Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

The right to socially useful work

Kate Holman 6th November 2020

Amid the 1970s economic crisis in Britain, Lucas Aerospace workers, threatened with redundancy, developed a plan for socially useful work. It’s an idea whose time has come.

socially useful work, Lucas plan
Kate Holman

Earlier this year, when the coronavirus started to spread, the supply of hospital ventilators was at crisis point. Within weeks, sectors as diverse as Formula 1 engineering and vacuum-cleaner and military-hardware manufacturers had switched to turning out medical equipment. 

It did not escape notice that the speed of design and testing in these industries could be applied to more beneficial products. Yet why does it take a worldwide pandemic to encourage socially useful activities?

The idea is not new. September 2020 saw the death of Mike Cooley, the pioneering engineer and trade unionist who in 1976 led workers in the British aerospace industry to develop the Lucas Plan. Confronted with the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs due to restructuring, they demanded the right to socially useful production.

The plan—based on the skills, experience and needs of workers and their communities—took a year to complete and included market analyses and economic arguments, as well as ideas for retraining and new management structures.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

Redundancies waste society’s most precious asset—the skills, ingenuity, enthusiasm, energy and creativity of workers. The plan proposed more than 150 alternative products, including wind turbines, heat pumps, hybrid cars, better braking systems and kidney-dialysis and portable life-support machines. It was ahead of its time, designing items to protect the environment as well as people, and attracting attention around the world. 

Role of new technology

Consideration of socially useful or satisfying work inevitably impinges on digitalisation, new technologies and their impact on ways of working. Karl Marx famously noted: ‘In the handicrafts and manufacture, the workman [sic] makes use of a tool, in the factory, the machine makes use of him.’ Well before contemporary innovations in automation and digitalisation, workers were already experiencing alienation. 

Of course, it is not technology per se that is the problem but the way it is developed and applied, for example largely excluding women from design decisions. Rather than enabling the soul-destroying deskilling of labour, it could allow people more time for constructive activities. Rather than furthering the never-ending pursuit of ‘growth’, it could be dedicated to socially useful ends.

Marx also said that what distinguished the worst of architects from the best of bees was the capacity to imagine. And Cooley outlined two alternatives: either human beings will be reduced to working like bees under the systems imposed on them, or they will be the architects of new advances in human creativity, freedom of choice and expression.

‘It is not only factory workers who may experience alienation. Whenever workers are in a position in which [they] … cannot control the uses to which their work is put, they are alienated,’ argued John Graves in Liberating Technology. ‘People’s sense of life, of fulfilment and of purpose … can derive only from doing work with a definite objective, in a given social context, involving certain human interactions of relationships and having a certain value.’ 

Such value can be found in unexpected places. Interviewing steel workers in Britain in the 1970s, Polly Toynbee found they were proud of their furnaces, however unpleasant and dangerous, because they believed steel was a vital resource and their work mattered. The same applied at one time to coalmining. 

Trade unions’ demand for ‘quality jobs’ implies not only decent pay and good working conditions but also job satisfaction. But can job satisfaction be equated with socially useful work? The notions of respect for people and the environment, work-life balance, freedom of choice, creativity and a sense of purpose should be central to both. 

This requires a re-evaluation of many tasks, especially of women’s traditional caring work and the fulfilment it offers at home and professionally. One striking aspect of the coronavirus crisis has been the dedication of care workers—invariably women—in residential homes, often at the expense of their own safety. The many examples of carers self-isolating at work—cutting themselves off from their own families for weeks—to protect elderly residents, go beyond professional obligations. We have seen carers in tears after the deaths of individuals to whom they had grown close. Prioritising socially useful work means a fundamental reassessment of the value of jobs that have always been low-paid and low-status.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

At the same time, climate-conscious young people are increasingly demanding jobs that avoid further environmental damage and offer them a sustainable future. 

How to do it

Enabling workers to take more control—to be architects instead of bees—would make work more satisfying and more ethical. Work organisation in companies, from online platforms to production lines, is largely designed for the convenience and profit of employers. Greater worker influence could help to generate human-centred design choices, as well as eroding the barriers between high-skilled employees and those carrying out low-paid and tedious tasks. Inevitably, some jobs—however socially useful—are likely to be boring and arduous. It is the organisation and control of such work that makes the difference.

The best way to strengthen workers’ voices is through trade union organisation. Existing systems for worker participation, such as European Works Councils and seats on corporate boards, offer an initial step forward. 

But sometimes direct action is necessary. Following the military coup in Chile in 1973, employees at the Rolls Royce plant in East Kilbride, Scotland, discovered that engines from their factory were going to the dictatorship. They refused to work on them. During a period of four years, they managed to ground half of Chile’s air force. 

Other options include workers’ co-operatives and social enterprises, which are increasing in number and range of activities across Europe. Recent EU research finds tens of thousands operating in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy.

Back to the future

Accounts of the Lucas Plan experience tend to view it as a product of the 1970s—a time of real hope of social progress. Yet the desire to dedicate one’s labour to something worthwhile remains more relevant than ever in the context of Covid-19 and continues to inspire new initiatives.

As the 2020 travel lockdown started to affect the aviation industry, in the first three months of the pandemic Airbus suffered a 55 per cent drop in year-on-year revenues and predicted the loss of 15,000 jobs. At its headquarters in Toulouse, 3,400 workers—many of whom had been with the company for decades—were threatened with redundancy. 

In response, l’Atécopol, a collective of more than 100 local scientists and researchers, put forward its own proposal. Recognising the lack of certainty about the aviation industry’s recovery, coupled with the damage it inflicts on the environment, the plan foresees no return to business as usual. ‘That is why we believe that it is high time to open a difficult but clear-headed debate on the reconversion of the sector and your companies.’ 

It calls for a public-service objective, to prioritise the common good, like health services and public transport. ‘Responding to the essential needs of our population, far from market injunctions and imperatives linked to economic growth and international competition, would make sense, for you and for our society,’ it concludes.

The pandemic has forced society to stop and reflect on what is really needed for the health and wellbeing of all. Guns or ventilators? This opportunity to step up the demand for socially useful work must not be missed.

This is part of a series on the Transformation of Work supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Marcinelle,mining disaster,Bois du Cazier
Kate Holman

Kate Holman is a freelance journalist based in Brussels who worked for a number of years as a writer and editor at the European Trade Union Confederation.

You are here: Home / Politics / The right to socially useful work

Most Popular Posts

Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic
Orbán,Hungary,Russia,Putin,sanctions,European Union,EU,European Parliament,commission,funds,funding Time to confront Europe’s rogue state—HungaryStephen Pogány

Most Recent Posts

reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl
Jacinda Ardern,women,leadership,New Zealand What it means when Jacinda Ardern calls timePeter Davis

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube