All 2 entries tagged Union

Diary of a Permaculturalist 20: Statement of a Problem

Follow-up to Diary of a Permaculturalist 19: Master Gardening on your doorstep from George Ttoouli, Warwick Writing Programme

Solutions or responses welcome.

Current developments in Marxist ecology point to how the capitalist project, with its issue of the metabolic rift, is arriving at a dead end. Naomi Klein's identification of disaster capitalism, in The Shock Doctrine, is one example of how capitalism is reaching its limit in geographical exploitation of resources and now has to manufacture crises in the supply chain of resources to generate market instability and open up new markets.

New markets is a buzzphrase at the high end of free market capitalist systems. New resources, new ecologies; these are overlooked in favour of the global hunt for the most profitable area of exploitation, which can only grow the rift between the human/nature dynamic. Yet ecology's response, as a perspective, is now one that increasingly not only accepts, but asserts, the fact that humanity = nature, is a subset of. So we are only destroying ourselves as part of the planet we are destroying.

Recently, though (OK, about ten minutes ago) I've begun to have doubts about the methodology of Marxist ecologists. The method of capitalist critique is one that I've seen elsewhere, such as in union battles with employers. Searching through law, through social structures, for a valid critical approach to defend workers' rights, union legal teams often have to fall back on an approach that they hope will create valid change, or, more than likely, deter continued detrimental change. So, for example, in recent UK battles, on a local level, unions are attempting to exploit Health & Safety laws as a way to find leverage in increasingly hostile-to-employees Employment Law. Prior to that, in my limited union experience, the struggle centred on cases of unfair dismissal, harrassment and so on, but these laws, as I understand it, have been tightened to protect employers.

So, a model arises in which unions select a cause, one that is effectively within the scope of a 'new market' in terms of being a battleground that hasn't been fought over before. The problem as I see it lies in how the environmental movement, by developing into social ecology, has merely found a new market to exploit in its anti-capitalist battleground.

In other words, from this perspective, the anti-capitalist movement in the form of the ecological movement, is adopting a capitalist model by which to launch its attack on capitalism. This feels as much a psychological conditioning in myself, however: that I am trained to read through capitalist structures, and training further to identify capitalist structures. Yet I can't help feeling, underlying all this, that the futility of the alternative PR project is futile because it isn't drawing on an alternative to capitalism: ancient religious fundaments, or perhaps something so antiquated - barter systems, foraging, similar social structures that are improbable in light of current population scales - that the new approach will defy capitalist structures utterly.

It's easy to think yourself into a bind when you haven't read enough, or the right books. But all this unloading of chest-weights is helpful while you're on the road to change.

George Ttoouli : 08 Feb 2012 14:17 |  Tags: Creative Writing Marxist Ecology Permaculture Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Warwick Anti–Casualisation Campaign

Writing about web page http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=OLJII_9ef5da6e

More info on the WACC here (pronounced: 'whack').

I like the title of this campaign. It makes me think there are a group of bookish, bespectacled hospitallers running around in white robes with red crosses on, trying to heal all the poor Post-Graduate Teaching staff who have been bludgeoned to the ground by evil, contract-wielding Human Resource infidels. (I've been playing Assassin's Creed, in anticipation of AC2's release next week, so that stuff is in my head. No religious significance at all to the analogy.) That's just a fiction in my head, of course and bears no real fact within it, though a creative writer might spot some 'emotional truth'.

The important bit:

Warwick's UCU is undertaking a survey of casual staff across all departments, whether they're unionised or not. It doesn't matter if you aren't a member, the point here is that there are some angels in UCU want to make the situation better for everyone employed by the university on a casual basis - hourly paid, fixed term contract, fixed term attached to project funding, etc. If you're not a permanent member of staff, the outcome of this campaign should benefit you.

They need more information, which is why they're asking you to fill in a survey for them. I just did it, in five minutes - they said it would take ten, so I'm now using the other five to blog about it.

Some background:

At a UCU meeting last academic year, it became clear that Warwick's HR Department don't keep records of all the contracts they issue, by department. They couldn't (or wouldn't?) provide information on how, say, contracts for hourly paid staff in the Sociology Department compared to contracts provided to staff on employed on a similar basis in any other deparment - such as English of Medical Depts.

However, at the meeting, it very quickly became clear that there's a massive disparity in the terms offered to staff in different depatments, not only in this university, but across the country. Also that the University Sector is second only to the Hotels & Catering Sector in employing staff on a casual basis. This used to be a whopping 60% or so, I think, but has come down due to the Harmonisation Campaign, to about 40%, I think, possibly better in other universities.

What this means is nearly half of the 5500 staff employed at Warwick don't have job security, and are potentially exploited in their contracts with absolutely no way of defending themselves legally. I stress potentially - I know I'm paid a third of the salary I should be on, given the teaching load and responsibilities I carry, but other, more reputable (or, less disreputable?) people might be overpaid - who knows? If HR don't keep clear track of the kind of casual contracts they're dishing out, the potential for exploitation is great; and if HR doesn't keep track, it's up to the Union to find out as much as they possibly can and do something about it.

I'm talking from personal experience here. I've been employed on a casual basis for, um... 7 years? Yes, since the 2002-3 Academic Year, first as a part-time tutor, then as an Honorary Teaching Fellow. Not as long as some I know, mind. And I've had it fairly cushy too, in some regards. But it's important to see the scope and scale of inequality across departments, in order to create fair harmonisation rules for casual staff contracts.

So go on, if you haven't already, please do fill in the survey. At the very least, it'll satisfy my curiosity when they publish the analysis.

George Ttoouli : 16 Nov 2009 17:05 |  Tags: Casual Staff Ucu Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem