[WSF-Discuss] Decent Work Analysis - and Beyond

Tue Dec 23 16:04:25 UCT 2008

Hi Peter - good to hear from you and , as always, your provocation to take the debate further. 

I agree that the concept of decent work sounds rather feeble - he is a decent chap, as the English say !! But as with the concept of social movement unionism that you introduced many decades ago it can take on a different and potentially progressive meaning in a different context. 

Let me give three reasons why I feel the need to take it seriously:

Firstly, and put simply, the debate in many countries is about the need to create jobs . In our context where `unemployment' could be as much as 40% there is a temptation to say `any job is better than no job' and for progress to be measured in the number of jobs created . In the case of the bi-annual statistical survey in South Africa a job  means any income generating activity including begging!! The concept of decent work allows us to talk about the quality of jobs - are they temporary or permanent , are workers provided with training , are the jobs save, is the in come regular , does it involve the usual benefits of leave, etc , etc. Ofcourse these are minimal demands but under the whip of hyper competition many of the features of nineteenth century capitalism are re-emerging - longer working hourts, casual work , and homework. 

A second reason is that I have  found that unionists struggling for better jobs in the factory do not dismiss it as a campaigning concept. 

Thirdly it is also increasingly the way in which our department of labour is framing its mandate. I completed a study for our department this year where I was asked to develop a decent work deficit index amongst vulnerable workers which included sweatshops in down-town  Johannesburg, workers in shebeens in Soweto and waste pickers on the streets of Johannesburg. To  conceptualise decent work I used Guy Standings seven indicators of security - labour market security, employment security, job security, work security, skills security, income security and representation security. I then developed a composite index and placed the seven indicators on a range from 9 ( absolute insecurity) to 1 ( absolute security). 

I  was also interested to read of the outcome of the recent Tripartite meeting in September of experts on the measurement of decent work. 

I agree with you Peter that we need to go Beyond Decent Work but it may be worth taking as a point of departure the work already done on it and in particular Guys work in the late nineties and the current attempts by the ILO and its `experts' to define and measure it.

Warm regards 

Eddie 

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Waterman [mailto:p.waterman at inter.nl.net] 
Sent: 23 December 2008 05:22 PM
To: R.Hyman at lse.ac.uk
Cc: Devan Pillay; david.hollis at netzwerkit.de; nigd-list at nigd.org; WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net; jai.sen at cacim.net; duhagon at item.org.uy; bsantos at fe.uc.pt; costello.gls at gmail.com; GuyStanding at standingnet.com; newunionism at gmail.com; ericlee at labourstart.org; ginavargas at telefonica.net.pe; balkanozapatista at gmail.com; Andreas.Bieler at nottingham.ac.uk; aguiton at gmail.com; bfletcher at transafricaforum.org; dave_spooner at wiego.org; d.chavez at mac.com; Dirk.Kloosterboer at vc.fnv.nl; Edward Webster; fdove at tni.org; francoishoutart at yahoo.fr; henning.melber at dhf.uu.se; hilary1 at manc.org; immanuel.wallerstein at yale.edu; jean.pierre.page at gmail.com; johnholloway at prodigy.net.mx; j.wills at qmul.ac.uk; kimscipes at earthlink.com; kjeld at os.org.br; kolyaab at yahoo.co.uk; magnus.wennerhag at soc.lu.se; M.Deangelis at btinternet.com; Mike.Waghorne at world-psi.org; nicola_bullard at yahoo.com; Raphael at democraciaglobal.org; R.P.Munck at liverpool.ac.uk; Sakhela Buhlungu; stellan.vinthagen at globalstudies.gu.se; w.bello at focusweb.org
Subject: Re: Decent Work Analysis - and Beyond

It is something of a relief to me that anyone is taking a critical 
interests in the ITUC/ILO Decent Work campaign. I have been increasingly 
feeling not that I was the little boy who pointed out that the emperor 
was naked but like a crazed seer in an empty desert.

So thanks, Devan for starting this little exchange. And to Richard Hyman 
and Guy Standing for their rapid response.

I fear, however, that - whatever Richard, Guy and myself have so far 
said directly about DW - Devan is faced with thin pickings.

In so far as I am preoccupied with Labour&Globalisation at the Belem WSF 
and also not well qualified for an analysis rather than a condemnation, 
I am hoping Guy's forthcoming book may provide us with the substance 
required. If there is anything in it more directly on DW, I am sure the 
rest of us would appreciate any sneak preview.

One point that has to be borne in mind is the positive response to DW I 
have noted here in Peru, coming also from women's activists in what I 
believe is still the major TU Confederation here, the (ex-?) Communist 
CGTP.

It may well be that this is a matter of such cliches as 'any port in a 
storm', or of 'grasping at straws'. Also, of course, that DW comes with 
not only the heavy endorsement of Brussels (ITUC etc) but with resources 
from Geneva (ILO).

However, this only suggests to me the depths to which ideas have dropped 
within an international movement traditionally marked at least by fierce 
ideological oppositions.

The CGTP, to take one Southern example, is still, I believe, affiliated 
to the WFTU (for which it has long provided a President or other leading 
officer) and still, I believe, talks of a 'mass and class unionism'. 
But, confronted with yet another wave of sackings, and continuing 
government repression of social protest, DW may well seem like its best 
hope.

Which, of course, brings us back to supplementing public criticism - or 
even simple *discussion* - of DW with a more ambitious alternative. I 
have made my suggestion here, but it is obvious to me that any proposal 
coming from someone with better union credentials, but also in good 
standing with social movements, from the South, would be taken more 
seriously than mine.

So, how about it Devan? Even some such slogan as 'Useful Work in a World 
of Social Justice' would take us light-years forward.

Simply as a historical stimulus here, I would like to remind you that 
the whole international dialogue on Social Movement Unionism, or the New 
Social Unionism, would never have taken off from my desk in The Hague, 
or my tiny newsletter, if it hadn't been picked up by Eddy Webster and 
Rob Lambert in South Africa. (Which is not to forget the stimulus from 
the 'Community Unionism' tradition in the US). True, I disagreed with 
how Eddie and Rob understood the notion, but I only spelled out my own 
position later, and anyway, the notion was in the public domain.

Best

Peter

PS. Apologies to Guy and anyone else who got a phishing warning attached 
to my email. Don't know why, but could it have been simply because it 
was sent to multiple addresses?

___________________________
> 
> From: Devan Pillay [mailto:Devan.Pillay at wits.ac.za]
> Sent: Tue 23/12/08 09:00
> To: Peter Waterman; Dave Hollis; nigd-list at nigd.org; WSFDiscuss List; Jai Sen; Jai Sen; Elsa Duhagon; bsantos at fe.uc.pt; costello.gls at gmail.com; GuyStanding at standingnet.com; newunionism at gmail.com; ericlee at labourstart.org; ginavargas at telefonica.net.pe; Andrej Grubacic; Andreas.Bieler at nottingham.ac.uk; aguiton at gmail.com; bfletcher at transafricaforum.org; dave_spooner at wiego.org; d.chavez at mac.com; Dirk.Kloosterboer at vc.fnv.nl; Edward Webster; fdove at tni.org; François Houtart; Henning Melber; hilary1 at manc.org; immanuel.wallerstein at yale.edu; jean.pierre.page at gmail.com; johnholloway at prodigy.net.mx; j.wills at qmul.ac.uk; kimscipes at earthlink.com; kjeld at os.org.br; kolyaab at yahoo.co.uk; magnus.wennerhag at soc.lu.se; M.Deangelis at btinternet.com; Mike.Waghorne at world-psi.org; nicola_bullard at yahoo.com; Raphael at democraciaglobal.org; Hyman,R; R.P.Munck at liverpool.ac.uk; Sakhela Buhlungu; stellan.vinthagen at globalstudies.gu.se; w.bello at focusweb.org
> Subject: Decent Work analysis
> 
> 
> 
> Peter and other colleagues/comrades
> 
> Is there a recent critical analysis of the ILO's Decent Work campaign, apart from the one Peter wrote some time back?  I want something that critically engages with the concept, its definition (especially recent debates within the ILO around this), its political implications (e.g does it enhance or preclude possibilities of broader coalitions between unions and social movts; the formal sector and the informal sector etc).
> 
> best wishes for the festive season (remember its pagan origins and respond appropriately), and a revolutionary new year!
> 
> Devan
> ----------------------------------------------
> Devan Pillay
> Associate Professor
> Department of Sociology
> School of Social Sciences
> University of the Witwatersrand
> Johannesburg, South Africa
> +11 7174425
> 
> 
> 

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