Research paper no. 2 Young precarious workers and the trade union in education

In the past decades the status of education has changed considerably due to pressures of capital. One can observe this in the flexibilization of the labor force, in the process of gradual precarization and outsourcing of jobs. On the one hand, due to pressures of capital, the capitalist state prefers to employ young workers in non-standard forms of employment; on the other hand, private companies are able to privatize parts of public institutions and appropriate the surplus value produced. These pressures result in increasing internal segmentation of the labor force, and at the same time the structure of the labor force becomes more hierarchical. Our study shows how the class struggle, waged by capital through the bourgeois state, by constantly shaping the labor force according to the demands of the process of capital accumulation, reduces the power of public sector unions. The basis of the research is the issue of organizing in public institutions. We want to examine whether younger workers, who often work in non-standard forms of employment, are less active in trade union struggles and/or to what extent they are involved in the trade union movement in the education sector and what their views and specific issues are.

The research paper no. 2 is available for free at: Young precarious workers no2.pdf