Publication: Labour/Le Travail
Publication Date: 22-SEP-07
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Gereluk, Winston
Article Excerpt
Eric Tucker, ed. Working Disasters: The Politics of Recognition and Response (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing 2006)
PEOPLE ARE SHOCKED to hear about a death on the street or in a public place, and even more shocked When they hear that the death resulted from an assault. When hundreds die in such circumstances, we call it a 'disaster,' and expect the authorities to act with justice and urgency.
When is the death of a worker in the workplace noticed? Or, more to the point, when does the death of numbers of workers attract enough attention to elicit shock, outrage, and demand for change in working conditions or regulation to protect these people?
It mostly does not happen, even in cases where hundreds of workers are injured or die, and in Working Disasters: The Politics of Recognition and Response, Eric Tucker and his contributing authors analyze a number of high-profile 'working disasters' to see why this is so. The book is well researched, analytically rigorous and, above all, political. It lays bare the outlines of the social process of disaster recognition and the political-economic process of response through absorbing examination
of disasters connected to the variety of occupations and working conditions in which these disasters occurred.
The central thesis is that the recognition and quality of response to an incident involving death or injury depends on prevailing 'social constructions' which dictate what qualifies as a 'disaster.' When it comes to the workplace, these constructions reflect a social context in which the death and incapacitation of workers has been by and large accepted, that is, normalized and legitimized. Those who demand appropriate recognition and response to such a disaster find themselves fighting against well rooted assumptions that support a system of labour in which workers are denied a stake in the product, process, or sociality of the activity...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
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