and open ‘sedition’ towards management and work. The limit of such a definition is that it has almost no heuristic value[22]. Searching after resistance as a ‘partisan sedition’ does not make much sense when we know how many employees – even well-off –are indebted and how many depend on their present job, especially in times of unemployment, precariousness and difficult labour market mobility. But, let us remember how much in periods of full employment in France, most firms faced a 30-50% turnover, while this did not prevent strikes at all, some of which took place without the support of trade unions[23]. Gradually, the economic crisis of the nineteen seventies and eighties led to the reconstitution of a ‘reserve army’ of labour, which forms a coercive and disciplinary social context, to which has been added a series of workfarist reforms regarding the welfare system, reducing both the amount and duration of unemployment benefits. In such a context, searching after resistance as ‘partisan sedition’ means expecting behaviour that in reality corresponds to social suicide. To put it bluntly, adopting such a definition makes of resistance a kind of strawman…

Despite all of this, the controversy is all but over. How should sociologists analyse social behaviour corresponding to ‘exit’? How many professionals, white collar employees around the age of 45 start to look after a way out of their job, in the form of a ‘second career’, a better work-life balance, notably through the choice to refuse promotion and the acceptance of a ‘dead-end’ job. How many young temp workers, even being confronted with precarity, do not really engage in the way that they are expected to do, i.e., engage in a harsh competition for some scarce positions? [24] Others are happy to be able to leave the company at 55 thanks to early retirement. We can identify all kinds of conduct corresponding to ‘high end’– exit such as becoming a farmer, a cooperative entrepreneur or a self-employed person. Such behaviour may be the contrary of (internal) opposition and resistance but there is still a link between them, namely the degree of dissatisfaction regarding tasks, targets, managerial standards or a general work climate.

A broader definition of resistance refers not only to the persistence of informal behaviours such as braking, loitering, wigging and sometimes sabotage, but also to the existence of oppositional or critical spirit regarding work and to integrate this into a broader set of conduct by which employees try to re-appropriate, even if only partially, their work situation; if not to loosen the stranglehold of the logic of performance. In fact, resistance to work is often blurred and mixed with adjustment or accommodation behaviours.

Why should this broader definition be prioritised? Because human work is a ‘living matter’ characterised by great plasticity and by its reflexive nature. Acting at work is therefore never a case of complete ‘domination’ and, even if it seems to be, we cannot exclude the hypothesis that employees mimic their servitude and pretend to fully ‘play the game’. Still, this game implies margins of freedom, as has been shown by a number of studies in the 1970s and 1980s on the difference between ‘prescribed work’ and ‘real work’[25]. It is true that information technologies and the injunction of new work ethics have changed the situation, but without moving beyond subsumption, quite the contrary…

For Michael Burawoy[26] who’s analysis on shopfloor behaviour carried him very close to Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical analysis about the ‘double nature of work’. Following Burawoy, production games represent a kind of alienated behaviour that leads the individual to deliberately participate to his own exploitation. Burawoy analysis of production games became quite popular among French sociologists after the publication of some large extracts in the journal Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales[27]. For many years, Buwavoy’s account was taken for granted in French sociology and served as demonstration on how uncontested management has become and how successful alienation could be. Still, Burawoy overlooked the importance of financial gains the production games could offer, sometimes even by 30%. This aspect was already highlighted by Donald Roy who conducted a similar survey twenty years earlier in exactly the same company. When production games integrate a wage-effort bargaining to such an extent, it can hardly be considered as being outside the productive relation between labour and capital, as was recalled by Paul Thompson and Pierre Desmarez in two classical works on the sociology of work [28].

In reality, those games do not express the will to collaborate actively to one’s own exploitation in the Marxian sense of the term, but an attempt to reduce the degree of exploitation by seeking to be paid as much as possible for a constant or reduced effort. Indeed, wage labour remains a relationship where the work performance is exchanged for a pay, which implies on the side of the employee the possibility of ‘pulling on the rope’ or ‘tugging at the heartstrings’… The production games are not reducible to ‘false consciousness’ since they also express a workshop culture based on cooperation between workers, which allowed the ‘collective worker’ to exist socially and to assert its social existence from a management viewpoint.

Our own sociological research included the study of collective action frameworks and trade unions practices on the shop-floor level. A comparative analysis helped me to take into account the various realities of labour relations in big and small firms, as well as the variations determined by the strength of trade unions sometimes renewed by counter-power practices at organisational level. While remaining cautious and recognising the existence of very different situations, depending on the size of the company and the profile of the trade union teams, the fact is that one can still encounter situations similar to what Jean-Daniel Reynaud has called ‘combined regulation’ which can be understood as collective bargaining with some concessions by employers[29].

Of course, when social conflict is less present and trade union action is no longer able to improve working conditions, it is certain that the ‘collective worker’ become more vulnerable which will push individuals to find other ways of coping with the situation. Informal groups can take over and different kinds of conflicts develop, more interpersonal, informal and most of the times confidential. Certainly, management has the power to counteract upon these, by mobilizing surveillance technologies, by repressing recalcitrant spirits ; by promoting docile employees, management gives itself the means to influence the conduct of workers. At the same time, the productive demand for quality cannot be obtained solely by coercion. It also requires loyalty and commitment, which opens up certain margins for negotiation. Managerial practices take this into account and combine intensive mobilisation of ‘human resources’ and high turnover. Core workers are given more and better working conditions, work is less hard while temp or peripheral employees are submitted to high pressure and a performance that is obtained by the promise of a better contract and recruitment among the stable employees. A high turnover makes it possible to externalize the social and human effects of this wear and tear at work. This is illustrated by the high turnover in fast-food restaurants, call centres and logistics. Similarly, the segmentation of the workforce – with a flexible section approaching 30% in many many situations in France – makes it possible to discipline behaviour at work and to reduce open conflicts such as strikes. For insiders, loyalty is obtained in exchange for a certain amount of job security and better work conditions; for peripheral employees, temp workers, commitment is obtained through the promise of future stabilisation, using the status of insider as a perspective for the outsider.

In the tradition of labour process theory, resistance and misbehaviour has been the subject of much interpretations[30]. Following Paul Thompson[31], one of the leading sociologists on this issue, organisational misbehaviour certainly has various origins such as the refusal of work intensification, being underpaid, resentment linked to non-promotion or unappreciated conduct of management. And indeed, if we reason in this way, resistance towards and at work cannot be dissociated from labour relations in a capitalist environment. The following diagram based upon Ackroyd and Thompson (1999) shows how resistance to work can be articulated to the relationship to work as well as other aspects of labour relationship.

Figure 1 – Dimensions of social behavior at work / regarding work

Appropriation of time Appropriation of work Appropriation of production Appropriation of identity
(Loyalty) self-acceleration Self-control of labour process Self-organisation Identification to targets
EngagmentMotivation Acceptance of the rate Normal execution of tasks Working on a fast lane Rituals of

desocialisation

Conditional Cooperation Putting the brake on the rate Negociate the rate (freinage) Output restriction Local work cultures in office and shopfloor.
(Voice) Mastering working time (refusing overtime) Revendications Workers control Games, recreational or sexual activities
Retrait Strolling and braking Minimalism service ‘Perruque’ (wigging) Indifference
Denial Wasting one’s time Retention of quality Larceny Playing the fool
Hostility Absence Destruction and sabotage Fraud Group or class solidarity
(Exit) Turnover   Looking after another job / position Theft Rejection of the company, or the brand

Published in Bouquin (2008) and based upon Ackroyd & Thompson (1999)

How should this diagram be read? First of all, it is important to recognise the vast variety of work conduct that can hardly be understood as stable and unequivocal. The relationship towards labour and work is never solely instrumental (financial) nor expressive (self-fulfilment and joy), but combines several aspects which may be mixed or under tension. This relation towards labour also evolves according to the concrete experience of the working day, of age and seniority. It will also be underpinned by expectations in terms of recognition, career development and better working conditions that may or may not be met. Employees are not insensitive tools and consequently, they can slide from consent to resistance. The fact that the latter category will be a minority does not change anything from a scientific point of view since informal autonomous and resistant behaviour remain present and pay fuel social space. In saying this, I am also questioning a sociological approach that limits itself to what is apparent and refuses to acknowledge that certain practices will remain quite invisible. Finally, this diagram highlights the fact that it is important to study dynamics that allow social groups to continue to exist in the face of management, as well as the reasons that may lead some individuals to opt for recalcitrant or the opposite, docile behaviour.

Before concluding this section, I would like to make some critical remarks about two approaches that differ from my own. The first, developed by Daniel Bachet [32], criticises the tendency to reduce social interactions in the firm to power games, which feeds into, following him, the illusion of a capacity to influence labour relations on the basis of micro-resistances.

“It seems that one of the problems of a certain sociology of work is that it has not always succeeded in reconstructing the mechanisms of interdependence which unite labour relations and the more strategic rules of action structuring the economic and social game within and outside the company. There is therefore a great risk of reducing the analysis of conduct at work to ‘power games’ and forms of opposition that are somewhat disconnected from the broader fields that guide the actions of agents.”

For Bachet, ‘transgressions’ or deviant conduct do not change anything and cannot replace a collective action that defends different criteria of management and accountancy such as a fair partition of added value (surplus value) through wage increases or reduction of working time. Of course, it is true oppositional behaviours ‘don’t change anything’ fundamentally at the level of the capitalist social order but at the same time, it is absolutely wrong to consider them as ‘functional’.

To demonstrate this, we can take a closer view upon ‘wigging’ or la perruque as it is analysed by Robert Kosmann who was a former skilled worker at Renault and militant CGT trade unionist during almost three decades. Far from being a sort of ‘safety valve’, they participate, following Robert Kosmann [33], in maintaining links between members of the ‘collective worker’ and to mobilise this quite vague social entity along lines of cleavage that converge with labour and capital antagonism. In his book, Kosmann collected many proofs of ‘wigging’ or la ‘pérruque’ with workers working for themselves. For sure, ‘wigging’ challenges the legitimacy of the employer’s power to have complete disposability of tools and working time. Its practice represents the refusal of alienation and the mobilisation of professional skills for the sole purpose of the operational result. Robert Kosmann considers also that ‘wigging’ is first of all the expression of professional skills that are inseparable from a professional aesthetic and the will not to sell them out to the employer[34].

Rather than considering all types of employee resistance as futile, or even functional, as did Bachet, it seems more judicious to us to understand its presence in relation to unions, their weakness, as a sort of consequence of a ‘deficit’ in collective bargaining power, which, without remedying to this problem, will lead to a ‘productivity deficit’. Following this path, we can also consider that empowerment of trade unions and rebuilding the capacity for collective action imply the recognition of critique of work as it is expressed among workers. Secondly, resistance should also be understood as expression of a shared culture and ethics about work, about the fact being employed as a worker and often misrecognised.

If management wants to make more sense of working, in order to obtain a reconciliation with constrained action and sufficient productivity, it will have to use the carrot as much as the stick. In other words, although resistance towards work does not open up a horizon for transforming the capitalist social order – which was never pretended to be the case – it may also contribute to maintain a collective spirit, a work-culture and even lead sometimes to the reorganisation of the wage relationship. By its mere existence, resistance as much as harsh and intelligent ways of coercion all testify the non-pacification of the wage labour.

A second approach, developed by Christian Thuderoz and Jacques Bellanger[35], has taken the decision to fully recognise micro-resistances at work by inserting them into a broader typology of oppositional behaviours. This figure n°3 shows how they articulate different dimensions of control and resistance.

Control by submission Control by accountability
opposition opposition
Weak Strong Weak Strong
Engagment Weak Withdrawal Recalcitrant Cynicism Rebellion
Strong Irreverence Militancy Distance Renouncement

 

The overview contains some real heuristic virtues, since it reveals a seesaw between weak and strong opposition figures, and is linked to a mode of control exercised by management which recalls the notion of factory regime developed by Michael Burawoy in Politics of Production[36]. By articulating modes of control with the forms of employee commitment, this figure makes it possible to question a variety of situations. Moreover, the structural dimension is not absent, since the authors consider the ‘employment relationship’ as asymmetrical. Still, the pay/effort equation, the state of the labour market, as well as the socio-professional trajectory and age, will influence the relationship to work and determine how much some a willing to resist or misbehave.

This leads us to some other observations. First of all, it should be noted that oppositional behaviour, and ‘rebellious subjectivity’ are not solely rooted in the experience of work. Let us recall Edward P. Thompson[37] on the origins of the formation of the working class when he highlighted how much the egalitarian desire for fairness have led the first generations of proletarian workers to organise themselves. Barrington Moore’s study on the social origins of obedience and revolt completes this picture, revealing in particular the presence of a ‘moral economy’ based on the values of justice, equity and reciprocity[38]. We could also recall the work of Charles Tilly, for whom the sentiment of injustice is the first driving force behind strike action and even to what may precede it, namely the refusal to submit oneself to management injunctions[39]. John Kelly, a British sociologist of industrial relations, extends this analysis by linking it to the lowering working conditions, caracterised by a constant demand for a very high level of involvement in the work activity[40]. For Kelly too, labour relations are structurally antagonistic, and therefore structurally unfair, which fuels hostility and opposition on the part of employees.

Moreover, these socio-historical interpretation around the moral economy have the merit of not closing the scope of analysis to the internal relations of the workshop or the firm, nor to the institutions and collective bargaining. Indeed, the study of work as a conflicting reality requires not only recognition of the asymmetrical nature of the ‘employment relationship’, as Thuderoz and Bellanger did, but also gains in legibility when class relations structured on the scale of society are included.

Certainly, the long post-war period was one of social progress based upon the extension of welfare, increasing real wages and recognition of social conflict and trade unions. But this happened thanks to geopolitical ‘cold war’ balance as well as the autonomous activity of the working class. The adoption of a middle-class standard norm of consumption may have nourished the belief that upward mobility was easy going. Still, the research about the ‘affluent worker’ done by John Goldthorpe and his team shows that a better living does not necessarily imply losing one’s class identity. However, over the last decades, this upward social mobility has become much more difficult, to that extent that self-employment or ‘using oneself against oneself’ to use French psychologist Yves Clot’s notion, does not help much [41]. Class barriers are difficult to break down, while the condition of the labouring class became more precarious at the corporate level as much as the professional career. The trend towards the degradation of work and labour, such as it was analysed by Harry Braverman [42] in 1975 continued during the 1990s. Since more than a decade, this socio-economic uncertainty also affects stable employment (especially in the public services, care and teaching) as well as skilled categories of the workforce such as engineers and technicians.

3 Between holding out and burning out

It is now established that the 2008 financial crisis had a negative effect on job quality in OECD countries[43]. Following Robert Castel, author of Les métamorphoses de la question sociale : une chronique du salariat (1995-2000)[44], a historical account of the salariat with a long durée analysis, one can observe a movement of casualisation of the ‘stabilised categories’ and the impoverishment of the unstable, precarious workers and thirdly, a growing group of ‘super-numeraries’ that are constrained to live in poverty without any perspective. Following Castel, these developments reflect the return of a ‘wage labour condition’ marked by severe or growing socio-economic insecurity. These evolutions were already underway during the last two decades of the 20th century through a rampant erosion of living standards facilitated by the disempowerment of trade unions. Harsher and degraded living conditions were not only caused by rising unemployment. In many European countries, employment policies followed the path of reduced social protection, lowering benefits and shortening the duration of receiving benefits as well as the increased conditionalities of entitlement. These policies mobilised the ‘reserve army’ in order to increase pressure to accept lower standards of employment[45]. For these reasons Bob Jessop wrote about a ‘Schumpeterian workfare state’[46] while French tandem Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval evoked an ‘ordo-liberal state’, referring to ‘ordo-liberalism’ as a kind state interventionism that supports the accumulation of capital[47].

