On Monday February 15, 2010, I came across a headline that read, "Use of temps may no longer signal permanent hiring," the article said that when employers hire temporary staff after a recession, it's long been seen as a sign they'll soon hire permanent workers. Companies have hired more temps for four straight months. Yet they remain reluctant to make permanent hires because of doubts about the recovery's durability. Even companies that are boosting production seem inclined to get by with their existing worker, and begin to hire temporary staff. For years, economists have regarded increased hiring of temp workers as a bridge between no hiring and healthy job creation. It meant employers would soon expand their permanent payrolls to keep up with rising customer demand.
After reading this headline I quickly thought of Marx and his views of estranged labor, which he identifies as a large pool of unemployed people, are exchangeable and the worker is a commodity. I believe that this article identifies those views of estranged labor substantially. While hiring temporary employees the employers does not have to pay the same high cost of wages as they would have to if they hired permanent employees. Even while some of the companies of increasing production they fail to hire permanent workers so that they can keep the cost down and only pay the minimum wage and what a skilled permanent employee would make.
According to Marx with the companies exchanging the temporary workers for new temporary workers they are creating competition amongst capitalist, which creates division of labor and rise of innovation which then creates joblessness. As long as there is such high demands for a job amongst the unemployed the companies will not have to conform to hiring permanent employees any time soon and will continue to pay minimum wage and produce a higher profit for the things that they are manufacturing.
Keely, this is a wonderful example of Marx’s claim that capitalist devalue their workers by paying labor time and not for the true value of labor. Temporary employment is a great way for companies to avoid costly expenditures, such as, health and dental insurance, retirement and pension plans that most permanent employees have the benefit of receiving. However, the sad thing is that temporary workers have no choice but to devalue themselves in order to provide the basic life essentials for their families. Thus, there is no escape from capitalism.
ReplyDeleteThis situation is a prime example of worker competetion. Temps are forced to sell themselves and their time for cheaper to get a job where a permanent option is out of the question in these economic times. A permanent employee cost a great deal more than a temp hire. That simple fact is why temp hires are rising and permanent hires are decreasing. Companies are trying everything they can to avoid losing profit, and included in their bag of tricks is to cut down on labor costs which translates to lay-offs, hiring freezes, temp workers, and wage cuts. Not included is decreasing the salaries of the people earning 5-10 times the cost of living.
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