For years, there has been a lot of backlash against the “objectification of women”, which i can totally understand because it’s a “dehumanizing” term that looks at people like objects, not as actual human beings.
But the same is happening with the concept of “workers”: If people are referred to as “workers”, that means that they are being reduced to their economic function; to their ability to produce.
That is a dehumanizing term. The view should be that people are humans first, and workers second. People deserve rights, and a good life, not because they’re workers, but because they’re humans. That is how people should be looked at.
A humans’ union?
We cannot fight alienation by linguistic means alone.
“Dock workers”, “construction worker” are relevant terms and replacing the terms with imprecise labels like “construction human” has the risk of even further reduction, because now not only is people’s work activity tied to their label, but their humanity.