Since 2 other Michael's have contributed to this thread, let me throw in Linder, Marc and Ingrid Nygaard. 1998. Void Where Prohibited: Rest Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company Time (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press).
On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 5:01 PM, Mike Robinson <[email protected]> wrote: > This is my first post on pen-l. I've been sort of a long time lurker. > > But to add to this, part time inside workers face this kind of problem at > UPS except the issue is the hours keep getting shorter even when we have > large volumes to work with. The company picks the length of the working day > one day ahead of time and typically picks the lowest amount of hours they > can give us based on our contract: 3 1/2 hours. They then try to get all the > work done in about 3 hours and get us out of the building. Recently they > have been threatening to cancel entire shifts due to people saying they want > to work their 3 1/2 when the day ends early. > > Each year the company makes a decision on the amount of work per hour that > workers should be doing, not because they gave us better equipment or fixed > what we already have, just because they want to push more out. Due to the > fact that they've decided we should be more productive they determine that > we are "light" on work so they try to send people home or tell them not to > come in(they have a right to). This leads to situations where a loader will > have to load 3-4 trucks at the same time because there simply aren't enough > people working. It also means that the supervisors end up loading and > unloading trucks along with their workers, which is also a big a contract > violation but most people are too scared to grieve about it. When you are > light on staff, heavy on volume, you have to cut corners to get your job > done and thus you are always guilty of some kind of safety or quality > violation. The supervisors ignore these violations when it adds to their > productivity, they take note when you bring up the contractual issues. > > They have been more and more egregious lately and it frightens me because we > are renegotiating our contract. What scares me even more is that from what I > have heard the Teamsters want an early settlement. > > Most workers I work with do not think the union looks out for them at all. I > once asked our shop steward about getting breaks during the winter when the > part time workers work for 8+ hours in a single shift. I was told to hide in > the bathroom. > > I don't know what the solution is because the IBT isn't looking but I am > happy to see writing that acknowledges the problem. I really enjoyed the > article. > > > On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 11:07 AM, michael yates <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Full at http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/02/02/lucky-to-have-a-job/ >> >> "Workers in a hospital are sick of management violating their collective >> bargaining agreement. Their work is ever more stressful: hours keep getting >> longer; patient loads rise; safety rules are ignored. They tell their union >> steward that it is time to bombard the bosses with grievances before they >> explode in rage. He tells them, “You better not do that. You’re lucky to >> have a job.” >> >> >> >> In every industry in the United States, there are more people seeking >> employment than jobs available. Conservatives and liberals alike say we have >> to put men and women to work. They differ in how they would achieve this, >> but both shout out the mantra, “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Little is ever said about >> the kinds of jobs that need to be created. What will they pay? Will they >> provide benefits? Will they be interesting, safe, fulfilling, socially >> useful? >> >> >> >> Perhaps the reason we don’t ask such questions is that we take our work >> for granted, beyond our control and as inevitable as the rising sun. But >> looked at in the long sweep of human existence, the jobs we do and the way >> we do them are unlike anything we did before the rise of capitalism" . . . >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
