Workers unite against communications, technology

New findings by a sociologist examine how corporate concentration and technological change are creating pressures to eliminate stages in the labor process, and what workers around the world are doing about it.

A new book entitled, The Laboring of Communication: Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite? (Lexington Books, 2008), by Vincent Mosco, professor of Sociology at Queen’s and Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society explains how unions and worker associations are coming together to address a modern labor crisis.

Co-authored with Catherine McKercher, from Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, the book suggests that technological change, corporate consolidation and neo-liberal governments are creating challenges for “knowledge workers” such as journalists, librarians, filmmakers, government workers, and call centre employees.

“Knowledge workers who span the cultural and information technology industries are taking up a larger share of the global work force and are increasingly central to operating a global economy,” says Dr. Mosco. “We wanted to learn something about the extent to which they are coming together to defend their interests in North America and around the world.”

Research draws on interviews with workers from Hollywood to Toronto and provides case studies of worker organizations in the United States and Canada.