repairing the social contract at work steven p. vallas department of sociology and anthropology...
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Repairing the Social Contract Repairing the Social Contract at Workat Work
Steven P. VallasDepartment of Sociology and
AnthropologyNortheastern University
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An Overview
• Historical Background: The New Deal Social Contract at Work
• Signs of the Contract’s Demise
• The Aftermath:– Decay of Job Ladders
– Rise of Non-Standard Work Arrangements
• Some Solutions– Employee Free Choice Act?
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Historical Background
• Seeds of Personnel Management after WW I • Democratic Party Mobilizes Urban Workers,
1920s• New Deal Legislation: Wagner Act, July 1935 • WW II: Labor militancy during war• Result:
– Growth of Labor Organization and Collective Bargaining;
– Inclusive, Wage-led Economic Growth, 1945-1975
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Demise of the Social Contract
• Decline of Trade Unions: (See Table 1)
• Why? – Globalization
– Technology: Reduction of mass production workforce
– Growth of Labor Force in Service, White Collar Industries
• Partial truths –but some data:
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Trends in Union Membership
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Wage and salary earners in unions in selected countries
Vallas --Repairing the Social Contract-- Open Classroom
•General decline in union membership
•Most pronounced in USA, by far
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Alternative Explanations
• US South Cordoned Off From Labor– Failure of Operation Dixie, 1946-1953
• Unfavorable Legal-Political Environment– Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
– McCarthyism Weakens Labor
• Rise of Employer Hostility, Post-1975
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Consequences?
• Most obvious: Deteriorating Job Rewards– Stagnant Wages, esp. post-1975
– Rising Hours of Employment
– Erosion of Defined Pensions
• Two Points to Stress:– Decay of Internal Labor Markets (Job or
Promotion Ladders)
– Rise of “Non-Standard Work Arrangements”
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Hourly Earnings of Production & Non-Supervisory Workers, 1947-2005
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Decay of Internal Labor Markets
• Previously: Firms “sheltered” workers from the external labor market
• ILMs established systems that governed promotion “from within”
• Provided incentives for acquiring “asset-specific” knowledge; • Helped in motivation, retention of workforce
• Now: An “implosion” of market forces into the firm
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Decay of Internal Labor Markets
• Downsizing, Outsourcing: – Dismantling of ILMs for Many Workers
• A Shift in US Labor Market Structure: For educated and professional workers:
• Attachment to the firm grows weak; attachment to the occupation grows strong
– For less educated workers:• Attachment to firm weakens, with few occupational ties to
replace it
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Results?
• Declining motivation, commitment for important segments of the workforce– 1995 survey by the New York Times:
• 75 percent of respondents felt that “companies were less loyal to their workers than they used to be”;
• Similarly, 64 percent felt that “workers were less loyal to their companies” than previously
– Richard Sennett, others: Loss of meaning in one’s career
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Rise of “Non-Standard” Work Arrangements
• Growth of “contingent” jobs far outstrips growth of the labor force– Temporary agency jobs grew at annual rate of
11% from 1972 to late1990s– Involuntary part-time employment too has grown
rapidly– Especially so in academia (the “last great job in
America”) –see table
• Result: growing sense of job insecurity (see table); erosion of benefits; “precarity”
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Trends in Perceived Job Security, 1977-2002
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Trends in Academic Employment, 1975-2005
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Taking Stock
• US Employment relations system is showing stress and contradiction
• New forms of work organization: Can they suffice?– The Paradox of Team Systems:
• Higher commitment despite deteriorating job rewards and rising income inequality within the firm
– Result: • Growth of Suspicion and Distrust among workers; • Perception of Employer Hypocrisy
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Economic Consequences
• Weakened Employment Relations System– reduces workers’ willingness to share their
knowledge
– undermines firms’ ability to harness tacit skills
• Lost productivity, since innovation depends on much more than R & D spending
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Implications and Solutions
• Keynesian economic policy not enough– The structure of the employment relationship
needs to be addressed
• Ideas?– Revisit debate over economic democracy, e.g.,
extending equity rights to employees
– Institute incomes policy, limiting firm-level inequality (maximum wage!)
– Reform labor law: Employee Free Choice Act
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Employee Free Choice Act
• Three Provisions:– Facilitates union formation, foregoing certification
elections using card check system
– Invoke arbitration where contract negotiation fails
– Put teeth into NLRB efforts to enforce labor law violations (strengthen fines, punitive damages)
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Effects of EFCA?
• Much debated
• One view –It would:– Level the playing field in private sector
– Reinvigorate union formation, especially in service industries
– Raise wages –and likely, productivity
– Reaffirm worker faith in US economic institutions
Vallas --Repairing the Social Contract-- Open Classroom