Inroduction
If industrial technology made the eight-hour day standard possible at the turn of this century, why can it not, after a century of productivity increases, make possible a six-hour day at the brink of the next one? This is a simple statement of some complicated economic issues, but at the heart of the matter -- who gets the product of surplus labor and who determines the quantity of surplus labor performed -- is a question that was established by Marx one and a half centuries ago. Through organizations, workers have developed a variety of ways to maintain and recover some control over the value of their surplus labor. These include wage-increases, improvements in working conditions, price-freezes to reverse or stem inflation, establishment of retirement and medical insurance benefits, and political establishment of income-transfers such as social programs funded by progressive and business taxes. All of these, however have proved vulnerable and reversable positions in the fight for a greater stake in labor surplus. Current political trends are a strong case in point. Welfare and other social programs are being dismantled and are further threatened by representatives now in the US federal government, as well as in France, and probably in other European nations. All labor struggles since early in this century have operated from a basic ground-floor that has gone largely unchallenged: the eight-hour work day. After nearly a century in which this has been the standard on which subsistance wages are settled by profiteering corporations, it is time to adjust the trim in the capitalist profit-margins vs. social welfare machine, and give to workers a larger portion of the pie they bake.
I think this is feasible if pursued on an industry-by-industry basis. I don't rule out cross-industry movements, but with increasing corporate globalization it is crucial to master the labor market for an entire industry, and to master it globally. Part of the problem with gains through labor organization is that, by making labor more expensive locally, they eventually chase jobs and capital to foreign labor markets. Only by leaving capital no place to go can labor finally gain consistent and decent share of the wealth it creates.
Clerical Workers
I began this project expecting to develop the ideology of short-time as an approach to international labor organization on an industrial basis. From there, I would move on to 'the meat' of the project: workers in the big industries, such as auto, steel, electrical, and other manufacturing industries. While I think these are important, I've become intrigued by the potential for information and networking technologies to transform or at least expedite the process of labor organizing. The initial stages of my narrative therefore take place among clerical workers.
The kind of organizing I describe -- an entire industry organized by email -- is certainly very limited in application today. Auto-workers are not going to be widely using email any time in the next year, and nor are McDonald's clerks. But I think this technology is worth thinking about now, since resources like email may soon be widely available even to the very poor. WebTV is already on the market for Christmas shoppers this year, and at accessible prices.
I see communication technology playing a major role in organizing the unorganized. The world wide web makes information available. Email puts people in contact with one another, and erases the boundaries of time and space: Honda can no longer avoid organization by removing its factories to isolated areas. No matter where they are, people become reliably accessible to their organizations. When manufacturing moves from Los Angeles to Singapore, labor organization can follow it with little cost (even if Singapore does try to censor its internet.
Contents
Beginning: The Clerical Workers' Strike
Labor Links -- links to labor sites on the web