Dario Di Vico
not one but three. Now scientists are beginning to argue that the working class there is more of a tendency to differentiation and is growing fast. Not enough to be under one shed to have a homogeneous working condition, in fact in many ways the rigid organizational scheme applied to workers in the assembly lines is closer to that of a supermarket cashier or a clerk at the call center than it both with respect to the new manual-cognitive worker figures that technology requires. Changes invest the quality of work but one can see the processes of distinction that will invest in the medium term the remuneration systems, the relationship with the union and in general the identity. Because in the meantime they developed the manual labor segments with characteristics partly in new areas such as logistics (porters) and personal services (carers) and consequently “the working classes are three”, as the sociologist Antonio Schizzerotto .
professional mobility Chance
to redraw a map we should start from the novelty of the technology, the companies implementing lean production techniques and Kaizen to go to those who have adopted the WCM system until the early experiments of Industry 4.0, all require a cognitive workforce very involved in the monitoring process / machine control. In quantitative terms by limiting the observation to the engineering sector (1.5 million people) are estimated at an average 20% of employees have already entered into the new professional dimension, the first working class. “They are figures held in the palm of the hand by employers because, in addition to interact with complex technological systems, have endorsed a concept of responsibility – says Luciano Pero scholar -. When something happens to these workers do not speak with their boss but questioning the system and the solution that comes out goes to school. ” Adds the sociologist Daniele Marini: “When an entrepreneur innovates pushes up all the professionalism of its factory. Change score and codes of conduct, and it potentially creates a chance of job mobility ‘.
skills not fully recognized
the work is free from ideology and win the people with their individual skills. These workers already highly appreciated figures should in the near future be further motivated but frameworks and wages do not reward them. Superminimi, on a personal basis and out of the envelope are not sufficient to reward workers who need constant updating, are an integral part of the change and abroad are paid more. Says the historian Giuseppe Berta firm: “Often more than 300 million machines are controlled by workers who earn just over 1,500 euro, and their participation is not remunerated.” But there is no news of clutches with the union prevails prudent behavior. They know they will have to play their individual chances but they fear opposition and vetoes. Innovation is about a bit ‘all sectors and it is difficult today to describe a comprehensive map but also industries such as steel are not what they used to be. In the past this first working class would be defined as a labor aristocracy, today is struggling to come out as precise identification, proving that this is an ongoing process.
The Fordist related to the time-machine
The second working class is what might be called” Fordist “with a term actually abused. They are the workers in the assembly lines that have changed greatly in recent years but still continue to have rigid organizational constraints and consequently to predetermine the task of the operators. The Fordist workers have an average salary of around 1,350 Euros, represent the heart of trade union participation and as regards the exchange mainly flexibility. Each element of organizational discontinuity is therefore negotiated and monetized. The average age is just under 50 years, and in this category you can incorporate other figures such as truck operators and above, while not linked in line, workers of SMEs. Who often work to a single machine but they have a limited radius of professionalism and reduced training needs. To characterize the type of commitment more than the participation of the stress complex processes overrides the constraint to keep up with the time-machine, accompanied in many cases by the sheer physical effort. Let us not forget that in the face of so many stations that have been automated remain in manufacturing large areas that need human intervention. Or what type of application – I think eyewear – require thorough application by the operator and are not robotizable. It is clear that this kind of working class is more inclined to think in terms of egalitarianism and sees social elevators nearby.
In second place was also the cashier and call center operators
If we turn our attention outside the traditional factory Fordist the other figures we can trace in sectors and modes of organization as large retailers. A large supermarket and it requires a lot of the best known is the cashier, also linked to a sequence of rather rigid operations. The prevalence of women is strong and the element of flexibility is related timetable (part time). We can put in the same category also includes the call center operators? Expert opinions diverge because if it is true that the customer response is still tied to a time-standards and thus to a rigid constraint is still the element of interaction with the people who make the least repetitive task and richer. It is interesting to note, however, as the worker of the assembly line, the cashier and call center operators have between them homogeneity items larger than those that bind the cognitive worker and the Fordist.
On the lowest rung porters and caretakers
it is the third working class, the proletariat of the services that are outside the gates and is expected to grow especially for the weight that takes on the logistics industry. It is clear that this segment relates mainly porters – are estimated at 400,000 – who work in the service of spurious cooperatives, 90% are immigrants (Moroccans, Tunisians, Pakistanis) and are often recruited through an ethnic caporalato filter. Their relationship with the union passes through the national labor contract – anything but contemptible – but is frequently ignored with forms of dumping that depart from the application of a lower classification level (which leads them to take € 1,050 on average ). We’re talking about jobs that also by virtue of the employment zones in which they take place are in fact invisible and in fact there are no works of investigation that should study them. Another segment of work that is part of the services the proletariat consists of the carers (estimate: 200,000), a task that is learned in a week and “is often only provision of physical effort,” according to sociologist Asher Colombo. 80% are foreigners and their Fordism, however, is mitigated by the commitment that requires psychological care of the elderly and the relationship with relatives. What show the three working classes? That the processes of inequality are more extensive than you stories and that is just the beginning.
June 17, 2016 (amendment 18 June 2016 | 09:45)
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