blog post: A Lucky Man, Episode 3
Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2010/07/14/a-lucky-man-episode-3/ "A factory is a battle zone. Nothing better illustrates the slogan that ?time is money? than the daily struggle between workers and bosses to squeeze a little more free time or a little more work out of the workday. The time study guy would sneak around with his stopwatch, ever on the lookout for a motion to be saved so that another fraction of a second of work could be added to the daily grind. The men watched for him and devised ingenious ways to pretend to be working. If you could start working at 8:02 instead of 8:00, take an extra three minutes for lunch, or line up in front of the time clock a few minutes before the shift ended, you?d beaten the system. Same thing if you lingered in the toilet stall reading the newspaper. A minor injury that sent you home early with a full day?s pay was a sublime victory. If the boss had you do something forbidden by the contract, you licked your lips in anticipation of the grievance you?d file and the backpay you might win. Some! guys had learned how to do two jobs along the assembly line, theirs and their buddies, and each would relieve the other for as long as half a shift. This worked especially well when the foreman was in a meeting." . . . _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
