At a rate of already four and a half million a month, 34.4 million American workers left their jobs in the first nine months of 2021, exhausted and fed up with abusive working conditions. The pandemic has made thousands of people rethink many things. Without wanting to, we are witnessing a general strike that has not been called.
Silvio Rodríguez speaks in one of his songs about "those who have nothing to lose." These are those who are in such a desperate situation that nothing prevents them from rebelling. And there are many ways to rise up: rise up in arms, go on strike or ... quit your job, fed up with being exploited, underpaid, mistreated, humiliated ... I once said that while you got up every morning to go to work, capitalism was guaranteed to function, any other activism was harmless.
For this reason, the real socialism of the twentieth century was more democratic, because by having citizens guaranteed their survival, only by stopping working could they overthrow it. In fact, this is what happened in some Eastern European countries.
10.4
million unfilled jobs
In recent months, in the United States it has been the news that millions of workers are resigning and leaving their companies. According to the Government of that country, twenty-three and a half million from April to September, the last ones that have been made public, which represents 34.4 million so far in 2021. And they continue to rise, since July they no longer fall below four millions.
The experts have baptized it as the Great Resignation or the Great Renunciation, thus with capital letters. According to the Department of Labor, in September there were a total of 10.4 million unfilled job vacancies.
Different
motives
Without a doubt, the pandemic has been a trigger because it has shown many unprecedented things in workers:
1. For some essential workers (health workers, delivery men, restocks, transporters ...) the pandemic has meant exhausting work for which they have not been recognized socially, professionally or professionally. Many have found that their companies multiplied their profits at the cost of health and exhaustion in exchange for paltry salaries.
Not
that a union leader says so, Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary of the
Clinton Administration, told Time magazine… They are fed up. They are fried.
After so many difficulties, illnesses and deaths during the past year, they
will not take it anymore. "
In
addition, inflation has increased at a higher rate than wages have, they are
earning less than before the pandemic while being told that the economy is
improving.
2. For those who were forced to suspend their work, it meant discovering rest, meeting with family, having free time.
According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, 74% of people recognize that the time they have spent at home during the pandemic (either due to confinements or recommendations to work remotely) has made them rethink their life, especially work. Remember that in the United States the law does not guarantee vacations to workers.
3. Others who teleworked during the pandemic are now being forced to return to work without guarantees of protection and without flexibility to take care of their families.
Many,
especially women, have to take care of their children or their elders, or they
cannot do it or they lose their full salary to pay someone to take care of
them. A recent report by McKinsey & Co. states that one in four women in
the United States is considering changing jobs or leaving work due to COVID-19.
They have come to the conclusion that it is not rewarding for them to work.
In
fact, the groups that quit the most are the lowest paid. More than half of
American workers said they plan to look for a new job next year, according to
Bankrate's survey of job seekers. Around 56% of workers said their priority now
was flexible hours and telecommuting.
According
to a survey by The Conference Board, millennials question the advisability of
going back to the office more than older generations, with 55% of millennials
expressing concern about working in person, compared to 45% of Generation
participants. X and 36% of baby boomers.
4. On the other hand, for some, teleworking meant greater work abuse, without schedules, with full availability and without being able to attend to their housework or their children. They have also finished fed up.
5. Others found that if they got sick they stopped collecting their salary. It is preferable to stop working and take care of yourself than to end up equally unpaid and ill.
Junk
jobs
Meanwhile,
the job trend has been to increase junk or part-time jobs that didn't even
provide health insurance, which is critical to making a job attractive in the
United States. Approximately 40% of resignations in the US belong to the food,
hospitality, retail, factory and health sectors. Employees who face long and
strenuous schedules, which change them preventing any family conciliation. They
have to endure a lot of stress and treatment from the public is not always
correct.
The reactivation of the economy, with the consequent demand for workers in some sectors, has led to an empowerment of some employees who have organized and started to demand better working conditions. If they are not granted, they are not so afraid to leave and look for another job. According to a Pulse of the American Worker survey, 26% of American workers planned to look for a job at a different company once the pandemic had subsided.
The accusations that social benefits have discouraged work and encouraged laziness are false. Unemployment benefits expired in September and people continue to leave their jobs.
The
next question is what happens in the rest of the world, has a similar
phenomenon occurred in other countries?
According
to a LinkedIn report, "The proportion of affiliates who changed jobs in
October 2021 globally increased 25% compared to the same period in the year
before the pandemic." In other words, something is also moving in Europe,
but not in the same way as in the United States.
In
Spain
In Spain, Newtral has investigated to what extent a phenomenon such as the United States may be taking place. According to the data collected from the Ministry of Social Security, the analysis of the experts contacted and the reports from employment portals, "the 'Great Resignation' is not taking place in Spain. However, there are indications of changes in the mentality of workers, especially in the wake of the pandemic. "
A report from the human resources company Adecco for the month of November reflects that "58% of companies believe that the risk of suffering from burnout syndrome has increased in the last year and that emotional disorders related to the health and economic crisis are still maintained compared to a year ago [64%] ".
On
the other hand, according to Eurostat, Spain is the EU country with the most
overqualified workers for the position they occupy. 38.8% of young Spaniards
have an educational level higher than the qualification necessary to carry out
the tasks of their jobs, and this generates a frustration for which there are
two ways out: endure while something better appears or take a risk and leave
the job.
There is another element that in Spain distorts the statistics of job abandonment. It is usual that when a person resigns from their job, they negotiate with the employer that is reflected as an end of the contract and not as a voluntary abandonment, in order to access unemployment benefits. Voluntary withdrawal does not entitle you to benefits.
On the other hand, let's not forget that Spain has an employment rate of 15%, too high to think that if you leave a job you will easily find another.
It is true that businessmen in some sectors, such as the hospitality industry, have denounced in networks and media that they cannot find workers. Research shows that what is happening is that workers in these sectors have begun to claim many of their rights that have historically been denied them. With the pandemic, they have verified that, since they were fraudulently hired for half a day, although they made it full, the benefits they had left due to the suspension of activity of their company (ERTE) were minimal and did not give them to survive.
14
million in the OECD
However, something is moving globally. Economics professor Juan Torres reveals that "in the 38 countries that are part of the OECD, 14 million people have already ceased to be considered active because they neither have a job nor are they looking for it. And, compared to 2019, there are three million more young people without employment, education or training. "
Job
vacancies on the rise
In Torres' opinion, "the reality is that the labor model of neoliberalism has generalized lower wages with the permanent excuse that this was essential to create jobs. By lowering the wage bill, sales of companies have decreased and that has done That creates less activity and employment. This has created an army of unemployed that has allowed wages not to rise and working conditions to worsen incessantly, to the benefit of large companies [not all, because a large part is harmed by the drop-in sales and activity that I have indicated] ".
A
ghost travels the world.
It seems that the workers are getting fed up and, even without coordination or unionization, they are unknowingly starting an unofficial general strike. A new ghost haunts the world, the ghost of the resignation of millions of workers to continue working in the conditions in which they were before confinement.
THE AUTHOR'S OPINION DOES NOT NECESSARILY MATCH
WITH THOSE OF THE BLOG.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario