A critique of the current state of labor relations of the poor working class in the United States today — and the proposal to eradicate it
By: Michael Fuentes
Tags: Labor, Poverty, Precarious Work, Communism, Inequality

A critique of the current state of labor relations of the poor working class in the United States today — and the proposal to eradicate it Michael Fuentes Dec 26, 2020·15 min read

Food lines in Brooklyn, NY ; Image by Stephanie Keith via Getty Images

In the United States today, the poor working class is among the most marginalized and unequal group in society, manifesting across many different dimensions in the public sphere. Historically, this social class has always been subjected and displaced into oppressed and inferior positions, the effect of which was their fundamental exclusion from various aspects of life. For example, higher standards of living such as lower morbidity/mortality rates, or economic elements such as inexpensive housing and enough savings for financial security. They therefore represent ‘part of the no-part’ of society (social sphere). Overtime, there have been public policies that have attempted to mitigate the predicaments poor working-class people face such as increasing the federal minimum wage, but their effects only marginally improved any positive economic outcomes. It is no wonder then that right-wing populism has become so favorable across the globe after the 2008 recession, as many politicians who run on this anti-government/corporate demagoguery tend to become elected; Trump in 2016. This is the reason there is large public support today for crucial economic reforms, such as universal basic income or universal healthcare, which we see both longstanding and new politicians alike championing from Bernie Sanders to Andrew Yang. These types of politicians are echoing the same struggles and demands of previous predecessors decades ago. However, it is not enough to have politicians give empty promises or lip service, nor will symbolic victories stemming from corporations or the state alleviate socio-economic conditions. Authentic transformative change is needed today not only to buttress and guarantee greater living conditions for those in the poor working class, but to completely erase their position as poor working-class members. This will invariably involve the universal realization of all their material needs-health, shelter, food-without the commodity connation attached to it, achieving real justice and equality since these vital resources become reappropriated back into the commons.

The Labor situation for the poor working class-who represent the bulk of the population-in the United States today is marked by precariousness, volatility, insecurity, heavy exploitation, and a loss of meaning. Their economic reality is represented by hellacious employment that pays unlivable wages or salaries that keep them in a vicious cycle of poverty (or near the contours of such). Not only do these jobs pay the most minimum levels of subsistence, they are supplemented by capriciousness since at a split second they can be stripped away from the worker at the employer’s discretion (via contractual rights). Now what do you suppose happens if one has a family? The conventional instinct is to support the family financially first, which means that for struggling individuals they will invariably take on multiple jobs or turn to crime to support their family, but even this does very little to nothing to alleviate or mitigate their poor living conditions. What’s worse is that the cycle of poverty that poor working-class people find themselves in translates to the absence of any assets being owned, which is a fundamental prerequisite in any capitalist economy to create and grow wealth. Therefore, one survives and dies with nothing to leave behind or be remembered for.

In labor terms, where to begin? Let’s examine the type of economy that the majority of poor working-class people find themselves in. The precarious economy is a systematic approach utilized by neoliberalism to reduce pay and/or provide as little compensation as legally possible, while deepening exploitation and instability of the laborer; The goal being to reduce costs and maximize profits. This in turn leads to the systematic extraction of peak labor value by utilizing every second of the workday at the lowest possible pay provided, in conjunction with eliminating much of the available workforce when their labor is no longer required. Furthermore, the precarious economy thrives by providing sub-employment (those readily available or on call, self-employed gig work, part-time, temporary work) or over-employment, both of which is contingent on market conditions with contracts that are oppressive. Take for instance the zero-hour type; an agreement between an employer and employee whereby the individual works for the company, but that company does not guarantee any minimum number of hours or future work whatsoever. In this situation, working can take on multiple forms: overwork and exhaustion/fatigue, not enough work, or a mixture in between.

What they all share under this precariatization process is no security or benefits pertaining to employment. One can be laid off if the market is not performing well and a firm needs to reduce operational costs. If a firm wants to reward a particular laborer for all the domineering they received, they could be provided with such benefits as: vacation time, paid leave, bonuses, promotion with higher pay, and so on. The irony here is that many of these benefits or perks would not even make a difference for a poor working-class individual because of how desperate they are for money. Holiday pay for instance would not even be used by the worker because they fundamentally cannot afford to so with any savings being relegated to emergencies. Therefore, even the idea of taking a short break from work is inconceivable — nearly 80% of all workers prior to COVID-19 were living paycheck to paycheck but now it’s only been exacerbated. The one and only thing that is ever guaranteed from these jobs is their instability and irregularity. Moreover, what the sub-employment and over-employment indicate is the constant transitioning between jobs for poor people, whereby zero to few skills are ever learned. This fluctuation becomes an incessant and monotonous process, precisely similar to the content of their work… A great one-two punch combo to the exploited laborer.

Let’s look at how firms govern in a precarious economy. One of the faster growing practices by firms is disruption, better known as risk-shifting. This process involves placing all risk and responsibility unto the worker, including the ones that historically belonged to the company. Companies do so in order to effectively withstand unstable conditions within markets, such as periods of low demand. A great example is Amazon; they have a two-tier system of workers consisting of full-time employees and an army-sized labor reserve of part-time employees that Amazon uses when demand is high. What this does is allow Amazon to sustain low labor costs while having the ability to deploy large labor populations when needed. Those in the second tier are forced to have a generous availability, preventing them from acquiring other jobs or enjoying free time. What this means for Amazon and companies alike is a standby reserve labor army characterized by lethargy, forced to carry the inconvenience of inactive time, waiting to be exploited during windows of low or stagnant demand which effectively circumvents entire laws of a capitalist economy. And, as aforementioned, oppressive contracts allow Amazon to lay off employees at will if market oscillations occur. Given all this, why would workers accept these arrangements? Simple, they are in dire need of money to maintain a subsistence living.

Now how does this pertain to poor working-class people? The majority of precarious jobs are within the service sector, which is the biggest sector in the US economy in terms of output and employment. According to data from the World Bank, around 80% of the workforce is within the service sector, and it produces over 80% of GDP- amounting to upwards of $15 trillion dollars. By definition as well, the working class represents all of the low wage/salary jobs within this sector. Occupations within the food industry for instance are heavily occupied by black women, which are among the lowest paying and most abundant types of occupations in the country. These low paying jobs in the service sector tend to be minimum wage or below (about 64%), with nearly half of them being in the food category; exemplifying all the combined effects black women face in that area alone. This is but just one of the burdens placed on minority working class folk. In addition, since one of the main characteristics of the precarious economy is contingency, it is no wonder that millions of workers in the US fit this predicament. According to a 2017 study by the BLS, six million workers are contingent, but we know that number to be drastically higher when you factor in: employment and workforce growth, the 10+ million independent contractors such as Uber drivers, 2+ million on-call workers, and 1+ million short-term provisional workers. This places the number of contingent workers in the United States alone at around 20 million, the majority of which inhabit the service sector.

Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Given all this, it is no wonder why fast-food businesses like McDonald’s or Subway are filled with poor workers, since their imposed contingent state of employment has become standardized by the fast-food industry. This explains why McDonald’s and Subway have some of the largest employment rates in the country. As previously mentioned however, minorities experience the worst effects of this; black women in particular are exposed to the worst living conditions since the effects of their labor relations are combined with the effects of the wage gap and income gap compared to those who work full-time, since a lion’s share of the fast-food jobs they occupy are only part-time. To add on, it is not just the food industry either as other domains that are part of the service sector-like the tech industry-are filled with precarious workforces such as those that work for Microsoft and Google. These firms rely on temporary and contracted (gigs & self-employment) labor for necessary, but non-specialized activities like website monitoring or maintenance. The advantage for these firms is tens of millions of dollars saved on labor costs since most of their workforce is part-time, with a smaller array of full-time permanent staff — effectively functioning as a self-sufficient economy of scale.