In many sectors and companies, precarity coincides with substandard working conditions as we can notice in many European surveys. The surveys of the French department of the ministry of labour [48] allow us to observe that assembly line works increased a lot. From 1984 to 2016 the proportion of employees saying ‘their work pace is imposed by the automatic movement of a product or part’ rose from 2.6% to 18% of the total. This trend has now reached the service sector, where supermarkets, call centres and logistics have seen an increase in speed and mechanisation of the labour process. The proportion of employees who have to repeat the same tasks over and over again has increased from 27.5% in 2005 to 42.7% in 2016. Those who report having a work pace imposed by digital monitoring increased from 25% in 2005 up to 35% in 2016. The proportion that declare they frequently have to give up a task for ‘an unscheduled one’ increased from 48.1% in 1991 to 65.4% in 2016. At the same time, those reporting ‘a work pace imposed by an external demand requiring an immediate response’ increased from 28% in 1984 to 58% in 2016. Additionally, pressure is mounting thanks to interventions that are not necessarily consistent. The proportion of employees saying they receive conflicting orders rose from 41% in 2005 to 45% in 2016. As a result, solutions, often on an individual and informal basis need to be found. The number of employees who stated that a mistake or error could result in ‘sanctions’ has risen from 51.3% in 1991 to 63.1% in 2013. The increased responsibilities due to relational work with customers is putting even more pressure on their shoulders.

An equal trend of intensification can be observed, albeit to varying degrees, in several EU countries[49]. It is no exaggeration to say that there is a tendency to constantly increase the pressure on employees. The number who reported having continued to work, while being sick increased significantly during the last decade. In 2016, in France and the United Kingdom, almost six out of ten employees worked whilst being ill. This phenomenon, also known as presenteeism, affects less people in Germany (3/10) and Belgium (4/10), two countries with strong unions at the level of the shopfloor. In terms of work-life balance and working time flexibility, 60% to 70% of respondents (in countries such as Benelux, UK, Germany, France and Italy) declare they have worked at least one full weekend in the four weeks, whereas the proportion of employees was around 45% before the 2008 crisis. The working day is also getting longer: in France, 40% of respondents report having worked more than ten hours a day, at least twice in the past month[50].

Despite the introduction of new work organisations, ‘discretionary autonomy’ (the ability to personally decide how to carry out tasks) remains low. This can be seen as a consequence of lean management, which pursue rationalisation through demanding more effort in less time and with fewer resources. About one third of respondents in France, Germany, Belgium and the UK say they are unable to determine the pace of work. This is a huge minority. However, even more than a third say that they can never determine a break in their work by themselves. Monotonous tasks are still the daily fate for one quarter of the workforce. At the same time, the number of factors fixing the pace of work tends to increase. In France, quite close to the European average, 28% of respondents are confronted with two intensification factors, 24% with three and 18% with four or more. All of these figures have increased compared to the period between 2005 and 2010.

The intensification of work continues and that high pressure targets became unavoidable for almost 20% of the workforce. Beyond a group that is permanently exposed, another 30% to 40% of respondents admit being confronted with such a constrain for about a quarter to half of their working time. When we regroup both segments together, we can say that about 50% of the workforce is nowadays permanently or intermittently exposed to high work pressure. The table below shows how this phenomenon affects employees in different European countries.

Table 1 – Overview of work constraints and workload – European Working Conditions Survey (2017)

  France Belgium Germany United Kingdom
Are you subject to high work rates? • 24% almost all the time

• 30% between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 22% almost all the time

• 36%between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 20% almost all the time

• 43% between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 23% almost all the time

• 42% between ¼ and ¾of the working time

Does your job require you to work under very strict and tight deadlines? • 42% almost all the time

• 29%between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 41% almost all the time

• 34%between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 34% almost all the time

• 47% between ¼ and ¾of the working time

• 42% almost all the time

• 38% between ¼ and ¾of the working time

Source: European Working Conditions Survey, 2017 (survey was carried out in 2015)

How do employees behave given this tightening of constraints and demands on their work activity? Initially, most common attitude is to cope with it as best they can, to ‘put up with it’, so to speak. But for a significant proportion of the workforce, those exceptional situations tend to become an implicit standard and in the absence of actions improving working conditions, both bodies and minds are worn out and workers ends up exhausted.

It can be observed, in certain circumstances, from a high turnover rate, that the recurrent replacement of staff becomes a ‘functional’ social norm. Many young workers engage in low quality employment for a certain duration but will quit when they can’t bear the pressure anymore. For employers, this is not a problem as long as they can easily find other workers to engage into such intensified work. Such a regime of intensive labour mobilisation is characteristic for employment sectors that have been described as ‘low road’ in the Anglo-Saxon literature[51]. These ‘low road’ situations include call centres, cleaning, fast food (‘chain workers’) and handling activities in logistics. A survey about job satisfaction and well-being by Ambra Poggi and Claudia Villosio[52], observe quite evidently that jobs with poor autonomy, combining a sustained effort and low pay, high levels of working time flexibility without job security, is making employees much less satisfied regarding their jobs as well as less happy in life. It should also be noticed that most exposed to such working conditions are male unskilled workers, women in the service sector and elder workers.

Since some work situations also demand high quality performance, it will require stable teams with skilled employees and a guaranteed loyalty which is obtained on the basis of various transactions (salary amounts, bonuses and job security). In these circumstances, lean management cannot be so fussy. This is, at least, the interpretation of work situations described as ‘high road’, a metaphor for the way to sustainable, quality employment (Poggi & Villosio, 2015).

My hypothesis is that such a dualistic regime is now in crisis, as shown by the extent of the burn-out. Even if a common medical definition of this pathology is still lacking [53], the fact remains that a growing number of epidemiological studies are devoted to this issue. In Austria, a large survey carried out by general practitioners concluded that almost one in two employees is or has been affected by burn-out [54]. From the medical viewpoint, someone suffering a burn-out will go through different stages: at first, which seems non-pathological in itself, the employee’s conduct corresponds to over-commitment, with an attitude such as ‘I can handle everything’. However, the person neglects hobbies, personal needs, is sometimes irritable and may start to suffer from disordered sleep or lack of appetite. A second stage corresponds to denial – ‘I can still manage’ – but contains the seed of the awareness of problematic work behaviour. The person is trying to maintain this high involvement but will slip into social isolation and start to suffer from physical and psychological somatisation. The third stage is the one where the pathology of burn-out is openly declared, which corresponds to the emergence of phobias, anxieties and other symptoms of depression, to which is sometimes added complete social withdrawal, recurrent insomnia and above all the development of a feeling of exhaustion with an inability to continue working. The final stage occurs when a long sick leave has become inevitable.

According to this survey, out of 45% of people declared being affected by burnouts, the survey evaluates the proportion of people in stage 1 or 2 respectively at 18% and 15%, while 8% of people will slide into the third situation and 2% went as far as stop working for at least a couple of weeks. According to Marc Loriol[55], a French sociologist specialized in the study of health at work, burn-outs should be seen as a process embedded in social and professional contexts:

“Burn-outs results from the combination of a strong commitment to one’s activity and work situations where there are no a priori limits to the needs to be met. If the organisation demands more and more, or if work groups are unable to set these limits or to discuss the adequacy of means to an end, employees will burn out and end up by sick leave in order to keep a job that puts them under pressure at distance. Still, employees who are exhausted by pursuing an unattainable ideal end up, in order to protect themselves begin to develop cynical attitudes or to dehumanise others. As a result, they lose all professional self-esteem and undermine the meaning in their work. If this process is not interrupted by individual accommodation (transfer, retraining, search for forms of self-esteem outside of work, etc.) or collective accommodation (definition of less ambitious objectives, obtaining new room for manoeuvre), it can lead to forms of pathological depression.”[56]

In a 2016, a study by Mickael Rose based on a very large panel of more than 4000 respondents linked burn-outs to the lack of autonomy over workload[57]. Following their findings, it appears that several factors facilitate the onset of a burn-out: 1) the absence of a managerial policy that allows individuals to modulate their efforts, 2) a weak collegiality and solidarity within work teams, 3) the lack of professional training to better adjust to quantitative and qualitative demands. A particularly ‘pathogenic’ dimension seems to be the degree of depersonalisation of work combined with the impossibility to express one’s emotions at work.

