快递员的劳动过程:关系控制与劳动关系张力的化解

Research on Couriers’Labor Process:Guanxi Control and Tension Resolution between Labor Relations

运用劳动过程理论,本文对快递员劳动过程中的关系控制与劳动关系张力化解进行研究,发现:一方面,关系控制是快递员劳动过程中的一种劳动控制手段,包含既有关系使用和交往关系经营双重机制;另一方面,快递员通过多元策略来化解劳动关系中的张力,维持自我的完整,其一为积累熟客,通过虚假签收、一口价分别应对物流跟踪技术的时间控制和薪酬设置机制,其二为同行共谋,通过串件、倒卖件分别应对物流跟踪技术的时空控制和薪酬设置机制,其三为关系隐瞒与破裂,通过劳客关系破裂、劳资关系隐瞒和破裂来回应关系控制。在与既有理论的对话中,本文揭示了快递业的非正式和不稳定特征,对维护快递员权益和规范快递业发展具有参考和借鉴意义。

This study applies labor process theory to explore the guanxi control and the resolution of tensions between couriers and their employers.Two major conclusions are drawn in this article.On one hand,guanxi control is the third kind of labor control mechanism,including dual mechanisms of ascribed guanxi usage and self-induced guanxi operation.On the other hand,couriers develop multiple strategies to resolve the tensions of labor relations and to maintain self-integrity:firstly,couriers intend to accumulate regular customers by faking costumer’s signature in response to the employers’control mechanism of logistics tracking technology,and by asking for a buyout price in response to income setting mechanism;secondly,couriers collude with peers by unauthorized territory-subdivision and by buying and reselling packages in order to respond to the employers’control mechanism of logistics tracking technology and income setting mechanism respectively;thirdly,couriers intend to respond to guanxi control and hegemonic regime through the rupture of labor-customer relations,and the concealment and rupture of labor-management relations.Interacting with the existing theories,this study reveals the informal and unstable characteristics of the express industry,which has certain reference significance for safeguarding the rights and interests of couriers and regulating the express delivery industry.