Happy Worker's Day
Today is May 1st, International Worker's Day. Its origins go back to the Chicago of 1886, with a strike asking for an eight-hour workday at a time when it was normal to work twelve to fourteen hours. The Haymarket Riot was a turning point in international labor movements. But it would take many more years before workers could enjoy "eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, and eights hours of rest."
And now it seems we will need to fight to regain some of those rights. While the law in Spain states that anything over eight hours daily work is overtime and should be paid so, it is well-known that many workers in smaller companies sometimes work ten hours a day and are paid eight hours. If you don't like it, find something else. If you can. The recent reforms in labor law has made it easier to fire people who have a contract. Severance pay has been lowered. Temporary contracts are more common now, and salaries are lower than before the crisis. There are also "contratos basura" (garbage contracts), in which a worker is hired for a few days or even hours, and then goes back to the unemployment line. Then there are the under-the-counter jobs in which a worker has a verbal agreement with his employer that he will work x hours for x amount of time, receiving x amount of pay. That worker is not covered by Social Security if he has an accident, though, nor is anything being deducted from his pay towards his retirement. Nor does he have any rights.
Because, despite conditions getting worse, workers in Spain still have certain guaranteed rights. There is maternity and paternity leave (though insufficient), paid sick leave, vacation days, and some personal days. If a small employer is generous, and a worker has to take off a day or some hours for special reasons, he won't dock any pay. But those rights are only for the legal jobs. And some employers will discriminate according to what a worker might ask for in the future. Women are generally discriminated against. A woman with a young child or of childbearing age will generally find it more difficult to be hired because the employer assumes she will ask for maternity leave or personal days to attend to a sick child. That is one of the reasons female unemployment is higher.
Things have generally worsened for Spanish workers, and European workers in general. From having practically guaranteed jobs for most of their working lives, workers are now facing a future with temporary jobs and long periods of unemployment. French students and workers have initiated a movement called Nuit Debout to protest the intended reformation of French labor laws. The reform would strip workers of some of their hard-earned rights, with the intention of making it easier to fire workers under certain conditions and with less severance pay.
Today there will be marches and protests all over Europe to celebrate International Worker's Day and to demand the restoration or implantation of rights that favor workers over employers. Oh, they'll be large and pretty, with plenty of banners demanding what is justly ours, but in the boardrooms and in the parliaments the tide is changing back in favor of the corporations and their bottom line. Workers are useful tools only as long as the bottom line remains fat and black. Otherwise, they're expendable. Again.
And now it seems we will need to fight to regain some of those rights. While the law in Spain states that anything over eight hours daily work is overtime and should be paid so, it is well-known that many workers in smaller companies sometimes work ten hours a day and are paid eight hours. If you don't like it, find something else. If you can. The recent reforms in labor law has made it easier to fire people who have a contract. Severance pay has been lowered. Temporary contracts are more common now, and salaries are lower than before the crisis. There are also "contratos basura" (garbage contracts), in which a worker is hired for a few days or even hours, and then goes back to the unemployment line. Then there are the under-the-counter jobs in which a worker has a verbal agreement with his employer that he will work x hours for x amount of time, receiving x amount of pay. That worker is not covered by Social Security if he has an accident, though, nor is anything being deducted from his pay towards his retirement. Nor does he have any rights.
Because, despite conditions getting worse, workers in Spain still have certain guaranteed rights. There is maternity and paternity leave (though insufficient), paid sick leave, vacation days, and some personal days. If a small employer is generous, and a worker has to take off a day or some hours for special reasons, he won't dock any pay. But those rights are only for the legal jobs. And some employers will discriminate according to what a worker might ask for in the future. Women are generally discriminated against. A woman with a young child or of childbearing age will generally find it more difficult to be hired because the employer assumes she will ask for maternity leave or personal days to attend to a sick child. That is one of the reasons female unemployment is higher.
Things have generally worsened for Spanish workers, and European workers in general. From having practically guaranteed jobs for most of their working lives, workers are now facing a future with temporary jobs and long periods of unemployment. French students and workers have initiated a movement called Nuit Debout to protest the intended reformation of French labor laws. The reform would strip workers of some of their hard-earned rights, with the intention of making it easier to fire workers under certain conditions and with less severance pay.
Today there will be marches and protests all over Europe to celebrate International Worker's Day and to demand the restoration or implantation of rights that favor workers over employers. Oh, they'll be large and pretty, with plenty of banners demanding what is justly ours, but in the boardrooms and in the parliaments the tide is changing back in favor of the corporations and their bottom line. Workers are useful tools only as long as the bottom line remains fat and black. Otherwise, they're expendable. Again.
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