Forces of Labor

Description

Tech workers in the United States occupy a unique and rapidly changing position in today's labor market. Although often portrayed as enjoying relatively cushy lifestyles, tech workers remain subject to the same market forces which have historically driven wages down, dissolved employee benefits, and crushed otherwise safe careers in many other industries. At the same time, tech work is often complicit in the erosion of these protections by way of "disruption", which reduces once well-protected jobs to more precarious and lower paid positions.

What is the nature of these forces which erode worker rights, and by what means have workers across the globe resisted them? What types of resistance have worked, and which have failed? What types of power do tech workers have today, and how do they realize that power?

In this session, we try to answer these questions by discussing Beverly Silver's 2003 book Forces of Labor, which analyzes a century of labor unrest in the context of global social processes, and builds a framework of worker power which we will apply to tech workers' role in today's society.

Readings

• Forces of Labor, p. 13-16 "Sources of Worker Power"
• Forces of Labor, p. 75-81 "Labor Movements and Product Cycles"
• Forces of Labor, p. 103-113 "A New Product Fix?"

Discussion Questions

1. What are the three major categories of worker power?
2. What are some examples of each category of power that you have today?
3. What are some examples of power which you don't have access to?
4. How has technology historically increased or decreased worker power? Which types?

Additional Resources

• Beverly Silver: Forces of Labour Revisited; "A Great Transformation?" (lecture, January 2017)
• Forces of Labor (Libcom)