All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup

[xchrom]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours



ON A BRIGHT SPRING DAY in a wisteria-bedecked courtyard full of earnest, if half-drunk, conference attendees, we were commiserating with a fellow journalist about all the jobs we knew of that were going unfilled, being absorbed or handled "on the side." It was tough for all concerned, but necessary—you know, doing more with less.

"Ah," he said, "the speedup."

His old-school phrase gave form to something we'd been noticing with increasing apprehension—and it extended far beyond journalism. We'd hear from creative professionals in what seemed to be dream jobs who were crumbling under ever-expanding to-do lists; from bus drivers, hospital technicians, construction workers, doctors, and lawyers who shame-facedly whispered that no matter how hard they tried to keep up with the extra hours and extra tasks, they just couldn't hold it together. (And don't even ask about family time.)

Webster's defines speedup as "an employer's demand for accelerated output without increased pay," and it used to be a household word. Bosses would speed up the line to fill a big order, to goose profits, or to punish a restive workforce. Workers recognized it, unions (remember those?) watched for and negotiated over it—and, if necessary, walked out over it.

But now we no longer even acknowledge it—not in blue-collar work, not in white-collar or pink-collar work, not in economics texts, and certainly not in the media (except when journalists gripe about the staff-compacted-job-expanded newsroom). Now the word we use is "productivity," a term insidious in both its usage and creep. The not-so-subtle implication is always: Don't you want to be a productive member of society? Pundits across the political spectrum revel in the fact that US productivity (a.k.a. economic output per hour worked) consistently leads the world. Yes, year after year, Americans wring even more value out of each minute on the job than we did the year before. U-S-A! U-S-A!

[kenny blankenship]

1. The record high corporate profitability mark has 2 parts:

1) total power over labor- the ability to wring higher output and longer hours from workers without having to increase pay, hire additional workers, etc..

2) total pricing power over consumers- the inability of consumers to "find another source" for what they want/need to buy. Oligopoly is a major feature of any "mature" capitalist industry. What happens when there are only 3 main producers of cereal for example? It doesn't matter where the consumer tries to shop to fill their need, that box of cornflakes weighing little more than a handful of feathers costs $3.50, $4.29 - whatever the oligopoly says you have to pay.

I know some people would LOVE to crow about record corporate profits and how they validate the economic policies of the current administration, as though they were distinguishable from the preceding administration. But the fact is that these profits and productivity records are wrung from the blood sweat and tears of the 99%, and indicate the absolute powerlessness of ordinary Americans, both as consumers and workers, under the current (continued) Neoliberal regime.

And they will come back after the election, and tell us that we are falling behind in "competitiveness" as a nation, and we must accept "shared sacrifice" and tighten our belts, and make plans to deal with our parents' old age and ill-health without help from the government.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Initech]

3. Reagan happened - the biggest mistake we've ever made in this country.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Reminds me of this great speed-up

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[xchrom]

5. Agreed. The great conundrum is getting the person

Making $125. Realizing they have more in common with those making $35k than not.