Table 2 – Prevalence of burn out and degree of autonomy (Germany, 2015)

Degree of autonomy Men Women
High

6%

7%

Rather high

9%

8%

Rather weak

11%

13%

Weak

17%

15%

Source:Rose et al. (2016) p.36.

Overall, whether one adopts the point of view of an ‘epidemic disease’ or that of a ‘malaise’ specific to ‘fragilised’ people, the fact remains that the syndrome of exhaustion and is now at the forefront of the professional and academic literature.

The use of psychotropic substances is another phenomenon that tends to develop in the workplace. The second congress of French general practitioners about ‘Work, health and the use of psychotropic drugs’, held in 2017 discussed the question of the extent at which there is a causal link between the increased use of psychotropic drugs and the evolution of work[58]. Following the survey among the association’s member doctors, a vast majority of respondents consider that almost two out of three employees regularly use all kinds of drugs to ‘stay in the game’. These drugs range from ordinary painkillers to illegal substances (cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines) or legal drugs such as alcohol. More specifically, a majority also observed an increase in the abuse of opiate derivatives in recent years which seem to be linked with various forms of pain (elbow, back, etc.). “Today, our patients carry a mini-pharmacy with them and pass on tranquilizers among colleagues” explained a doctor who spoke at the congress.

According to their conclusions, this overconsumption is the result of the intensification of work in a context of social isolation, without mutual support and where the sense of community and sharing skills tend to diminish. This makes those exposed to high pressure even more vulnerable. While the consumption of psychoactive substances was primarily the result of professional situations such as stress and increased work demands, today professional rituals such as a shared lunch on Friday come into play in second place. The survey of doctors concludes that individuals seem increasingly helpless to cope with a high performance work culture and find no other way out than ‘doping for coping’. The main medical concern is that, in the absence of solutions, abusive over consumption use becomes a taboo, while the feeling of powerlessness will provoke a crisis in family environment and educational setting for children.

Can we conclude that ‘holding on’ or resilience is already a kind of resistance? Of course not, since the work activity continues to deliver the expected added value and contributes to the overall economic performance of the company. But when we take into account the subjectivity of employees, their relationship towards work, with many employees that continue to cope with targets and constraints, we also know that they tend to convince themselves that efforts will not be vain. But this type of acceptance is based upon denial and will feed a clinical situation that will end up being really pathological. In other words, ‘holding on’ is not so much making oneself resilient as it is the antechamber of an open crisis of one’s commitment to work hard.

4 – Governance of subjectivity and the return of critique upon labour

The non-pacification of work relations can also be analysed through the lens of management’s practices. Of course, management is far from an invariant since it may opt for putting more pressure upon employees as well as it concedes space for autonomy or accept some ‘constrained regulation’ through dialogue with trade union representatives. However, nowadays, certainly in France, the main trend in large firms in the manufacturing sector as well as in the services sector, including the public sector, is to rationalise activity following the recipe of lean management, with a constant search of increased work performances.

In the wake of permanent rationalisation, following Daniel Mercure, the regime of mobilisation of ‘passive agency’ with a workforce whose activity was governed by procedures and bureaucratic control was substituted by a regime conferring employees the role of performers. If the ‘executing agent’ was the typical figure of Taylorism, the post-Fordist regime of mobilisation is structured around the figure of the ‘assigned actor’, considered as responsible but endowed with versatility and reactivity[59]. During the last decade, we saw a new figure of a ‘self-regulated subject’ emerging which aim to mobilise, beyond the individual, the person at work. Oriented towards a strong sense of responsibility and commitment, based on empowerment, the individual ends up considering himself as an entrepreneur of himself and the author of his employability[60]. Subjectivity is represented as free of constraint, with an engagement in work through internalised high-performance requirements.

All these figures can be present in various ways, given that their functionality is strongly correlated with the content of work. Still, to me, the important question here is not to correlate these figures of ‘executing agent’, ‘assigned actor’ and ‘self-regulating subject’ according to job content, the type of organisation, but rather to question the degree of acceptance and internalisation of these figures. Our fundamental hypothesis remains unchanged, namely the fact that management and mobilisation regimes will give rise to critical reflexivity with regard to them. Let us recall, for example, that already at the end of the 1990s, surveys highlighted the mounting of critical views about work and its organisation, especially among skilled employees (clerks, technicians, engineers, supervisors even middle management).

More recent surveys reveal the permanence of such critical views. At a first level, we can observe that the employees may show lot of job satisfaction, even among employees under pressure[61]: 88% of respondents declared themselves satisfied with their work, of which 37% were ‘very satisfied’ and 51% ‘moderately satisfied’. The same survey also revealed that 20% were looking for a job elsewhere and, above all, there was a significant gap between the general opinion and the view on one’s own situation. Thus, 67% consider respectful treatment of staff to be important for job satisfaction, but only 31% consider themselves ‘satisfied’ in this respect. The same discrepancies can be observed regarding other fundamental dimensions of the working relationship:

  • 63% consider pay to be crucial, but only 23% consider themselves satisfied in this respect;
  • 58% consider job security to be an important issue for job satisfaction, but only 32% consider themselves satisfied in this respect.

Similar differences exist in terms of recognition of performance (48% versus 26%), about the content of the work (48% consider the work to be interesting, but only 27% consider theirs to be as such).

As was demonstrated before, in many cases, employees tend to rephrase their opinion in a positive way since this helps to ‘hold on better and longer’ because denial and recoding of bad feelings is needed to pursue full commitment because otherwise demotivation slides in.

Still something changed in the last decade since the governance of subjectivities transformed the issue of job satisfaction into an obligation of love where loving one’s work becomes a categorical moral imperative [62]. It is worthwhile to quote Steve Jobs explaining why: ‘(your) work will fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do your job. And the only way to do this is to love what you do’[63]. Therefore, we have moved from the slogan of ‘do what you love’ to ‘love what you do’…

Is this a surprise? Not really since both figures of ‘assigned actor’ as ‘self-regulated subject’ are calling upon powerful emotional and existential springs. Taylorism of subjectivity (in the sense of a prescription of the subjective relation to work) has gradually become a standard based on the sacredness of work that engages both soul and body. Therefore, we can speak about a bio-political dimension that goes beyond the search for recognition of one’s person, talents and contribution to the company. According to Kathi Weeks [64], this evolution is based on the mobilisation of values and resources borrowed from the traditional feminine role of ‘taking care with love’. As long as jobs are considered typically ‘feminine’, this emotional relation to the work effort remains invisible or naturalized. Care work is basically that, i.e; taking care which can only be done well ‘with love’, i.e. with a certain emotional commitment. However, the obligation to perform one’s work ‘with love’ has now spread to other sectors and activities. For Kathi Weeks, the trivialisation of loving your work has been accelerated by the increasing porosity between the spheres of work and non-work, facilitated by the use of nomadic objects and information and communication technologies[65]. Indeed, as long as the spheres of sentimental (romantic) love and the sphere of work were largely dissociated, with the exception of creative arts, they are now overlapping and sometimes merge, making it all the more difficult for individuals not to love too much what they do. In the end, it is not so much loving one’s work that counts as being able to continue to love it despite frustration and disappointment. The promises of love, joy or happiness at work are examples of what Lauren Berlant calls ‘cruel optimism’ because the object of desire overrides the goals that originally led you to it [66].

Are these people fooling themselves? Is this the über-example of voluntary servitude? Even if we can’t exclude this explanation, we should also retain the hypothesis of critical reflexivity, knowing that agency is always present to a certain extent. It is also important to integrate behaviour outside work and the relation towards career development. Both among younger workers as among those over forty, we can observe conduct of avoidance or rejection of jobs considered as meaningless [67]. In France, where student debt is not a massive phenomenon, many young people prefer, as long as the situation allows it (by staying with their parents or sharing the cost of living), a nomadic existence which reflects a refusal to commit to and pursue the effort of social promotion through work. Nowadays, life choices take into account aspects such as leisure, sports, art or travelling around the world, considering work in an instrumental way. The desire for autonomy may also lead individuals to favour non-submissive work settings, even if this means paying the price of a certain social marginality[68]. For those in their forties, some choose for a second career, mobilising vocational training if their status allows it. Sometimes, a refusal of promotion is accompanied by a commitment to activities with a strong ethical content, or even, in some cases, a quite late commitment to the trade unionism.

