“Shape up” the old way employees were hired on the docks when there were no unions. The shape up used by Maritime companies would force dock workers to beg and bribe their way into a job each day just like farm laborers or day laborers do today. They usually stand in a parking lot or on a street curb early in the morning for a day’s work.
I have found the shape up system being used at a junior college in northern California. It is used to hire adjunct instructors and other jobs called class aides. The way it works is the college has a tenured dean, who is in charge of so many departments, who hire department directors, who is an at-will employee with a yearly contract. Each director then hires adjunct instructors and their class aides and none of these wage slaves have protection or benefits and are at-will employees.
The power is all with the deans because most all tenured workers are deans nowadays and on up the administrative chain, who are given a budget and this is the responsibility of the at-will director to ensure the program works with at-will employees. They are workers in a precarity system just like the old dock workers before they were organized.
These college employees are the new precarious workers, who are all part-time now. This is not a new phenomenon, but a natural state of affairs occurring when the balance of power tips in favor of employers and this is why last month I quit my college job. I did not feel good about working in precarity system, which makes its employees precarious wage slaves. This is not a healthy way to work. In the five and one-half years I worked for this college I had four different deans and four program directors, which is a good example of the precarity system. I also witnessed employees go after other employees to make themselves look better in the eyes of the dean—this is what happens in a shape up environment.
The employees are the only ones who can change this system. The worker must summon the will to reverse this tide even if it costs them their jobs.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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