We want to suggest some points of reflection about the new market of work in order to invite all the antagonist realities and the self-organised trade unions to meet and confront themselves. We think that comparing contents could be the way of building a national point of reference which goes beyond the G8.
Nowadays we see a progressive reduction of the concentration of production, a general business down-sizing at every level, the falling into pieces of the idea of class identity. This puts us in front of new problems for the adjustment of our politics and for the determination of new ways of fighting.
Here we make the point about what we think to be our common thought:
The stronger the markets and changes are (see Euro) the faster this trend. The result of international concurrence will necessarily touch the wages which are the only "variable" element which makes the difference in the prices of products and as a consequence it will violate the social warranties that were achieved by proletarian fights.
As the interest is the lowering of prices, institutions and laws have been created in order to help the flexibility and precariousness of jobs like forced part-time, time-limited contracts, and agencies of temporary jobs.
In Milan 70% of new labour contracts are "flexible".
These jobs destroy the possibility for workers of identifying themselves in a class and show their power to fight for their rights.
The new trend of global economy is to place the capital where it's more convenient, where the working force is cheaper and has less rules.
For example an enterprise could have its legal head in a "tax-paradise", its production force in Asia or in the east of Europe, and the commercial management where means of communication are modern.
Everything is optimised for the maximum level of profit for the multinationals.
By "externalisation" we refer to an aspect of the speeding up process which sees the companies assigning the production process to smaller firms which often utilise black job and workers'exploitation.
The meaning of this process is easy to understand: it permits to lower the number of stable workers, to increase the flexibility of the production with no additional costs, to lower the prices of the products to the detriment of the workers' wages. Some examples can be found in the field of fashion, very cheap to produce and very expansive on the market, in the field of building companies, and so on.
THE "JUST IN TIME" MODEL OF PRODUCTIONThis model of production refers to the production on demand. The company produces only what is requested by the market, working 24 hours a day, using external workers, and avoiding the costs of goods storage for long periods. This philosophy of production defines a new work market related to the absolute need for flexibility concerning working-force and times for work to satisfy the demand.
The statistics show how time of work are changed: there are less people occupied for more effective hours of work.
The overtime work once used in special cases of need has now become normal and the possibility of accepting flexible working times has become a chance more of employment.
Part-time is no longer a choice for the worker for it has become the way for companies to reduce their costs and exploit the working-force.
By individualisation we mean the new trend of making contracts and create individual relationships with the worker, like the american model, thus destroying the workers' solidarity and subordinating the role to the company needs.
The aim is to give more incentives in order to create an assumption of responsibility of the worker in spite of his stability.
Making the worker feel autonomous means to make him responsible of his own exploitation, he is part of the mechanism.
Very few of the enormous profits of the last decade have been used for the creation of new working places.
The social agreement stipulated after the war which was meant to create new positions in front of new wealth acquired thus creating new welfare for everyone, more demand and more jobs, has dissolved.
The profits created by the firms have been invested in the stock market often creating financial cracks.
In front of the new need for flexibility the no-profit market represents a very important factor in the italian economy.
The no-profit organisation is taking the place of a real "social state" intended as social warranties and assistance. It goes towards the privatisation of activities like the care for elderly and disable people, the public system is no longer responsible for these people and gives the responsibility to the privates which have very little social interests.
The wages in this field are very low, there are few warranties for the social workers and lots of the work is done by volunteers.
Moreover all this leads to the demolition of the Social State based on common rights and to the substitution of national work agreements with precarious job opportunities.
The problem is visible for everyone: massive changes have determined the breaking down of economic relationships and of social relationships which has split up the lower classes giving the sign of an individualistic approach to reality.
The answer is to think about our interpretation clues which can give us the chance to renew our fighting skills to face up to the globalisation challenge and its effects also from the point of view of the material needs.
There are no passwords nor shortcuts: the wider the field of contradictions, the stronger must be our capacity to break on different fronts, starting from the centrality of the conflict between capital and work.
The idea is that of the creation of a Social Chamber for Work/non work as a partial tool of fight composition of social and political subjects.
The idea of a place for recomposition to represent a possible field of confrontation towards the overcoming of the fragmentation of the self-organised unions. A confrontation about themes like the housing problem the immigration a point of reference for those victims of the precarious, flexible and autonomous work who do not have any representative.
A Social Chamber of precarious, flexible autonomous work which can be a reference for the rights of the immigrants for the rights of the housing which can be a support to fights on the working place, with real fighting goals.
This can be a premature project but it is important that every association which fights for the rights of workers and migrants understands the meaning and the consequence of its contribution.