A salaried employee who works in the industrial sector is usually called a worker.
Worker is a concept that has its etymological origin in the Latin word operaius . As an adjective , it allows you to describe someone who works or something linked to a worker .
The most common use of the notion, however, is as a noun. According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), a worker is a worker who performs manual labor in exchange for remuneration .
What is a worker
It is important to keep in mind that worker is a concept that can have different scopes or definitions with different degrees of specificity. Even the political perspective often comes into play.
Broadly speaking, it can be said that a worker is a worker . Or, more precisely, an employee : someone who performs a task in exchange for the pay they receive from their employer.
However, the usual thing is that the idea of worker is used to specifically name the industrial worker . Thus, an artisan or someone who works in the service sector is not usually mentioned as a worker.
The employment relationship
The worker, in his capacity as an employee, establishes an employment relationship with his employer. This relationship is formalized through a contract and is governed by current legislation.
The contract details the obligations of the parties. Generally, the worker must comply with a certain schedule and carry out a certain activity, while the employer has to pay the agreed amount and assume other issues (payment of insurance , compensation in case of dismissal, etc.).
Beyond the law , there is informal work . There are workers who carry out their task in black; That is, without a contract involved. Thus, they do not have social work nor do they receive compensation if they are fired, for example.
Marxism proposes that workers unite to promote a revolution and abolish capitalism.
The worker as a political subject
It is common for society to be divided into classes for study purposes. The group of workers, in this context, constitutes the working class (also called the proletariat ).
Marxism explains that members of the proletariat lack the means of production, which are in the hands of the owners of capital. For this reason, workers are forced to sell their labor power in exchange for a salary. With their labor, workers produce surplus value that is appropriated by the capitalists or bourgeois.
As can be seen, the relationship between workers and the owners of the means of production is unequal. Through political action and unions , workers try to strengthen their position, improve their working and living conditions and mitigate inequality.
Classical Marxism considers that workers must unite, commit to the class struggle and promote a revolution that modifies that power scheme. The access of the proletariat to the government would make possible a change in political institutions and would even lead to the abolition of the capitalist system and the construction of a classless society.
Without having revolutionary pretensions, in democratic life numerous political parties seek to defend the interests of the workers. These movements do not want a change in the social structure, but rather aspire to achieve progress without abandoning capitalism .