As previously stated, one of the primary way’s laborers are forced into unfair working conditions is their socio-economic circumstances, simply because they cannot afford to not work. This can stem from a multitude of factors such as rent payments or childcare. Albeit, there is another, more insidious and effective way to impose these conditions which is exerted by the capitalist class (ruling class): the presence of a large reserve surplus labor army. This unemployed labor army functions as a deterrent to those who are employed to avoid becoming complacent or disaffected by their working conditions and content of their work (tasks & responsibilities). The effect on the employed worker is self-imposed discipline and over-exploitation so as to avoid becoming part of the unemployed branch, further adding to internal competition and antagonisms within the working classes as opposed to the ruling class responsible for their awful labor conditions. Moreover, the extreme pressure from the unemployed branch manifests itself by forcing those who are offered jobs to accept them, discounting any suitable occupational conditions that might have been otherwise possible, such as security or benefits. Additionally, the reserve labor army incessantly reminds workers that their state of employment is fully dependent on their unremitting productivity, i.e., one must always demonstrate their usefulness and value they provide to the company to justify their wage-labor, or else they will be fired and replaced by someone else who’s willing to be exploited even greater. A reoccurring cycle is created since the exploited worker wanting to keep their job directly contributes to the growth of the labor reserve army, which then reinforces the extreme pressure on the former to work harder since it is the most secure method of protecting employment, thereby reproducing and preserving the disgusting labor-capital relations that exist today.

It is important to mention one other element that strengthens the self-discipline/exploitation of the laborer, which is technology. Advancements or creations in the field of surveillance have allowed firms the heightened control over their employees-regardless of their location-since the constant fear of monitoring forces the employee to overwork and take no short breaks. Without all the various aforementioned mechanisms that enable full oversight by the ruling class over labor relations, then their influence, power and wealth could not be reproduced or maintained. There are multiple consequences as a result of these domineering apparatus of power on labor. On the one hand, the continuous growth of productivity in the economy becomes substantially derived from the poor working class while deepening income and wealth inequality due to greater consolidation. Wages also become stagnant or sticky along with periods of real decline in those wages, which has been the predominant trend under neoliberalism for the pasty 45 years. Additionally, their proportion of shared income, i.e., earnings derived from the nations GDP, decreases. Moreover, all potential and actual responsibilities and risks becomes shifted to the worker so that when economic recessions or collapses occur due to business-cycle failures, the poor working class takes on most of the burden.

Let’s transition to the content within the various occupations occupied by the poor working class. The three most popular occupations in the United States-all in the service sector- are retail sales workers with over 4.5 million workers, cashiers with over 3.3 million, and office clerks with over 2.7 million. These occupations are the epitome of jobs that utilize no skills, nor do they provide or develop any new or existing skills one may have. These are the type of jobs that become repetitive, monotonous activities that instill boredom and drain all the vigor out of laborers. Of course, the obvious push back or defense to these criticisms are that they are beginner/entry-level positions meant to teach responsibility and discipline to newcomers in the workforce, with the added perk of financial compensation. The most obvious problem with this argument is that all age groups-young, middle, old-occupy these jobs, not solely the youth. This is not primarily due to educational attainment either, as many of those in the elderly workforce are college educated. The same goes for young ‘professionals’ in desk jobs who recently graduate college yet many become stuck with these occupations, purposefully low paying and deadening. What these occupations exemplify is a state of under-employment where the laborer is not properly utilized or valued, and they essentially become-as over repeated as it is-cogs in a machine. Some of the ramifications that are not immediate and develop overtime in the laborer is an overarching loss of motivation and creativity which precludes any sense of meaning one could have acquired otherwise, along with becoming disaffected towards a job they have grown to hate — echoing Marx’s alienation of labor sentiments. What’s more is that the tasks/routines one carries out every day begins to drain all of one ‘s energy even if they are not physically taxing, conjugated by the inactivity of any parts of the brain not relegated to autonomous function (staying awake, the senses, etc). It is no coincidence that Charlie Chaplin famously illustrated this plight nearly a hundred years ago in 1936 with his film Modern Times, where he portrays a factory worker in an assembly line who has become subjected to degrading and insignificant work. Why do these occupations exist? Neoliberalism deliberately formed a two-tier labor force of primary worker’s and secondary worker’s wherein the former carries out the central core functions of a firm; those representing top executives, presidents, and shareholders. In contrast, secondary workers are significantly represented by poor working class members who carry out non-vital undertakings along with only a few essential duties, but they are non-specialized and therefore constitute insignificancy.

