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NEWS & LETTERS, JUNE 2003
Workshop Talk
Union label layoffs
by Htun Lin We have heard a barrage of reports in local newspapers
on Kaiser Permanente (HMO) exporting members' personal, medical and financial
information to India where it now subcontracts information technology functions
and data processing. The outrage was that this endangers patient privacy, which
was supposedly guaranteed by a recent act of Congress. Among us workers the real issue is that this is the
latest phase of a ten-year restructuring program, which has resulted in the
elimination of thousands of jobs as well as replacement of permanent employees
with ones from subcontracting temporary agencies. 'TECHNO-CASTE' CHEAP LABOR The Indian computer workers are part of the new
"techno-caste" in a global economy. Many American information services
companies are exploiting them as cheap scab labor. Our unions need to put a stop
to it, if they're worth the dues we pay them each month. The road to Kaiser's
action today was paved many years ago in contract language sold as "job
protection" by our own union to those of us who questioned it. The constant
erosion of our job security was enhanced by a labor-management partnership in
the midst of this restructuring. When our union leader agreed to allow Kaiser to insert
provisions on "automation" and "reduction in force" in our
contract, many of us felt uneasy. When we asked why this was even being broached
in bargaining, the response was: "This is a protection, should it become
necessary for Kaiser to automate some functions. It will require them to give us
90-days notice and will allow us to transfer to other jobs. Failing that, it
gives us a severance package." The union leader passed this off as positive, as some
kind of insurance policy. But a severance package means at most one month's
salary, and even that only after ten years of service. In any case, what he
never discussed was the phrase "should it become necessary" to
automate. Why should it be necessary? Why should outsourcing and subcontracting
be "necessary"? The union talked us into language for our own
elimination. Now the information technology workers who are in the union at
Kaiser and who have been used to eliminate other union workers are themselves
being eliminated through outsourcing and the technology of global information
flow. For workers there is nothing "necessary" about
this. Technology is used to control our working lives. This is even more
apparent in other jobs. What the West Coast dockworkers agreed to means
technology will replace several thousand clerks in the ILWU. That is a continuation of what ILWU workers have
suffered historically with containerization. ILWU head Harry Bridges negotiated
that part of early post-World War II automation into the dockworkers' contract,
declaring, "You can't fight progress." Workers know that technology is
introduced into the workplace to eliminate us and to more thoroughly dominate
us. This is no "progress." BOTTOM LINE TECHNOLOGY We reject capital's "necessity" to automate as
an article of faith under the present regime. That article of faith to which
labor leaders unfortunately genuflect is capital's ultimate hegemony over
workers' lives. That necessity is the drive to discipline labor. This is
facilitated by the labor bureaucracy, preaching to the rank and file about
capital's "necessity." There has been at Kaiser a top down fantasy about a rosy
future for us with the introduction of more technology. I still remember Dr.
David Lawrence, our former CEO, declaring a huge billion dollar IT project, ten
years ago. "A laptop for every MD" he declared. All medical
information would be online, "at your fingertips." Not only has this paperless dream not been realized, the
real result of that vision is the use of computers to enhance the bottom line. A
priority is keeping track of patient's co-payments and making sure they are
collected up front. Computers are also transforming the whole health
process. Much of a nurse's working life has been transformed into recording
data. Getting the paperwork done now is a top priority. Most of the hands-on
real care is now given by low paid nurses aides. Mechanization means much
healthcare is working according to a recipe where the trend is to erode
independent judgment. Staffing levels are managed so by design there is never
much time to give to individual patients. UNDER WORKERS' CONTROL It is time for us workers to put some real flesh on the
demand for quality care that was begun by the nurses in the midst of this
maelstrom called restructuring. Technology, under workers' control, could
enhance human capacities for the well being of patients and workers in general. While our labor leaders have resorted to legislation and lobbying, they sidelined our initiative in our every day activity, allowing management's bottom-line prerogatives to dominate health care, the most recent example being outsourcing IT work to India. We workers need to regain the initiative for quality care on the shop floor where it only began, by making the struggle for workers' well-being the prime-necessity of our daily activity. This is the only way to overcome capital's "necessity". |
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