PART V: Fighting Outsourcing and Precarious Work: The First Steps

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PART V Fighting Outsourcing and Precarious Work: The First Steps
Why fight it? convincing members and
colleagues
Outsourcing is a complex process. Its negative consequences are not always immediately obvious.
When they do become visible, the process is often well advanced. Union leaders must explain to
their members and activists why this is an urgent issue requiring collective action. Management
everywhere has a common stock of arguments to justify outsourcing and casual labour. Convincing
people of the need for action means taking on the arguments that management uses to justify
these practices. They have become so widespread that you may even hear them echoed by
those you work with when you raise the issue!
Here are some of the main arguments unions typically meet with and how you might respond.
“It’s none of your business”
Management claims it is their prerogative to hire and use people in any way they see fit, and
tells us it’s not our business. They can, and do, say the same about wages, work organization,
gender policy, and virtually everything which affects workers.
It IS our business, because it affects the job security, working
conditions and union organization of everyone at our workplace!
“It’s not part of our core business”
When work is outsourced, we’re typically told, “This is just about the canteen, it’s not part of
our core business.” Later, we hear the same about cleaners, and security, and maintenance.
Tomorrow it could be the warehouse, or the drivers, or loaders, or sales, or office staff, or packaging
… The truth is that in practice there are no limits. All work can and will be made more precarious
if unions don’t stop it through organization and negotiation. In many workplaces the process has
already penetrated into “core production” – workers find themselves working on the same
production line, but under different conditions. Many companies in the food and beverage
sector are implementing continuous restructuring as part of the drive for greater flexibility. Under
continuous restructuring, the “core” is constantly changing. The real question we need to ask is
whether the company could function without all those services and tasks that are described as
“auxiliary” or “not core business”. Imagine your workplace without a canteen, without cleaners,
IUF