The Socialist 8 October 2014

Striking to end low pay

We need ideas to change the world

NHS - The black hole

UK - A tax haven for the super-rich

Them & Us

South Africa: "A workers' party must emerge"

Middle East: Repel IS and Western imperialism

Coordinated attacks on Hong Kong movement

Ebola crisis: Consequence of profit before health

Stop corporate plunder of Bangladesh energy

We can beat the pay freeze!

Public sector: why we have to strike

RMT tube workers join October action

Teachers: Pay rise? What pay rise?

Support Care UK day of action

Sheffield: Green workers red with anger

M25 maintenance workers protest

Training tomorrow's trade union militants

Finance to fight for the future

School students organise disabled rights meeting

Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for £10 now!

Exhaustion from buzzer to buzzer

Bedroom Tax: Still making tenants' lives hell

Scotland: Workers need a new mass party

Correction: Labour's private health links are worse!

Thatcher's enemies within

Andrew Price: Fighter, teacher, party campaigner

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/828/19456

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Life on the factory floor:

Exhaustion from buzzer to buzzer

A factory worker

You wake up in the morning after a bad night's sleep: you were worrying about work.

You get to work and the first thing is the team brief. When the management say you are only working at '70% efficiency' you challenge them to point out who is slacking. You know they can't because everyone is at their work area from buzzer to buzzer.

You know that yesterday, the day before and today you have worked as hard as you can and you were tied to your work area for 12 hours. Your shift pattern is four 12-hour shifts then four days off. But you are exhausted by the end of your last shift and spend your first day off recovering.

You hear that one of your colleagues has had an accident and cut his hand open or twisted his back or trapped his finger in a machine - these are real and reoccurring accidents.

The next brief tells you that your colleague was to blame for his accident for not following the Standard Operating Procedure. But he was probably behind on his schedule so was rushing to make his time up.

Your work colleagues literally run around their work area trying to keep on schedule and as a union rep you speak to them about safety and the risk to themselves. Many of these guys are agency workers and feel that if they don't get the work done then tomorrow they will be up the road.

Team leaders bully and harass your colleagues every day but they deny it. You know that what drives the management is the quest for ever increasing profits despite having made record amounts in recent years.

If the union were prepared to organise action against the constant bullying or organise to end agency workers being used as second class workers this would receive support. An agency worker is earning much less than the full time worker standing next to him despite doing the same work.

The BFAWU bakers' union organised workers in Wigan. Strike action defeated zero-hour contracts and won permanent contracts for agency workers.

As a union rep these are the daily problems you face at work, but as a socialist you see the wider picture and that your colleagues will only take so much. Then the union will have no choice but to fight these issues or they will be pushed to one side and replaced by those who are willing to fight.

I work in large scale manufacturing but I am sure this could be similar for you and your workplace.

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