"Flexible" is a polite word for cheap labor, by Polly Toynbee Options

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Free-market buccaneers
by Polly Toynbee
Friday August 19, 2005
The Guardian
See whole column at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Colum...1552342,00.html

The Financial Times castigated the rest of Europe this week for keeping out cheap migrant labour. "Open the doors," it commanded France and Germany. "If companies based in Europe are to compete globally they need flexible access to labour, including migrants."
Flexible is a polite word for low pay. In service industries, this has nothing to do with global competition. Shelves can't be stacked in Singapore nor grannies bathed in Bombay, nor airline food packed anywhere but Heathrow. Cheap service-sector jobs do nothing much for the wider economy: they only provide the better-off with services that are cheaper than the true cost. Eating in a restaurant where kitchen staff can't survive on the pay means the worker half starves or, if they have children, the state picks up our tab in tax-credit subsidies. Low-paid work is the greatest growth sector, but the government should frown on it, not encourage and subsidise it. Meanwhile manufacturing fails for lack of German-style investment in apprenticeships and R&D, which makes Germany Europe's great exporter. You can't export cheap services or thrive on unskilled work.

Gate Gourmet screws down pay in very British style while FTSE company directors pay themselves a very British 16% rise, with a typical CEO on £2.5m. So where is the indignation? Where is the leadership that dares even whisper a question about this growing social dislocation? People are left to presume that there is no alternative to some malign economic force beyond human control. The truth is that penury and greed are political choices, not economic destiny: we can be Nordic, not American, and we can be John Lewis, not Gate Gourmet, employers if we choose.

Whenever you hear a call for labour flexibility you're hearing a call for cheap labour.



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Flexible is a polite word for low pay. | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Flexible is a polite word for low pay. (none / 0)
Agreed emphatically.
And what cheap labour can ultimately boil down to is decreased overall consumption, thus a self-caused economic slowdown.

by DoDo on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 07:37:04 AM EDT


Re: Flexible is a polite word for low pay. (none / 1)
But it leads to increased profits in the short-term, which is the main thing. Your long-term thinking is so 20th century. This is the 21st century. The world is flat now.
by Colman (colmanetg at gmail.com) on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 07:39:27 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Flexible is a polite word for low pay. (none / 0)
Good pick, Colman. I was going to put up a link to this, but you've done better.

You can't export cheap services or thrive on unskilled work.
Or rather, just a handful of people thrive on it.

And this is a whizzbang economy that "creates jobs". Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla often says: Cheap, disposable labor. That's what it's all about.


by afew (afew_at_europe_dot_com) on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 07:44:57 AM EDT

Re: Flexible is a polite word for low pay. (none / 0)
Great catch. It is definitely about greed. If everyone was paid better, more people would be saving and spending more money, bringing in more money for business and the government. Raising everyone up is a win/win...but that's not what the wealthy 1% want...they want more money, more power, and more servants. Glad to hear someone in a well read paper saying something about this, for a change.

Wake up to find out, you are the eyes of the world ~ Robert Hunter by whataboutbob on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 07:50:06 AM EDT

Re: Flexible is a polite word for low pay. (none / 1)
If I remember correctly, the catering company not only wanted to lower wages but also wanted more "part time" workers. That's usually called "swing shift" and has many other names. It's getting more common in the USA because it creates jobs JUST under the limit for health insurance and other benefits. Not to mention the schedules are flexible so that the workers can't (or find it difficult to) get another job, locking them in.

It's a hideous trend that creates enormous turnover and turMOIL.

Pax

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