Reply #6: Examples I saw when I was working temp

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Compulsory overtime, so that workers in a metal plating plant were on the floor 72 hours a week. They gobbled down their lunch and then spent the rest of their 30-minute breaks sacked out on the benches. Meanwhile, you could never find the "suits" on the premises between the hours of 11AM and 1PM or after 5PM. I called the temp agency and said I wasn't going back after the Chief Scrooge told us we could have 4th of July off only if we came in on Sunday to make up for it.

2. Having workers work in a plant grinding rubber products into various shapes without breathing gear. The air was so full of black rubber particles that when I got off the job, I had black flecks on my face. If I ever get lung cancer (as a life-long non-smoker) or other lung disease, I'll know whom to blame.

3. Electronic monitoring of word processing and data entry personnel so that they were penalized for making too many errors or not typing fast enough. (Otherwise known as "how to increase your clerical workers' stress levels)

4. Cutting the pay or hours of rank and file workers while giving the executives bonuses

5. A major retailer whose own rules said that you got an hour's break total if you worked 8 hours, 30 minutes if you worked 6 hours, and 15 minutes if you worked less than 6 hours. They consistently scheduled people for 5 hours and 45 minutes or 7 hours and 45 minutes so that they wouldn't have to give the extra break time. And this was a MAJOR national department store.

6. Another business made us clock out for our 20-minute lunch and 10-minute break.

All of these occurred during the Reagan recession, when the OFFICIAL unemployment rate in Minneapolis was 11%.