Editorial

Will You Become a Disposable Worker?

Two recent headlines in the corporate press tell the story. In Business Week, the article was headlined “The Disposable Worker.” And in USA Today: “Jobless Citizens Seeking Day Labor – More Look for Work Alongside Migrants.” Taken together, they reveal the situation facing more and more workers: Nobody’s job is safe and no job is permanent. Alongside this it’s clear that the refusal of the majority of the working class to defend the human rights of the most vulnerable, including the immigrant worker, leaves all workers vulnerable.
Business Week paints a picture of companies relying more and more on temporary and contingent workers rather than full-time permanent employees. More businesses are creating “just-in-time labor forces that can be turned on and off like a spigot.” These workers have “no health insurance, no retirement benefits, no sick days, no vacation, no severance, and no access to unemployment insurance,” the magazine notes, adding that “more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk.” The forecast for the next five to 10 years is “more of the same with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions and little job security.”
By one estimate, 26 percent of the workforce in 2005 was made up such “nonstandard workers” as independent contractors, temps, part-timers and freelancers. According to economists, most of the jobs that have been eliminated or shipped overseas so far during the current depression are never coming back.
Meanwhile, says USA Today, in cities like Tucson, Los Angeles, and Arlington, Va., U.S. citizens are lining up on street corners with immigrant workers seeking any kind of day labor just to pay the bills. By one estimate, the proportion of U.S.-born day laborers has at least doubled since 2006. Says one organizer with an immigrant rights group, “These are people who used to have permanent positions.”
Why have we entered the era of the disposable worker? Because computers and robots are replacing labor in the workplace. Now the corporations can do more with fewer workers, and they are eliminating jobs in order to boost profits. These jobs are gone forever, at least under a system based on private property. A new class of structurally permanently unemployed and underemployed is being created. Profit is all the corporations care about. The lives of the workers are meaningless to them. If we want to have a country where our basic needs are met and each of us has the opportunity to contribute to society, then we are going to have to build a new society where the people own the tools of production and what we produce is distributed according to need. The private property of the wealthy few is standing in the way of meeting the needs of the vast majority of the people.
What do we need to win this fight? We have to unite around the needs and demands of the new class of permanently unemployed and underemployed. Their needs can only be met by a cooperative society. By demanding that their needs be met, we guarantee that everyone’s needs will be met. A key component of developing this working class unity is defending the human rights of the immigrant worker. They are part of our class and they are the most vulnerable workers among us. They are the original “disposable workers.” If their rights can be denied, then no one has rights.
The future is up to us. If things continue on their present course, there will only be two groups of workers – disposable workers and the permanently unemployed. We can chart a different course if we unite around the needs of the new class of unemployed. A first step is demanding that the government guarantee that people’s basic needs are met.

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This article originated in the People's Tribune
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