The Federmeccanica survey
The new blue-collar workers: meritocratic and pro-business
Whilst waiting to go to heaven, the working class is retiring. In the sense that it is losing ground as a homogeneous group, as an organisation capable of making its mark on the political debate. And it is giving way to the individual worker, to the person convinced that the future lies in their own hands.
At least according to a survey carried out by Daniele Marini, a professor at the University of Padua, on behalf of Federmeccanica, the industry’s trade association. The study, based on a representative sample of 1,123 workers, identifies three key points. The survey asks how workers can improve their conditions within the company. ‘By doing one’s job well’, replied 92.4 per cent of those surveyed. This represents a sharp increase compared with the 60.96 per cent recorded in a similar study in the late 1990s. A subjective approach rather than class consciousness, therefore, as confirmed by the second possible answer to the same question. Only 2.4 per cent of workers believe that improvement comes through ‘collective industrial action’. That is virtually no one.