Some recent research among middle management, engineers and skilled technicians sheds new light on the question of the links between involvement and criticism of work [69]: those who adhere to the values of performance or the company culture are also the ones declaring that they limit their involvement to what is strictly necessary, while the ‘critical minds’ tend to correspond to those who want to appreciate their work for its content. They ‘keep the company going’, as long as the work situation is not too much in conflict with their critical mindset.

Other research shows the variety of tactics used in home care work, aiming both to preserve the care dimension and the relationship with the person being cared for, while at the same time seeking to make the best possible arrangements for working conditions and to secure the job [70]. In other cases, when work requires creativity and intelligence, we can observe levels of over-commitment that is difficult to maintain over time. The importance given to the value of work, by isolating it from the institution/organisation couple represented by the organisation or the employer, is then a source of involvement in itself, similar to the protestant work ethic. It is here that individuals find themselves trapped, especially when they have lost solidarity links with colleagues.

It is by having discovered these new emotional sources of productivity that management manufactured new ways of governance of subjectivities. However, by becoming an institutional narrative, this governance will reveal sooner or later its real nature, namely a sentimental manipulation, a trap, or even an emotional swindle. This is why it is important to continue search after contradictions inside the arrangements of subjectivity.

It is my certainty that those renewed regimes of mobilisation and governance, based on subjectivity and emotions will feed a renewed critique of heteronomy and alienation. The fact that this is not yet fully visible does not mean that it does not exist underneath. Each employee may, depending on his or her professional trajectory and experiences, made up of satisfactions and frustrations, evolve from adherence to misbehaviour and resistance, in relation to his or her position in the hierarchy, level of qualification, age, as well as collective group dynamics or the presence of collective action frameworks (unions, etc.).

Several recent surveys confirm the thesis of recurrent resistance to work as well as a continuous critical reflexivity towards work and management albeit both may vary, i.e. more or less contextual, radical or definitive. Specific research among industrial engineers shows how much the growth of managerial tasks, linked to project-based management, leads to a densification of work and reduces margins of autonomy regarding ‘noble’ technical tasks[71]. Of course, engineers complain about this trend and develop tactics to circumvent and distance themselves from managerialism (i.e. evaluation or performance measurement procedures). Other investigations among the cleaning industry demonstrate how low wage workers will mobilise sanitary standards, in addition to cunning and restraint, to challenge authority[72].

In the service sector, my own field research reveals the extent of mixed behaviour[73]. We identified several modes of action on the part of employees. In the hotel and catering sector, behaviour of waiters is based upon tacit alliances with customers: offering an extra drink or recording a less expensive order while serving a more substantial dish is prompting the customer to pay tips, which can accumulate to 20 or 30 euros per day. As pub-managers may ‘cut’ alcohol in cocktails for example, in order to increase their profits, waiters are doing the same, but regarding their employer. In supermarkets, similar forms of income capture can be found by turning a blind eye to theft. The French Employers’ Federation of Distribution and Trade does not like to publish about this, but training schemes for shopkeepers and middle level management pay a lot of attention to counteract losses from theft, which, according to training, can amount to a significant proportion of stocks. Damaging a package or marking a product as defective is a way of side-lining goods that can be used or resold.

Sometimes, resistance can also translate itself into deliberately unpleasant or repressive customer service. As some research has shown[74], the reception staff of public services may behave in a fussy manner, become overzealous or refuse to deliver the support a customer is asking. Train controllers may use all the latitude they have in applying the rules. Some will turn a blind eye to an infringement, even if it is difficult when they are under the gaze of colleagues, while others will mobilise the security forces. When a train is overcrowded, some may downgrade a business class carriage to an ordinary one, while others will systematically let people pile up each other into and repress with a certain disdain anyone who objects. This kind of behaviour comes close to ‘inverted resistance’ since it means the public service goals are deliberately not met. Still, from the viewpoint of the employees behaving that way, such an attitude is justified since resources for a fluent and good working public service are lacking. It is obvious that the relation to work, the ethos of service to the public and the existence of a professional culture introduce many variables, but the fact remains that the service relationship even in the era of rationalisation and highly formalised ‘customer relationship’ management, leaves room for different kinds of adjustments.

5 – By way of conclusion

Ten years ago, analysis according to which the collective worker is atomised while employees consent enthusiastically, even playfully, to the heteronomy of work, was a one-sided narrative. Even if it was true that the logic of lean management and high-performance work systems had become hegemonic, this does not mean that critical visions and behaviours existed and still do.

Ten years ago, as much as now, at least in France, it is still not easy to make this divergent analysis heard, also because sociology of consent and servitude is presented as compassionate, sometimes even very critical towards capitalism, especially when it develops a narrative that echoes ‘authentic’ speech on the part of employees, sometimes coupled with a trade union-oriented narrative complaining about the lack of awareness and consciousness of workers.

Ten years after the ‘Great recession’ and the financial crisis, the wage labour condition has not improved much in France nor in Europe. Restructuring, casualisation, unemployment, increased competition, blackmail and relocation, the application of digital control technologies, the logic of competence, and the development of managerial policies that make the love of work sacred, have certainly made life at work harder, more stressful and worrisome. These negative aspects may have been counterbalanced for a time by playful and creative dimensions, by a certain autonomy as well as the valorisation of one’s personal contribution and the patient expectations of (very selective) promotion. Of course, as long as employees continue to believe in this, it will be reflected in their behaviour. But what happens when disappointed hopes accumulate and a widespread sense of injustice gains ground?

More fundamentally, when many people need stimuli or psychotropic drugs, when they become sick because of their job, the first thing to recognise is that the social sphere around wage labour or paid work is by no means ‘pacified’. Intensifying work to an extent than people are not capable to sustain is indeed a form of aggression or violence, not only symbolically, since it physically hurts bodies and minds. Sooner or later, this kind of situations will not fail to give rise to reactions, both at the level of subjectivity, representations as regarding behaviour, .e. the way in which people work together and complete their work.

In view of the extent of the degradation of working conditions, we can formulate the hypothesis that critique of work now affects managers, whether they are executives or supervisors, as much as technicians or engineers, and even more so subordinate employees such as workers and employees. This critique does not imply that people no longer appreciate their work and its content; they can do so and still carry the value of work high. On the other hand, I am convinced that we are witnessing a return of critical and even ‘rebellious’ subjectivity that is directed as much towards management as at it targets the abstract logic of valorisation (like sacrificing everything for the purpose of a career) perceived as ‘cold’ and almost inhuman. This critique will be all the more vigorous as it is well understood that many misbehaviours and resistance practices are not able to change what has become unbearable ‘in the long run’. In such a situation, only ‘exit’ or moments of social revolt open up some perspective both on individual as collective level.

This collective dimension can emerge where it is not expected. When we understand the wage condition as a whole and observe how many workers and couples belonging to ‘lower France’ have difficulty finding housing, healthcare and healthy food and when we add to this the impoverishment of the ‘middle classes’ and their growing difficulties in becoming homeowners or sustaining their social status, the social revolt of the gilets jaunes becomes more easily understandable.[75] This social revolt of the invisible of peripheral France is a perfect example of how a vast accumulated anger ends up exploding brutally, far from the immediate work space. In that regard, the idea that a new kind of human being has emerged, manufactured by lean production, and that he/she will consent to work hard in order to consume as much as possible while keeping silent, sounds like a bizarre interpretation of contemporary reality[76]. As Yann Le Lann has shown, based on a sociological survey of the Gilets jaunes occupying the roundabouts[77], this tax revolt was at the origin of a spontaneous and unexpected plebeian mobilisation, fuelled by a lack of recognition of work, both at the level of wages (or social benefits), as well as the shrinking earnings of small entrepreneurs.

The question remains, which we have not addressed yet: how does resistance relate to more general social conflict, whether institutionalised or not. The most reasonable conclusion is that both sociological analyses as social actors have every interest in not turning its back on what happens at the level of concrete work and the subjectivities that are involved in it.

