Pundits will draw many lessons from the Penn State scandal, but
the role and predicament of the janitor strikes me as in need of more
attention. According to Louis Freeh’s detailed report on the
university’s handling of the sexual abuse allegations: “A janitor spots
Sandusky in the shower with a boy but is afraid to say anything because
crossing Paterno ‘would have been like going against the president of
the United States.’”
The report provides ample reason to suspect that the janitor was
right. Football was synonymous with the university’s identity and the
source of essential revenues for its programs and staff. Undermining the
reputation of its leaders would be seen as analogous to an act of
sabotage during war. And since football is often seen as the moral
equivalent of war, critics of the program would be fortunate if being
dismissed were their only fate.
(At Penn State, a student affairs administrator who challenged
Paterno’s lax discipline of football players involved in an off campus
brawl saw her house vandalized and her safety threatened. See
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/15/us/triponey-paterno-penn-state/)
The janitor’s caution, however, invites several other questions. Is
the janitor’s concern not matched by comparable fears in other US
workplaces? In most businesses any worker can be fired without cause,
with the exception of discharge for reasons of race or sexual
orientation. Thus relaying to the boss or superior qualms or problems
about a product or production process can lead to immediate discharge.
The history of American capitalism is replete with mine or factory
disasters where silencing or firing concerned workers played a key role.
Warnings from front line workers were treated as unpardonable offenses.
In today’s economy, where jobs are very scarce, fear of being fired can
only be more intense.
The Penn State story is a tale of casual disregard of sexual abuse
and of the overweening economic and cultural importance of big time
football, especially in culturally and economically deprived areas of
the country. Penn State is hardly unique. Other colleges and
universities have concealed scandals involving crude exploitation of
young women in the interests of recruiting. But it is also a commentary
on the American workplace, both public and private. The conscientious
janitor and even the PhD research scientist occupy vulnerable positions
and are reminded of this daily. Exposing atrocities or even asking for
careful studies can lead to one’s dismissal. Challenging authority not
merely threatens profits or TV revenues or top- drawer recruits. It also
questions the judgment and prestige of administrators or CEOs.
In theory government workers often have more rights than private
employees, but in practice these are hard to enforce. This is especially
true in the realm of “national security,” a field that seems to expand
its reach by the day. The Penn State janitor need only talk to Bradley
Manning to get a sense of what “opposing the president” can bring.
Nevertheless, even domestic health and safety agencies are not immune
from a culture of elite domination and repression. FDA administrators
conducted a long campaign of surveillance and slander against its own
scientists for expressing concerns about over radiation hazards posed by
some of GE’s medical imaging devices. These abuses are a sad commentary
on both corporate dominance of the regulatory process and staff
powerlessness within many administrative agencies. (See
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/18-1)
Redressing these abuses will require some attention to the structure
of the workplace itself, where most of us spend much of our lives. In
America’s official democratic narrative, the janitor and the CEO are
equals, at least within the political arena. Of course, even within that
arena equality is becoming an elusive ideal. The structure of electoral
politics gives wealth an ever- louder megaphone even as it silences the
poor. Many Republican governors and legislators now advocate and enact
new voter identification laws. They bemoan voter fraud, but can cite
scarcely any evidence of this crime. Their laws are another crime,
disenfranchising the poor.
Feeling and often being powerless in the electoral arena gives a
janitor little confidence in challenging a college president or athletic
director. Yet the dynamic works in the other direction as well. Workers
who have no voice in the basic investment, product priorities, leaders,
and personnel procedures where they work are less likely to come into
the electoral arena with much confidence or even to see that arena as
important.
There is of course no guarantee that faculty, staff, and
administrators in a more democratic Penn State would listen to reports
of abuse, especially by community sports heroes. But democratic
workplaces at least provide channels for whistleblowers and prevent
dismissal without cause. Such communities do encourage more concern for
the rights of the vulnerable.
In addition, over the long run any struggle for a more democratic
workplace must be attentive to gender and racial justice if it is to
mobilize the support workplace democracy would require.
Unfortunately most mainstream Democrats have never embraced the ideal
of the democratic workplace. Even European social democrats have long
since given up on this cause. Nyegosh Dube. a Poland-based consultant on
social economy, puts the case for a renewed democratic workplace thus.
{We must} control economic institutions and processes for their
collective benefit and ensure that the public interest takes precedence
over narrow private and oligarchic interests. Much of this control has
to be exercised by citizens in their capacity as working people who
produce society’s wealth. This means control over production and
investment, and over distribution of the fruits of these activities,
with an equitable distribution of income and wealth being a fundamental
goal.
The only way citizens can exercise control over the economy is
through democratic mechanisms, both existing political institutions and
new democratic economic institutions, including democratized business
enterprises.” (Social Europe Journal--
http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/07/can-europes-mainstream-left-reconnect-with-socialism-and-economic-democracy/)
If political elites have prematurely given up on this ideal, many
ordinary citizens have not. The Mondragon experiment in the Basque
region of Spain, embracing manufacturing, high tech, services, and
finance is a powerful example. Gar Alperovitz (America Beyond
Capitalism) presents many comparable examples here in the US. Amidst
these turbulent economic times, policy makers will have ample
opportunity and need to bail out banks and other key enterprises. We
should demand that a commitment to democratizing workplaces is a key
criterion for providing public assistance.
That such workplace organization is efficient and economically
progressive has been amply demonstrated. Social justice demands action
on many fronts, but none seems more urgent than our undemocratic
workplaces.
John Buell lives in Southwest Harbor, Maine and writes on labor
and environmental issues. His most recent book, to be published by
Palgrave in August 2011, is
"Politics, Religion, and Culture in an Anxious Age". He may be reached at
jbuell@acadia.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment