Responses to the economic crisis have ranged from ‘boss-napping’ in France to factory occupations in London and Belfast. It might appear there is a new militancy afoot, but the bigger picture is that responses are typically individualistic, even therapeutic, such as personal grievance procedures against bullying bosses and demands for counselling for over-worked, ‘stressed out’ employees. Unite is even providing personal fitness lessons to Honda workers in Swindon during a four-month shutdown.

Where ‘collective’ responses do occur, they can take a surprisingly altruistic form. A recent survey of distribution workers found they are prepared to be flexible if it will stop colleagues losing their jobs. The Swindon Honda workers voted in May to accept a temporary pay cut to save jobs. Over 400 such ideas have been submitted to the ‘Keep Britain Working’ campaign. Do these initiatives represent a new solidarity, or fatalism and despair? Is it better to be pragmatic than to make demands that seem unrealistic? What role is there for the unions?

Is the best recession-proofing strategy simply to work on one’s CV? Even before the crisis, Lord Leitch wrote in a government report that if ‘skills were once a key lever for prosperity and fairness. Skills are now increasingly the key lever’. The unions agreed, demanding accredited life-long learning and training opportunities for their members. Can qualifications protect us from the recession? In our service-oriented ‘knowledge economy’, the training on offer is often in generic ‘competences’, such as the ability to listen, or work with others. Does up-skilling in these ‘soft skills’ leave workers with anything of value beyond flexibility and compliance? What is the best way for all of us to protect our livelihoods?

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