Neoliberalism has a way of co-opting cultural values or social mores (new and old) in order to personally benefit, whether that be the commodification of new goods, or privatization of the commons. One of these new goods is the recent trend in young adults across the country (and the west) to engage in burnout culture- also known as hustle culture- since it is a highly efficient method of exploitation and profiteering. Burnout culture refers to general sentiments that view non-stop work as necessary to be (materially) successful in life, that striving for constant self-improvement is the worthiest cause, especially when it pertains to one’s own “business”/ “enterprise” endeavors. These types of people believe that failure is never an option and one must always overcome barriers, no matter how impossible it may seem. The brilliant effect of this is one placing self-imposed constraints since they believe no external factors can impinge upon them. This incessant lifestyle naturally leads to burnout and fatigue, which can spawn a myriad of mental/physical health issues: stress, anxiety, loss of sleep, depression, bipolar disorders, OCD, panic attacks, and so on. To view oneself as a work in progress that always needs to reinvent or adapt to get ahead of everyone else causes one to exploit, subjugate, and oppress themselves in an autonomous fashion. This new form of subjection is much more effective and efficient than the former classical master-slave and capitalist-wage worker dynamic. The detrimental outcome is the removal of the vital anti-capitalist ideological narrative of class struggle and antagonism. There is no longer the struggle between the ruling class and the working class, rather class struggle gets co-opted and becomes self-struggle; one blames their living conditions or inequality on themselves as opposed to capitalist relations. The burnout workers function as both master and slave due to their own new self-exploitation. The “hustler” becomes hustled by neoliberalism.

It is important to note that there are certain occupations where people are overworked but remain dedicated to their work. For example, essential workers during the global pandemic are beyond exhausted from all their labor, however their jobs are vital to the welfare and strength of society. Their work gives them authentic meaning and purpose in life, along with the peace of mind that they are helping others who rely on them for survival. Their actions provide something greater than just financial gain: they are constant reminders that there is more to life than material accumulation, that there’s more to life then consumerism and consumption, that serving others is an honorable cause which benefits both parties and absolutely cannot be valued in monetary forms. This directly juxtaposes those within hustle culture that become impelled to full depletion because they are trying to financially succeed in capitalist markets, or achieve career actions. Essential workers’ burnout is justifiable and praiseworthy, the self-exploited hustler is not.

I have deliberately not mentioned employment rates up until this point because I believe it leads to the wrong type of discourse that is saturated in political dialogues and among the unemployed today. Of course, not having a job can mean financial ruin for many and sometimes can even lead to death, but if one allows the focus to become placed on assuring that everyone gets jobs as opposed to topics such as greater distributions of wealth and income, then politicians-primarily conservative ones-will always fallback on statistical data that shows “full employment” in the country (Trump for instance). This misleading statistic frames the economy as performing well, to which status quo economists love to use as a defense mechanism against those who critique labor relations today. The linguistic task then is to have open conversations about greater economic issues that have a deeper impact on the socio-economic status of the poor working class, which will bring greater awareness and concern to the general public. Why is this the case? Because what is the point of surviving (being financially secure) if you are not living? One can accrue all the assets beyond what they would ever consume, and yet still feel unfulfilled and contain a gaping hole of anguish within them. It is imperative that poor working-class people not only be able to survive comfortably, but have the social conditions created whereby they can live meaningful lives that fulfills their spirit and can be content for the life they lived.

Seeing how the current precarious economy functions under neoliberalism and their stronghold on labor relations, what then can one do who finds themselves in this situation? I don’t believe the answer is the popular proposals of social democracy advocated by Bernie Sanders and the new young democrats led by AOC, nor is “conscious” capitalism a viable alternative because operating “ethically” in pursuit of profit on a large scale is impossible under capitalist relations. I believe what is needed is a new form of communism as the necessary solution to all the catastrophes capitalism continues to create. As Naomi Klein best put it, our current day global capitalism represents a type of disaster kind, which is why in response we need a disaster form of communism to overcome it. This communism is not a utopian desire but rather the only viable solution left to capitalism. It is made all the more evident by capitalist nations’ inability to properly subvert the ongoing global pandemic, causing mass deaths and forcing millions of peoples out of jobs and into impoverishment as a result. In the United States alone, over 58 million people have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic, along with an additional 8 million people falling into poverty. Additionally, there is the potential for an ensuing eviction crisis never before seen in the history of the US; 20 million people could lose their homes by the beginning of 2021 if federal/state moratoriums are not extended or if rent is not forgiven or nationalized. This is a clear indication of the failures of capitalism. There is a need for an entirely new social order- a new form of communism-that values the lives of poor working class individuals’ over business and state interests, eradicates class distinction and their accompanying socioeconomic characteristics, and frees labor’s subjection to capital.

PS: Merry Christmas