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The banality of engagement and the neoliberal union: Workplace engagement series Part Two


The language of engagement in the workplace treats engagement as the basis for justifying and propping up neoliberal re-organizing.

Workplaces are re-organized on the logics of engagement. Workplace restructuring and job redundancies are legitimized through the logic of engagement.

The neoliberal organization justifies these techniques of re-organizing through the language of consultation.

Workplace policies are codified on the technologies of engagement.

To the extent that organizations follow the "right" steps, they can fire workers, reduce wages, increase hours, reduce permanent positions, and increase the number of precarious positions.

In other words, if management follows the precsribed steps of engagement, there is no valid basis for worker struggle. Workers are disciplined into internalizing the lesson, "All I need is engagement." The message is, "Engage us. Consult with us. Follow the policy guidelines. And now, you can fire us. Re-hire us. Take away our permanent positions."

The mantra, "Do whatever you want as long as you have engaged us."

The neoliberal union is accommodated into a dialogic relationship with the neoliberal organization, where the performance of engagement itself is the source of sustenance for the union. Reduced to negotiating in terms of engagement, the neoliberal union exists because of the frameworks of consultation. The job of the union is turned into a professional-managerial role of ensuring that the rules of engagement have been followed.

Now consider what would dismantling this vision of union organizing look like. What would union organizing look like when we take back our control over unions as sites of resistance. No longer are we then held to the management's dictation of engagement, defined in terms established by management. Instead, the very definition of engagement and workplace democracy is determined by workers.

Voice democracy in union organizing must begin with challenging and dismantling the neoliberal unions that have turned workplaces into precarious spaces ruled by the hegemony of dialogue.

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