Is the 'Better Job' Still Possible Today?

Abstract

The term 'better job' refers to work that permits employees to flourish, that is, situations where employees, and in particular operators, have increased autonomy, more responsibility and greater control over their time and space: in brief, firm control over the organization of their work. The 'better job' appears to be a real possibility, a compromise in our societies (despite the contradictions inherent in capitalist relations of production) in which capital might leave the workers, and employees in general, to organize their own work, in capital's own interest, in other words to increase labour productivity and productivity in general. This explains why the 'better job' has, historically, been initially developed by capital during periods of labour market tension and labour shortage, during the 1960s and 1970s, prior to becoming a demand made by the unions in the late 1970s and 1980s. Today, the partial resolution of the capital accumulation crisis through the widespread adoption of 'tightened flow' production methods runs counter to the emergence of the 'better job', including in those work sectors which otherwise seem most favourable to it.