(achieved in Summer 2018, published spring 2020)

English translation by the author

 

Stephen BOUQUIN (°1968) is a historian by training, has a PhD in political sciences (University of Paris 8) and qualified as sociologist by the CNU (1999). From 2000 to 2010, he was a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Picardie-Jules-Verne followed by a position of professor at the University of Evry Paris-Saclay. He was director of Centre Pierre Naville between 2011-2018, and has been the editor of the biannual journal Les Mondes du Travail (www.lesmondesdutravail.net) since it was launched in 2006. He has published several books, including Résistances au travail (2008) and participated in several European research programmes.

 

Footnotes & bibliography

[1]– The original French version was published in Daniel Mercure (coord.) (2020), Les transformations contemporaines du rapport au travail, University of Laval Press.

[2] – Crozier, Michel, De la bureaucratie comme système d’organisation, Archives européennes de sociologie, vol. 2 – pp. 18-52; Touraine, Alain, « Pouvoir et décision dans l’entreprise », in G. Friedmann, P. Naville, Traité de sociologie du travail, T. II, 1962, pp. 3-41; Touraine, Alain, L’évolution du travail ouvrier aux usines Renault, Paris, CNRS éditions, 1955.

[3]– By ‘exploitation’ I mean a relationship of surplus extraction by the company and its shareholders, via the non-remuneration of a segment of the working time. There has been a long debate in French sociology since Raymond Aron explained the impossibility to quantify and therefore to prove the real existence of tearing our wealth by a non-payment for it. (Aron

[4] – Gorz, André, (ed.), Critique de la division du travail, 1973; Gorz, André, Métamorphoses du travail, quête du sens, 1988.

[5] – Vincent, Jean-Marie, Le Travail. Entre le faire et l’agir, 1987, PUF, Paris; Vincent, Jean-Marie, ‘La domination du travail abstrait’, in Critiques de l’Economie Politique, n°1, October-December 1977. POSTONE

[6] – Negt, Oskar, Lebendige Arbeit, enteignete Zeit: Politische und kulturelle Dimensionen des Kampfes um die Arbeitszeit, 1987; Negt, Oskar, L’Espace public oppositionnel, 2007.

[7] – Castoriadis, Cornelius, Political Writings 1945-1997. The Questions of the Labour Movement (Volumes I and II), 2012.

[8] – Lütdke, Alf, Des ouvriers dans l’Allemagne du XXe siècle : le quotidien des dictatures, L’Harmattan, 2000; Alf Lüdtke, Eigen-Sinn : Fabrikalltag, ArbeitererfahrungenundPolitikvomKaiserreich bis in den Faschismus, 1993, 445p. For an introduction to Lütdke, see also Alexandra Oeser, ‘Penser les rapports de domination avec Alf Lüdtke’, in Sociétés Contemporaines, vol. 99-100, n° 3, 2015, pp. 5-16.

[9] – Bouquin, Stephen (ed.), Les Résistances au travail, Paris, Syllepse, 2008.Most of this work dates from the early 2000s and was not necessarily very visible, given the status of young researchers or doctoral students, or even students, who turned their summer jobs into a field of participant observation and collected information showing, even if the confidentiality of these practices was fiercely defended, that braking, loitering, stealing and even sabotage was still practiced.

[10] – Hatzfeld, Nicolas, Les gens d’usine. 50 ans d’histoire à Peugeot-Sochaux, 2001, see also Durand, Jean-Pierre and Hatzfeld Nicolas, La Chaîne et le Réseau, Peugeot-Sochaux, ambiances d’intérieur, éditions Page 2, Lausanne, 2002.

[11] – Durand, Jean-Pierre, La Chaîne invisible. Travailleur aujourd’hui: flux tendu et servitude volontaire, Paris, 2004.

[12] – Linhart, Danièle, Travailler sans les autres, Paris, 2009.

[13] – Beaud, Stéphane and Pialoux, Michel, Retour sur la condition ouvrière, Enquête aux usines Peugeot de Sochaux-Montbéliard, Paris, 1999.

[14] – Bouquin, Stephen, La Valse des écrous. Labour, Capital and Collective Action in the Automobile Industry, Syllepse, 2006. See in particular chapters 1 (L’Archipel perdu, pp. 21-34) and 2 (De la voie unique à la diversité des modèles? , pp. 34-46).

[15] – Smith, Tony, Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production: A Marxian Critique of the ‘New Economy’, New York, SUNT, 2000; Bouquin, Stephen, 2006, op.cit; Bouquin S. e.a., Temps durs et dur travail. Un retour critique sur les modèles productifs à l’ère néo-libérale », in Jacquot Lionel, Higelé, Jean-Paul, Lhotel Hervé, Nosbonne, Christophe, Formes et structures du salariat : crise, mutation, devenir, 2011, pp. 110-123.

[16] – Examples can be found in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in the automobile sector. See Muller Séverin, ‘Modes de production du médicament générique et conditions d’emplois’, La nouvelle revue du travail [Online], 12 | 2018, online 01 May 2018, accessed 31 October 2019. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/nrt/3501; DOI: 10.4000/nrt.3501 See also, for the automotive sector, Bouquin S., La valse des écrous. Travail, capital et action collective dans le secteur automobile, Syllepse, 2006.

[17] – Bouquin S. (2006), ‘Visibilité et invisibilité des luttes sociales: question de quantité, de qualité ou de perspective?’, in Cours-Salies P., Lojkine J.,Vakaloulis M. (2006), Nouvelles Luttes de Classe, Actuel Marx, PUF, 2006, pp. 103-112.

[18] – Following the approach of James C. Scott, then still little known in France, who highlight the existence of a hidden narrative that is only expressed behind the back of power. See Scott, James C., Domination and the Arts of Resistance. The Hidden Transcript, 1990.

[19] – Baudelot, Christian and Gollac, Michel, Travailleur pour être heureux, Seuil, Paris, 2003. See in particular pp. 277-297.

[20] – Passeron, Jean-Claude, Le Raisonnement sociologique. L’espace de raisonnement naturel non popperien, Paris, Nathan, 1991.

[21] – Bouquin, Stephen, ‘Les résistances au travail entre domination et consentement’, in Bouquin, Stephen op.cit. 2008, p. 44; see also Bouquin, S., ‘Les résistances au travail. Il est temps de sortir de l’imprécision’, in Caldéron, José-Angel and Cohen, Valérie (eds.), Qu’est-ce que résister? Usages et enjeux d’une catégorie d’analyse sociologique, 2014, p. 111-123.

[22] – See in particular Flocco, Gaëtan, Les cadres, des dominants très dominés. Pourquoi les cadres acceptent leur servitude, Raisons d’agir, 2015.

[23] – Spitaels, Guy, Les conflits sociaux en Europe: grèves sauvages, contestations et rajeunissement des structures, Marabout, 1971. For a review, see Bachy Jean-Paul, Guy Spitaels, Les conflits sociaux en Europe, Marabout Service collection, 1971. In: Sociologie du travail, 14ᵉ année n°4, Octobre- décembre 1972. pp. 476-478.

[24] – Farcy Isabelle, Ajustement et oppositions masquées par mes intérimaires, in Bouquin S., op.cit.,  (2008), pp. 157-178; Letexier Jean-Yves, Autonomie et resistances chez les intérimaires, Mémoire Master, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 2012.

[25] – Clot, Yves, Travail et pouvoir d’agir, Presses Universitaires de France, 2014.

[26] – Burawoy, Michael, Produire le consentement. [édit orig. Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism, 1979], Les Prairies ordinaires, 2015, 303p.

[27] – Fournier Pierre (1996), ‘Deux regards sur le travail ouvrier’. In: Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. Vol. 115, décembre 1996. Les nouvelles formes de domination dans le travail (2), pp. 80-93. https://doi.org/10.3406/arss.1996.3206 ; www.persee.fr/doc/arss_0335-5322_1996_num_115_1_3206

[28] – Thompson Paul (1983), The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process, 1983; in French, one can consult Desmarez Pierre, (1986), La sociologie industrielle au Etats-Unis.

