Labor Lines

Seg 1 Degraded Work: What is Degraded Work? It’s the breaking down of tasks into the most basic components so that the work becomes intrinsically devoid of skill, intellectual challenge, decent pay or loyalty between the employer and the employee. University of Illinois Professor Marc Doussard breaks down the housing construction and retail industries as two, among many such examples in his book Degraded Work. He argues that jobs which were at one time skilled professions have now become little more than part time jobs at the lowest rung of the economic ladder.Seg 2 Retail Action Project: Then Dara Sipe of the Retail Action Project and two young retail saleswomen drive home Doussard’s thesis that the denigration of work is not merely the low paycheck, but more often is the erratic nature of the work.