Management of labor and job insecurity: the example of sorting postal employees (1946-1980)

Résumé du document

The perception of job insecurity in a state administration, the Post Office, from 1946 to 1980, should help realize the nature of link between work organizations and the employment status of postal workers. Traditionally, this period of strong economic growth is regarded as a period marked by the predominance of a Fordist employment standard that would have dominated the wage, stable employment involving a number of social rights. But the Post, the conditions of productive activity of postal sorting, seasonal in nature, have imposed a greater flexibility than allowed civil servant status. This resulted in the implementation of a dual labor market in sorting centers consisting of a core and a periphery, characterized by the co-existence of owners and auxiliary. This provision led managers of the Post Office to be satisfied with a form of job insecurity for a fraction of employees. The uncertainty in the Post believed to be temporary and cyclical, continued to grow until the strike of autumn 1974 and beyond.

Extraits

[...] Bulletin union education, information and documentation of the CGT, Proceedings of the National Conference, 26- No March 1978. Le Matin de Paris, October National Archives F90 bis 870,354, tract regional CGT, September A-S. Beau, A century of precarious employment: Patron-do-s and-es employed in big business (nineteenth-twentieth century), Paris, Payot, 2004. [...]

[...] I try to respect the pace of "real" postal workers, ie to sort letters per hour, but it's hard . 24). Local cadres sorting centers that must manage emergency situations and seasonal variations of traffic flows like the use of this form of employment as opposed to unions. The CGT suggests that accepting allowing the development status as precarious in sorting centers may call into question the social benefits of all employees: "The vacatariat, this form of recruitment pushes the PTT of a century. [...]

[...] The organization of work in sorting centers was built in part around the issue of flexibility even though the institution has continued to highlight stable employment, the auxiliary in the company by then subject to a denial of recognition. In a context of full employment, it carries within it the seeds of a form of segregation and social discrimination which makes people more vulnerable vis-à-vis the institution. In sorting it corresponds to the least skilled jobs and is often associated with schedules and work rhythms fragmented. The precariousness of auxiliaries who thinks first unknown to the servant status combines with other professional constraints that are cumulative. These include income, training and pensions. [...]

[...] The Act of April The Post has hired since the end of the war a large number of auxiliaries, the state does not transfer enough positions holders (10). On April a law was voted in favor of their tenure. What is the law of April 1950? Now the government can resort to the temporary labor needs for temporary, permanent jobs to be assigned to licensees. The continued use of auxiliary is allowed only for missions to meet exceptional needs, and for a limited time. [...]

[...] However, the theme of insecurity remained a subject away from the concerns of the institution through the deployment of social policy. Its inclusion was sometimes neglected by the union at least until the fall of 1974 whose concerns have long been focused on wage claims or reduction of working time. Playing on the register of dramatic dawn leaving the fears related to "défonctionnarisation" their point of view suggests the sometimes dangerous nature of the auxiliary with respect to the loss of social benefits that may result, sometimes its harmfulness it represents in terms of lack of professionalism from his players. [...]