Posted on March 13, 2011 by OrsanSenalp
Collective ideas about self-organised and networked workplace groups, translated by Dave Hollis of Netzwerk IT from German.
Translater’s Note
To understand the nuances of this document it helps to know what Netzwerk IT is. Network IT, to use its English name, is a platform for the employed and unemployed. Individuals, groups of employees and campaigns can communicate with each other, organise in the workplace and network with each other. Network IT has two principles: helping people to help themselves and openness.
Helping people to help themselves assumes that people are not stupid. Workmates know very well what they need. However, they are often isolated and do not believe that they can change things. Openness for us means in particular that we do not exclude anyone. We cannot stop at national borders when companies are globalising themselves. Undercutting each other only results in everyone losing out.
Network IT is not a trade union and does not want to become one. A union is based on representation. One elects representatives who then manage everything for you. The worker then withdraws from the company or political arena and usually becomes passive except in the case of wage negotiations or other particular events. The same is true of the workers’ legal representation in Europe, the works council.
Whether it is necessary to also work in the unions or works councils can be decided on an individual basis. The question is always whether such positions help or are detrimental to the basic principles of helping people to help themselves and openness.
In the document below we use the term “workplace groups” for self-organised and autonomous groups of employees.
For more information on Network IT see its English leaflet ‘Self-Expression of Interests versus Interest-Representation‘, http://www.netzwerkit.de/leaflet
This document is also available as a Wiki page. Registered users can freely change, improve or extend the document. See http://www.netzwerkit.de/wiki/WorkplaceGroups