[29] – see Reynaud Jean Daniel (1997), Les règles du jeu. L’action collective et la régulation sociale, Paris, A Colin, coll. « U », 1989, 314 p ; Reynaud Jean Daniel (1995), Le conflit, la négociation et la règle, Toulouse, Octarès, « Travail »,268 p.

This ‘joint regulation’ also has its roots in certain trade union traditions, inspired by the doctrine of ‘workers control’ (a counter-power with a right of veto) and a desire to make trade union incursions into management criteria and investment choices. A counter-project trade unionism that can sometimes go as far as co-management while still having social reserves for mobilisation. The fragmentation of the ‘collective worker’ is therefore not the only trend, even if it may seem to predominate in France. For my part, I would explain the weakness of a structured opposition between labour and capital by the fragmentation of the trade union field, their weak collective bargaining power and a relationship to the state on the other hand which translates itself in a tendency to transform any conflict into a legal case before courts.

[30] – Whitson, Kevin, ‘Workers Resistance and Taylorism in Britain’ in International Review of Social History, Amsterdam, 1986.  See also Ackroyd, Stephen and Thompson, Paul, Organisational Misbehaviour, 1999; Ackroyd Stephen and Thomspon Paul (2016), Unruly Subjects: misbehaviour in the workplace, in The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment, édité par Stephen Edgell, Heidi Gottfried et Edward Granter (2016), Londres : Sage Publications.

[31] – Thompson Paul, ‘Dissent at Work and the Resistance Debate: Departures, Directions and Dead-Ends’, mimeo ; Thompson Paul, ‘Dissent and Resistance in the Workplace in the Context of Neo-Liberalism’, McMaster University 3rd October 2014  

[32] – Bachet, Daniel, “Résistance, autonomie et implication des salariés. Quelle sociologie pour le travail”, in

Les Mondes du Travail n°12, November 2012, pp. 139-148.

[33] – Robert Kosmann, Sorti d’usine. La perruque, un travail détourné, Paris, 2018; For a different approach considering ‘wigging’ as a possible source of extra-income, see Étienne de Banville, L’Usine en douce: le travail en « perruque », Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001.

[34] – Kosmann, Robert, Sorti d’usine, op.cit., p. 23.

[35] – Bellanger, Jacques and Thuderoz, Christian, « Le répertoire de l’opposition au travail », in Revue Française de Sociologie, 51 (3), July-Sept. 2010, pp. 427-460.

[36] – Burawoy, Michael, The Politics of Production, Factory Regimes under Capitalism and Socialism, Verso, 1985.

[37]–  Thompson, Edward P., The Making of the English Working Class London, 1963; see also Thompson, Edward P. (1991). Customs in Common. New York: New Press.

[38] – Moore, Barrington, Injustice. The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt, London, Palgrave, 1978, 540 pp.

[39] – Tilly, Charles and Tilly, Chris, Work Under Capitalism, London-NY, 1998, 336p.

[40] – John Kelly (1998), Rethinking industrial relations, Routlegde.

[41] – Clot, Yves, Le Travail sans l’homme? Pour une psychologie des milieux de travail et de vie, Paris, 1995.

[42] – Braverman, Harry, Labor and Monopoly Capital. The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, NY, 1974.

[43] – Watt, Andrew and Leschke Jane, Report on job quality in Europe, ETUI, 2015 (2012)

[44] – Castel Robert (1995), Les métamorphoses de la question sociale : une chronique du salariat, Fayard, Paris, 478 p.

[45] – Bellal, Selma and Bouquin, Stephen, ‘Towards a redefinition of collective rights embodied in work and its status: employment and social rights under the test of the active social state’, in Année Sociale 2000, ULB – Institut de sociologie, pp. 264-284.

[46] – Jessop, Bob, “Post-Fordism and the State”. In Greve, Brent (ed.), Comparative Welfare Systems, Basingstoke, 1996.

[47] – Dardot, Pierre and Christian Laval, La Nouvelle Raison du monde. Essai sur la société néolibérale, Paris, 2010, 498 p. published in English under the title ‘The New Way of the World. On Neoliberal Society’, Verso Books, 2014.

[48] – All the statistical data here are taken from the “Working Conditions” surveys conducted at regular intervals by DARES and the Ministry of Labour since 1978. Some questions were introduced later, hence the different dates in the comparisons presented. Data available online https://dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr/dares-etudes-et-statistiques/statistiques-de-a-a-z/article/les-contraintes- physical-and-intensity-of-work

[49]https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1634en.pdf

[50] – Flexibility is not necessarily the same everywhere, as in Belgium 30% report having worked more than 10 hours, while in Germany this number drops to 22%.

[51] – Gallie, Duncan, Employment Regimes and the Quality of Work, Oxford University Press, 2009, 277 p.; Turner, Lowel, Wever, Kirsten S. and Fichter, Michael, “Perils of the high and low roads: Employment relations in the United States and Germany”, In K. S. Wever (Ed.), Labor, business, and change in Germany and the United States pp., 123-155; Holthgrewe, Ursula, Kirov, Vassil, Ramioul, Monique, Hard Work in New jobs, The Quality of Work and Life in European Growth Sectors, 2015, 305p; see also Duncan Gallie Skills, “Job Control and the Quality of Work: the Evidence from Britain’, The Economic and Social Review, 2012, 43, 3: 325-341; Gallie, Duncan, Felstead Alan and Green Francis, ‘Job preferences and the intrinsic quality of work: the changing attitudes of British employees 1992-2006’, Work Employment and Society, 2012, 26, 5: 806-821..

[52] – Poggi, Ambra and Villosio, Claudia, “Subjective well-being at the workplace”, in Holthgrew, Ursula, Kirov, Vassil, Ramioul, Monique, Hard Work in New Jobs. The Quality of Work and Life in European Growth Sectors, 2015, pp. 70-83.

[53] -With the exception of Italy, burnout is hardly recognised as an occupational disease in any EU country. In France, its recognition was rejected during parliamentary debates on the Labour Law. In Sweden, the ‘fatigue syndrome’ has been recognised as a pathology belonging to ‘stress related adaptation disorders’ in response to severe stress situations.

[54] – This is also confirmed by a YouGov survey in the UK, which found that half of respondents said they were suffering or had suffered from burnout or anxiety related to working conditions. With the exception of older workers, all occupational categories were more or less equally affected.

[55] – Loriol, Marc, « Reconnaitre le burn out. Une fausse bonne idée? », in La Revue Parlementaire, February 2018.

[56] – Loriol, Marc, « Comprendre les risques psychosociaux complexes, multiformes et multifactoriels », in

Psychiatric Care, Vol 39 – No 318, p. 20-23 – September 2018.

[57] – It should be noted in passing that their definition of burn-out is restrictive, limiting it to symptoms once the pathology has occurred. See Rose, U., Müller, G., Burr, H., Schulz, A. and Freude, G. (2016), Arbeit und Mentale Gesundheit. Ergebnisse aus einer Repräsentativitätserhebung der Erwerbstätigen in Deutschland, Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (BAuA), Dortmund, Berlin and Dresden. For a European overview, see Eurofound (2018), Burnout in the workplace: A review of data and policy responses in the EU, 57p.

[58]https://www.additra.fr/crbst_6.html . About the congress, see https://congresadditra.fr/; see also Crespin, Renaud, Lhuillier, Dominique, Lutz, Gladys, Se doper pour travailler, Eres, 352 p., 2017.

[59] – Mercure, Daniel (2017), “ Capitalisme contemporain et Régimes de Mobilisation Subjective au Travail”, in Mercure, Daniel and Bourdages-Sylvain Marie-Pierre (eds.), Travail et subjectivité. Perspectives Critiques, 2017, p. 53

[60] – Mercure, Daniel (2017), op. cit. p. 55-57.

[61] – Baudelot, Christian, Gollac, Michel (2003), Travailler pour être heureux, Fayard, Paris.

[62] – see Jaffe Sarah (2021), ‘Work won’t love you back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone’, New York, Bolt press.

[63] – Employee satisfaction and engagement. Revitalizing a changing workforce, Society for Human Resources Management, see https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and- surveys/Documents/2016-Employee-Job-Satisfaction-and-Engagement-Report.pdf

[64] – Jobs, Steve. 2005. ‘You’ve Got to Find What You Love, Jobs Says.’ Stanford News, June 14. http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/.

[65] – Weeks, Kathi, ‘Down with Love: Feminist Critique and the New Ideologies of Work’ in Women Studies Quarterly: Precarious Work, vol. 45, no. 3&4, Fall-Winter 2017.

[66] – Berlant, Lauren. 2011. Cruel Optimism, Duke University Press, 2011.

[67] – Cingolani, Patrick, Révolutions précaires: essai sur l’avenir de l’émancipation, Paris, La Découverte, 2014; Vakaloulis, Michel, Précaires, pas démotivés. les jeunes, le travail l’engagement, Paris, 2013, Bouquin, Stephen, op. cit, 2008. See also Cingolani, Patrick, ‘Travail précaire, précaires et résistances’, in Caldéron José-Angel and Cohen, Valérie, Qu’est ce que résister? Usages et enjeux d’une catégorie d’analyse sociologique, Lille, Septentrion, 2014, 27-38.

[68] – Cingolani, Patrick, 2014, op. cit.

[69] – Moulin, André, Social commitment in the economic field with regard to personal ethics: Diversity of expressed perceptions and social conduct of employees: a question of convictions and passions? Ph.D, University of Evry-Val d’Essonne Paris Saclay, under supervision of S. Bouquin, 2017.

[70] – Avril, Christelle, Les aides à domicile. Un autre monde populaire, Paris, La Dispute, coll. “Corps, santé, société”, 2014.

[71] – Petit, Sébastien, ‘Recomposition de la division du travail de conception : le travail en bureau d’études dans un cadre gestionnaires’, in Les Mondes du Travail n°11, nouvelle série, February 2012, pp. 13-26.

[72] – Reyssat, François, Dominations et résistances au travail. Investigation into the bodily experience of cleaning workers. Thesis directed by Numa Murard, defended at the University of Paris-Diderot Sorbonne (December 2015)

[73] – Bouquin, Stephen, Le Travail réel et ses ambivalences en temps de crise. Enquête dans le secteur des services, mimeo, 2019, 45p.

[74] – Leduc, Sacha, « Les résistances à la modernisation des techniciennes de l’Assurance maladie. Quand le contrôle des populations devient enjeu d’affirmation professionnelle », in Durand J-P., Dressen M. (coord.), Violence et Travail, Toulouse, Octarès, 2011; Leduc, Sacha, Le Respect de l’égalité et de la légalité. Les résistances à la modernisation, GTM, CPAM 58, mimeo, 2007.

[75]– Bouquin, Stephen, « La révolte en gilet jaunes ou Le retour en force de la question sociale », in Les Mondes du Travail n°22, winter-spring 2019, pp. 121-132.

[76] – As is put forward by Durand Jean-Pierre (2019), ‘Creating the New Worker: Work, Consumption and Subordination’, Palgrave London, original French publication in 2017.

[77]– Le Lann, Yann, « Ce sont les classes populaires, employés et ouvriers, qui sont sur les barrages », in Le Monde, published on the 24th of December 2018.

 

Les résistances au travail en temps de crise et d’hégémonie managériale

Si la question du rapport au travail est restée présente dans les débats du champ académique, c’est beaucoup moins le cas pour celle des résistances au travail. Omniprésente lorsque les modèles productifs et les régimes de main-d’oeuvre étaient dominés par le paradigme taylorien et fordien, la question s’est évanouie, du moins en France, à partir des années 1990 et ce, jusqu’il y a peu. Les résistances au travail avaient cédé le pas à la domination, le consentement et la servitude. A contre-courant d’une lecture déterministe et unilatérale, l’auteur défend une orientation reconnaissant l’existence de conduites informelles, non seulement d’ajustement ou de type ludique, mais aussi la persistance de conduites d’opposition, que ce soit le freinage, les larcins, la perruque, voire des formes clandestines de sabotage. (…)

Chapitre publié dans Daniel Mercure (coord.), Les transformations contemporaines du rapport au travail (2020), Presses de l’Université de Laval, p.177-198.

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Raisons d’agir (ou pas)

Depuis début janvier, 2020, en l’absence de cours et avec peu de partiels, j’entame une « immersion » dans les mobilisations. Parfois en visitant des assemblées générales, des piquets ou encore en participant à des manifestations, à Paris et en province (Amiens, Montpellier). L’objectif est d’écouter, de participer à des discussions et prendre la « température ». Pour bien faire, il faut surtout savoir perdre son temps… Ce n’est pas totalement de l’observation participante, même si il y a des analogies. Dans le jargon militant, ce type de pratique existent et s’appelle faire un « travail de bouton de veste ». Certains le font en parlant beaucoup trop, à l’instar des Témoins de Jéhova. D’autres le font en sachant tendre l’oreille, en glissant ici et là une idée pour susciter la discussion, pour ensuite savoir convaincre et gagner l’adhésion évidemment. Pour ma part, j’ai opté pour une formule de type « reportage », proche d’un journalisme attentif à tous les détails, tout en essayant de comprendre le sens des mots utilisés par mes interlocuteurs.

extrait de Bouquin S. (2020), « Raisons d’agir (ou pas) ? », in Les Mondes du Travail, Hors-série mobilisations et grèves, mars 2020, (pp. 75-86).

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La Commune du Rojava

Bouquin S., Court M., De Hond C. (coord.) (2017), La Commune du Rojava. L’alternative kurde à l’État-nation, Paris, Éditions Syllepse (Paris), 274 p.

À l’été 2014, alors que les pays de la région, l’ONU et l’OTAN assistent impuissants à l’avancée des jihadistes, le monde découvre les combattant·es kurdes qui ont fait reculer Daesh à Kobané, cette petite ville devenue symbole. Le sacrifice de ces jeunes femmes et de ces jeunes hommes était bien sûr motivé par la nécessaire résistance à la barbarie de l’État islamique, qui s’est déchaînée contre les  Yézidis de la région de Sinjar. Mais cette détermination s’appuyait sur autre chose : la conviction qu’une société libre démocratique et égalitaire pour toutes et tous est possible, au Rojava mais aussi en Turquie. Autrefois imprégné par le marxisme-léninisme, le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) a dressé un bilan sévère des régimes bureaucratiques et autoritaires d’Europe de l’Est. Il a également pris ses distances par rapport au nationalisme et a questionné la pertinence de revendiquer un État-nation kurde. Emprisonné depuis 2000 et influencé par le libertaire écologiste américain Murray Bookchin, le fondateur du PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, a appelé à l’élaboration d’un nouveau paradigme qui confère à la démocratie directe un rôle pivot de la transformation sociale. En pleine guerre nourrie par des conflits intercommunautaires et des conflits d’intérêts géopolitiques, l’égalité entre les sexes, l’inclusion des minorités et la démocratie de conseils (quartier/village/canton) donnent corps à une révolution. Dans une région dominée par les tribus et les clans, s’est développée au Rojava une pratique d’inclusion et de représentation sur un pied d’égalité de toutes les minorités ethniques ou religieuses. Dans un contexte régional où les femmes sont au mieux privées de toute autonomie, le Rojava a inscrit l’égalité totale entre les genres dans sa charte, tandis qu’en Turquie, le Parti démocratique des peuples (HDP) instaurait le principe d’une double représentation femme-homme dans toutes les fonctions de responsabilité et envoyait au parlement des élu·es gays-lesbiennes, des Arméniens et des Assyriens. On dit de la poudrière du Moyen-Orient qu’une nouvelle guerre mondiale peut s’y déclencher. Mais on y voit naître aussi des idées et des pratiques qui montrent qu’un autre monde est possible.

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Temps durs et dur labeur. Un retour critique des modèles productifs de l’ère néolibérale

Bouquin S., Stewart P (2011), « Temps durs et dur labeur. Un retour critique des modèles productifs de l’ère néolibérale », in Jacquot L., Higele J-P., Lhotel H., Nosbonne C.(coord.), 2011, Formes et structures du salariat (Tome 1 : De la construction sociale du rapport salarial), Nancy, PUN, coll. « Salariat et transformations sociales »., pp. 198-210.

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