Diagnosing the Problem of Exploitative Work
Of the many important lessons in his work, Marshall Ganz reminds us that the essence of strategic capacity is information, social knowledge and getting the target right.
So here's my question for Thomas Frank:
Forty-three million low wage workers in the United States and 25% of the workforce at poverty level: how do we diagnose the problem of exploitative work?
If we believe it is an immigration policy or labor supply issue, then we assume that fewer low wage immigrant workers will lead to higher wages and better working conditions for those who are already here. But in the real world, there's not much evidence that this will be the case.
If we believe it is a labor market policy problem, then the prevalence of subcontracting and independent contracting, lack of regulation requiring firms to provide decent work, living wages and health benefits, little monitoring of working conditions and wage payment in many industries and lack of unions are the real problems and regulation or re-governing the market is the real solution.
How do we do it?
New Institutions: Worker centers, new union forms, new and improved government agencies and bureaus, restoration of the right to organize through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act
New Partnerships: between worker centers and unions, between worker centers, unions and government
New Ideas for Labor Standards Enforcement:
· Industry ju jitsu/sectoral strategies that are designed with particular industry dynamics and industry-specific regulations in mind · Moving from solely reactive, complaint-based strategies to proactive targeting of problem industries · Cracking down on misclassification and subcontracting · Raising fines and penalties substantially and litigating cases rather than settling · More cops on the beat through union and worker center participation with government in monitoring of low wage industries The scholarly evidence is clear--the American state cannot stop immigration of low wage workers seeking better lives: workers will get in and flows will vary with market conditions.
I don’t think the answer is necessarily the creation of new institutions so much as the restoration of institutions that have proven reliably to work both here, in the past, and with other countries, in the present; namely collective bargaining and representation through improved access to unions, and government that is pro-worker and not wholly pro-industry.
If we need anything new, it is comprehensive government management of industry—not directly, but through guidance and incentives—that involves taking a long-term look the competitive future of this country and formulating plans to ensure coordination between the needs of industry and our workforce.
June 4, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Janice,
Although salient information is one element of strategic capacity, its effect is in concert with deep motivation and ongoing learning.
In other words, unless there are some people somewhere who's mission has become responding to the problem and they have created a venue in which ongoing learning from experience is happening, it won't add up. The policy ideas you propose are good ones, but where is authoritative leadership team, committed to solving this problem, and who are learning continuously from their experience struggling to solve it. The book is about how leaders can devise effective strategy, but where is the leadership who have taken on this calling?
June 4, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Marshall,
Let me answer your comments in two ways. First on the substance of what you say, this is hardly a program without a movement behind it. In the past few years, hundreds of thousands of low wage workers have taken to the streets for immigration reform and in opposition to flawed proposals. The backbone of many of the immigrant rights marches has been not only unions like the SEIU and the HERE but also the more than 170 worker centers across the United States who have been on the frontlines in the battle to uphold labor standards at the local level. With President Obama proposing a major White House forum on immigration, we can anticipate that leadership to be on strong display.
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Second, what I found most surprising is that you did not take on Thomas Frank’s equation of low wage immigrant workers with Goliath which is what my comments were intended to do. Thomas Frank wrote: “Is Goliath the employers of the service sector and companies like Wal-Mart? Or, from the perspective of a U.S. worker, is Goliath also the hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from around the world who arrive in the United States each year--both legally and illegally--in search of a limited supply of jobs?”
To equate the impact of low wage immigrant workers on workers here with the impact of multinational corporations like Walmart, which has made exploitation the cornerstone of their business model, is something that needed to be addressed. What is your view—who is Goliath?
June 5, 2009 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink