Special issue – Trade unionism and the meaning of work
Introduction: The meaning of work, a new resource for union action?
Thomas COUTROT and Léonie HEMDAT
Born of the colloquium Le “sens du travail” : enjeux psychiques, sociaux et politiques de l’activité – “The ‘meaning of work’ : its psychological, social and political challenges” – held on 3 and 4 October 2024 at the CNAM (the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) in Paris, this special issue of La Revue de l’IRES sets out with the aim of exploring the empirical uses of the concept by trade union actors. Against a backdrop of work intensification, organisations under pressure and a weakening of collective bonds, the wording “loss of meaning” has come to be frequently deployed by workers to express the contradictions with which they are faced in carrying out their work. By striving to help bring “real” or “actual” work to light, some union bodies may echo this issue of meaning or even use it to drive collective mobilisation.
Keywords: meaning of work, loss of meaning, real work, actual work, trade unions.
Having the “meaning of work” and finding “meaning at work”: paralysis and escapism at the Sept-Fons factory (1958-2015)
Loman-Pierre CHARRIER
The perpetual state of reconstruction of the work at the Sept-Fons factory profoundly influences workers’ perceptions of it. Faced with often arduous work, devoid of meaning, compensated by the “meaning of employment”, they develop various forms of resistance against boredom and alienation. These range from a game of appropriation of the work community between worker in-group insularity and a more paternalistic vision of employment, to assigning value to know-how and social relationships, even a search for meaning outside of the factory. Thus, the workers of Sept-Fons ceaselessly rebuild their relationship with work, through endless “crises of meaning” across employment, activity and achievement, contributing to their long-term paralysis.
Keywords: meaning of employment, meaning of work, Sept-Fons factory, worker solidarity, trade union mobilisation.
Reforming work through inquiry? Employment expertise in social and economic committees
Vincent-Arnaud CHAPPE
The elected officers of a CSE (Social and Economic Committee) are entitled to expert advice on “health, safety and working conditions”, which they can access under specific conditions. This article shows how experts use concepts born out of the social and ergonomic sciences to analyse the problematic situations for which they are called upon and to identify ways to improve the organisation of work. Their investigations are nevertheless subject to practical constraints, as a result of the legal and temporal conditions circumscribing their deployment. Their effectiveness, while limited, is conceptualised by the experts themselves in two different ways: sometimes in terms of a power struggle in which expert advice may be wielded; other times in terms of persuasion, since studies may influence management through the provision of additional knowledge.
Keywords: economic and social committee (CSE), ESC, expert advice on health, safety and working conditions, studies, power struggle, balance of power.
“Politicizing debates around work”: interview with Bruno Mantel and Mathieu Uhel
Bruno MANTEL and Mathieu UHEL
The Sud-Éducation trade union at the University of Caen Normandie established an Observatory of Working Conditions in December 2020 in order to conduct quantitative and qualitative surveys on work among university staff. Bruno Mantel and Mathieu Uhel, two members of this Observatory, presented a paper at the “Meaning of Work” conference. They here answer questions from Thomas Coutrot and Léonie Hemdat, editors of this special issue of La Revue de l’IRES.
Keywords: working conditions observatory, University of Caen, study, meaning of work.
What are the conditions for union appropriation of an action research initiative on work?
Anne LE ROY and Emmanuelle PUISSANT
A union-oriented action research initiative carried out by the CREG – the Grenoble economic research centre – and a regional union of the CGT – the General Confederation of Labour – has facilitated an analysis of the effects of introducing digital activity tracking tools on the work of several medico-social services and establishments, mainly in the field of disability.
This article seeks to identify the factors or the conditions of union appropriation of the results of this action research initiative, towards a transformation of union activity with regard to the issues covered by the research. The objective here is to contribute to collective consideration of the methods of these types of specific research projects, in order to make trade union appropriation more effective.
Keywords: action research, trade union, CGT, general confederation of labour, activity tracking, disability.
Creating spaces for dialogue about the profession to feed the meaning of work in the education system
Yannick LEFEBVRE and Catherine REMERMIER
The loss of meaning at work within the French education system, aggravated by reforms, the disconnect between prescribed and actual work, and damaging forms of management, have become major subjects of preoccupation. The Snes-FSU union aims to address this through reliance on the “clinic of activity” (CRTD-Cnam, the work and development research centre) and “occupation groups” aiming to document actual work, reactivate peer groups and protect health. Through schemes conducive to developing this experiment in a union context, these spaces allow professionals to be freed from guilt, to rediscover the depth and complexity of their work and to discuss quality criteria for their work. The resulting resources, although produced from limited means, nevertheless sustain trade union action.
Keywords: meaning at work, national education ministry, trade union action, Snes-FSU, occupation group, community of peers, activity.
The meaning of work: a psychosocial lever to develop union power in public services
Simon VIVIERS
This article maintains that the meaning of work can be a major psychosocial driver to empower trade union action in public services. It shows, through a look at the mobilisation of the teaching staff union of the Laval University in 2022-2023, how the experience of being thwarted at work may gradually be transformed into collective indignation, then into union action. By mobilising input from the work clinic, the analysis sheds light on the role played by affects, recognition of the profession and attachment to the public interest mission in the mobilisation dynamic. It also shows that referring to the meaning of work helps to articulate working conditions, organisation of work and critiques of changes to university governance, thus paving the way to rethink trade union action based on actual work.
Keywords: meaning of work, trade union action, university, organisation of work, governance.
Point of view: the resistances of living labour
Nicolas LATTEUR
Nicolas Latteur works at the CEPAG, the André Genot popular education centre, a lifelong learning movement working in particular with the Walloon General Labour Federation of Belgium (FGTB). He published Critique Populaire de l’Exploitation (Popular Critique of Exploitation) in 2023. His point of view is based on interviews with workers carried out during field surveys and seeks to show the stakes of social struggles around the meaning of work, particularly for the trade union movement.
Keywords: FGTB, meaning of work, trade unionism, living labour.
The meaning of work through successive CGT congresses
Thomas COUTROT
Between 2008 and 2018, the CGT sought to place “the meaning of work” at the centre of its strategy through a “demands-based approach” grounded in work, asserted in the texts of confederal congresses. This innovation aims to base union action and demands on the testimony of workers on their actual work.
Written into the congresses of 2013, 2016 and 2019, it has, however, been met with internal resistance. Certain members of the leadership see it as out of touch with the realities of unemployment and precarity, others see a risk of reformism, or fear losing their grip on the formulation of demands. In 2018, the seminar responsible for bringing together union members and researchers around the topic was discontinued. The 2023 congress confirmed this regression, and the union reaffirmed its primacy in the matter of defining demands.
Keywords: CGT, meaning of work, trade union action, actual work, union congress.