Jamie Woodcock is a union organizer as well as a researcher at Oxford in the UK. His organizing work is with precarious workers and in particular workers in the ‘gig economy’ from companies such as Uber and other similar digital platforms. He has worked undercover in a call centre to gather insights into the everyday experiences of call centre workers and has published a book about this titled Working the Phones. It exposes the shift towards a post-industrial service economy, and all the issues that this produces, such as the destruction of a unionised work force, isolation and alienation, loss of agency and the proliferation of surveillance and control which affects mental and physical well being of the workers. Furthermore, it presents a window onto the methods of resistance that are developing in such spaces.
Listen to Jamie’s input here:
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