Degraded Conditions and Social Stigma Fuel RN Vote Surge

Is there a connection between work conditions and the RN vote? Does night work, lack of autonomy and space to talk about your work affect the ballot you put in the ballot box? Yes, according to a study by the economist Thomas Coutrot which Bastamag returns to and which we will republish in Relations de force.

Before that, I didn’t really hear my colleagues giving uninhibited racist speeches. This is not true at all now: there is free speech on this subject” said Élodie*, a nurse in the public sector. Sarra*, a kindergarten teacher for twenty years, shares the same opinion: “We have more and more colleagues who do not hide their vote for the extreme right. These are things I was not used to at the beginning of my career. »

The RN voted affecting the earth in almost all strata of society. But there is often little analysis on the question of its relation to working conditions. These play a key role in absentee and remote voting, protecting a recent vote study by economist Thomas Coutrot with the name “The long arm of work”.

“The ability to express themselves, to have ideas about their work will affect the way employees think about their civic work,” he explains. If there is a lot of autonomy you have the power to act, you feel responsible. It encourages civic engagement and voting.

On the other hand, “if you feel helpless, powerless, because you have a rigid work group that does not allow you to make decisions, you will avoid or vote for authoritarian candidates, who show the type social relationship you are used to in the company – a boss for example because you can’t argue. »

Job status and RN vote

When the organization of work excludes people from daily involvement in decisions that concern them, their democratic aspirations outside of work also decline. But this issue of job independence is not the only professional change that will influence the vote. Time constraints also play an important role. “When you work at night or get up very early in the morning to go to work, the probability of voting RN has increased by 50%,” according to analyzes by Thomas Coutrot.

Likewise, work in physical conditions with heavy loads, repetitive work or tiring conditions can have an effect. Having the opportunity to talk about one’s work in the company also greatly increases their ability to vote for the extreme right.

“A package of poor working conditions, marginal conditions, social contempt, problems related to work experience, clearly reinforces the probability of voting RN, summarizes Thomas Coutrot. These are methods that push people to vote RN without being aware of those involved,” he said.

A sense of exclusion favors the RN vote

When this study is mentioned, it is the loss of the meaning of work that immediately comes to mind of Benjamin Angeletti, free, while the working class votes strongly for the extreme right. “In construction, we have lost our knowledge, our jobs. Craftsmanship has evolved into industry. In carpentry, we have gone from old cabinets, old frames, many things made by hand with real knowledge, to automation. Technologies have brought productivity benefits to the company, but they have also taken away the experience, the role, the meaning of work. And pride in the production when we come home in the afternoon after work. Today, we tell people “you are no longer useful”. »

A psychiatric nurse in a private hospital with a public service mission, Elsa marks the Covid period as a turning point. “When we found ourselves in a “first duty” as Macron said, we told ourselves that we were going to be recognized as essential workers. But then, with the lack of consideration and complete neglect of what happened, people are disgusted with politics, she testifies. The backlash was also the belief that there was a lot of useless material in the working groups, that it was necessary to “sort through”. We find this today in speeches of racism and exclusion. »

Ludovic Rioux regularly faced this exclusive conversation when he was a Deliveroo delivery man. “A very long conversation has become common about undocumented immigrants who agreed to work at any cost and would lower the pay conditions of delivery drivers. However, it is not the responsibility of undocumented workers, but employers, he says. The same conversation regarding immigrant workers is nothing new, but it has become very common. »

Develop the power to work cooperatives

What if we started by taking care of work to take care of democracy? This is what Yannice Clochard, ergonomist and member of the Popular Assembly of Southwest Lyon, who started the debate, particularly defends. “When we suffer at work, we shrink from the values ​​we put in our work and from the loyalty we can develop,” he observes. It is understandable that no work would leave the company without the information of the employees. By having conversations between employees and reconnecting work groups about this contribution and the pride it offers, we can ask for transformations. We become stronger, we regain the power to act. »

The joy of being together and doing things together is exactly what motivates Elsa, a nurse and member of the CGT union. “For example, we carried out the demands of the workers by setting up in the management buildings and having a picnic. We are caught in a logic of protection where we are always fighting “against”: against the closure of services and facilities, against budget cuts… And we don’t talk enough about the better let’s do it together. It is very political to say what is public service, health, access to care with the speech of an activist. The more I hear the suffering of colleagues, the more I tell myself that the union has this role in recreating dynamics, hope, dreaming together about the we would like to do it together at work. »

“What is not in the program of the parties of the left, it is possible to give a voice to the work, to emphasize the options,” replied Thomas Coutrot. In the last legislative elections, it was workers and workers of the first departments who were avoiding. And when they vote, it is for him in the first place RN then for the New Popular Front.

Thomas Coutrot now wants to establish a political right: monthly discussion meetings on work between colleagues, which is described in this article. The challenge is to take back the power to engage in the transformations of daily work. To oppose the far right and the RN vote.

Sophie Chapelle (Bastamag)

* The first name has been changed