Workers' Day
Every year, on 1 May, South Africa celebrates workers day. This is done, among others, to celebrate victories achieved in the past by workers. If one would ask me if I see the celebrations as relevant to the present day situation I would answer "YES" and "NO". Yes, if we talk about the past which is history that tells us how far we have come.
What is worrying is that there is nothing much to be celebrated in what has been happening in the immediate past, that is one or two years ago. We have seen thousands of workers being retrenched and families sinking deeper into the poverty pool, a condition that cannot be celebrated at all. I believe that having a mind of a worker is equivalent to having the mind of a slave. To be a worker means working hard to enrich your employer and giving him a reasonable assurance that he will still be a master in the nearest foreseeable future. Should you fail to give him that assurance you run a risk of being laid off. In light of this belief I hold, I will never be proud of being a worker and I do not see any reason to celebrate Workers' Day. That covers the "NO" version of my answer.
What is worrying is that there is nothing much to be celebrated in what has been happening in the immediate past, that is one or two years ago. We have seen thousands of workers being retrenched and families sinking deeper into the poverty pool, a condition that cannot be celebrated at all. I believe that having a mind of a worker is equivalent to having the mind of a slave. To be a worker means working hard to enrich your employer and giving him a reasonable assurance that he will still be a master in the nearest foreseeable future. Should you fail to give him that assurance you run a risk of being laid off. In light of this belief I hold, I will never be proud of being a worker and I do not see any reason to celebrate Workers' Day. That covers the "NO" version of my answer.
posted by Lizwi @ 9:11 AM
3 Comments:
At May 4, 2010 6:32 AM ,
Rummuser said...
That is an interesting take on the status of a worker. What alternative do you propose? If all people become entrepreneurs or business persons, who will do the work? What would you suggest to the businessperson as an approach towards his employees? Treat them like partners? How does he compete with others who do not?
This is a subject that has no answer dear Lizwi. I have battled with this subject for decades and am no wiser now than when I started.
There is something inherently wrong with the human psyche that allows for one human exploiting another. This has been so throughout history. The only entity in creation that does this.
The best that we can do is to not be so in our personal lives. We can live with compassion for the less privileged and do what we can to ameliorate their suffering.
Please remember, there are no victims in this game of worker, employer equation. There are only volunteers.
At May 5, 2010 8:34 AM ,
Lizwi said...
Rummuser, thanks for your comment. I do not want to believe that in order for work to be done there should always be an employee and an employer. That is why I said having the mind of a worker is similar to having the mind of a slave. I do not want to rule out a possibility of having a community where everyone is an intrepreneur because I believe the reason for employing people is that the entrepreneur cannot do everything by himself. So the workers are acting on behalf of the entrepreneur, therefore workers are entrepreneurs who have been made to believe that they are not or cannot be entrepreneurs. If you cannot do everything by yourself you need to ask someone else to help you, that is a partner. Circumstances force workers to submit to their partners and allow them to treat them as employees.
At May 6, 2010 8:54 AM ,
Rummuser said...
To the best of my knowledge, there has been some attempts at running businesses and cooperative societies this way and without exception, they all failed. It is human nature. Your idealism is something that I salute, but it is impractical.
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