I think I'm ok with it here only because it's hilariously and obviously doomed to fail. Having a computer engineer weld isn't going to work, and thus, won't succeed in breaking the strike. If anything, it reinforces the value of the welders. So yeah, sure, I'll fail to weld something for you. How many things would you like me to not weld today?
"How many things would you like me to not weld today"
See, if you fuck up badly enough, you WILL weld it to the point where it can't be sold nor redone correctly. So chin-up comrade. With the right attitude, you can actually do worse than nothing!
"Ah damn my bony keyboard arms have burnt a hole through this axle half an inch out of minimum tolerance, what a shame. Well, practice makes perfect; give me another one!"
I was thinking of being so bad at welding that I manage to just melt a hole through the base material, which sounds about up my alley. Now that I think about it, I don't even know if a welder would be capable of doing that lmao
People definitely cut things with torches, but I don't think that's called welding. I've never seen it in manufacturing, but I suppose it is a good way to permanently take things apart.
I wish my irl bosses were this inspiring. Do you have any idea how much I'd look forward to work if it meant coming in everyday to fuck around and ruin some corporation?
Not only is it doomed to fail, but it's very likely this will tank morale and cause a significant number of those workers to leave permanently, not just go on strike. So the damage to the company will be long term, no matter how the strike itself is resolved.
Technically sure, but the person is already voicing their support for the strike and predicting the effort to break it to fail. They are also signaling to the workers to hold strong because the 'scabs' in this case don't really know what they're doing.
He's a class traitor, just like when aristocrats become revolutionaries. Big support to him, but he and the other people who are scabbing aren't "workers", their class interest directly contradicts that of the striking workers.
Oh man, somebody should've told me I own my means of production, I would've refactored it to feed people or help do urban planning or something useful instead of WebShit:tm:
It isn't though, if anything they are interested in the workers' demands being met, allowing them to go back to the office, they're not getting a bonus for doing a job they aren't even trained for and they're being forced into longer hours under threat of termination.
The thing is they are actually more replaceable than those factory workers even if (and partly because) they get payed more.
As it turns out, corporations that size have huge hierarchical structures and “manager” isn’t a very useful term because it describes both lowly office drones and multi-millionaire executives. I guarantee the person who wrote this info did not make the decision to adjust their schedule themselves. I’ve been in companies who asked workers to voluntarily sacrifice salary or benefits “for the good of the company” and it doesn’t go well.
This type of arrangement is incredibly common for industrial companies. No one ever hires scabs, they just force the office people to work these insane shifts to cover. This is part of the reason I hammer home the idea that white collar professionals are not "working class". Workers on the shop floor understand this too - those friendly engineers at your DSA meeting are MANAGEMENT to the hard hats.
This playbook has been run for over 100 years. One of the more blatant examples was racist ass white unions not letting black people join and then going full :shocked-pikachu: when black folks ended up as scabs. The idea that a junior dev is “management” and therefore “not a worker” because they work in an office is straight up Pinkerton propaganda. Literally, union busters will insert people onto the floor to talk shit about the office people and vice-versa.
Do you own the means of production? Or is your income dependent upon showing up and performing a job of some kind? Congratulations, you're a worker. And yes, coordinating people and resources is a job.
Pay and prestige differences between white collar and blue collar workers are just there to obfuscate their shared class interest. Don't buy into the capitalist's propaganda here.
They're paid to be scabs. That's literally why John Deere hires engineers to do sbitnwhen they could get someone without a degree to do "plant engineering" or maintenance much cheaper.
The people that the Labor Notes guy got texts from I guarantee are some 25 year olds who haven't quite figured out what their role is. The older, more experienced PMCs know the score.
I'm basically in the same boat as you brother. I never intend to doom people. I just like to share a perspective that I rarely see represented in leftist discourse.
I don't watch TV, this is my life lmfao. 22 year old kids make as much money for a 40 hour work week as people at the very top of the hourly pay scale, in jobs that take 20+ years seniority.
No one ever hires scabs, they just force the office people to work these insane shifts to cover.
Maybe it depends on the industry or workplace, but this would be unthinkable at every place I've worked at. Throwing untrained salaried workers at tasks they have no experience with is both doomed to fail and will make the problem worse by forcing those workers to start looking elsewhere.
They aren't "untrained". They don't pull accountants or anything like that to do skilled tasks. They ask engineers who work in maintenance, or do process design or machinery upgrades. People who know how the shit sorta works but don't run it all day long normally.
Process engineers or some others might be able to replicate tasks for processes or equipment they’re familiar with, but there are likely far fewer people in engineering roles who could do that than there are production line workers. Even then, knowing how a process or piece of machinery works certainly isn’t a guarantee that they can perform certain tasks to level of quality or speed of a line worker who’s been doing it for years.
What if this is just a delay tactic? Put some randos in front of the machines, below smoke everywhere and maybe that’s an extra few weeks that the strikers have to strike for. Maybe it’s not meant to succeed, just slow failure as a means of negotiating better.
I think watching a bunch of useless and unsellable merch thanks to incompetence get produced will only embolden strikes and cost the company more money.
This is absolutely an, "I'M NOT OWNED, I'M NOT OWNED" moment.
Anyone who crosses the line is a scab, and I think we all agree on what we think about scabs. That said, the company is trying to break a strike by putting a bunch of engineers and managers to work on the shop floor and humiliating them. They will only prove how valuable those workers were in the first place.
These are the brainiacs who decide just because it's theoretically possible you should hold a +/- 0.00005 inch diameter on a gearshaft coated in super-hard chrome and maintain a surface finish between 4 and 8 microinches root mean square. Even tossing the whole labor struggle aside, I'd just love to see them try.
Based white collar guy
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I think I'm ok with it here only because it's hilariously and obviously doomed to fail. Having a computer engineer weld isn't going to work, and thus, won't succeed in breaking the strike. If anything, it reinforces the value of the welders. So yeah, sure, I'll fail to weld something for you. How many things would you like me to not weld today?
"How many things would you like me to not weld today"
See, if you fuck up badly enough, you WILL weld it to the point where it can't be sold nor redone correctly. So chin-up comrade. With the right attitude, you can actually do worse than nothing!
"Ah damn my bony keyboard arms have burnt a hole through this axle half an inch out of minimum tolerance, what a shame. Well, practice makes perfect; give me another one!"
The idea of trying to weld a hole in something is killing me :michael-laugh:
I was thinking of being so bad at welding that I manage to just melt a hole through the base material, which sounds about up my alley. Now that I think about it, I don't even know if a welder would be capable of doing that lmao
People definitely cut things with torches, but I don't think that's called welding. I've never seen it in manufacturing, but I suppose it is a good way to permanently take things apart.
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On Combine #35 "Oh fuck, this one's the plasma cutter, isn't it?"
I wish my irl bosses were this inspiring. Do you have any idea how much I'd look forward to work if it meant coming in everyday to fuck around and ruin some corporation?
Not only is it doomed to fail, but it's very likely this will tank morale and cause a significant number of those workers to leave permanently, not just go on strike. So the damage to the company will be long term, no matter how the strike itself is resolved.
:inshallah:
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Technically sure, but the person is already voicing their support for the strike and predicting the effort to break it to fail. They are also signaling to the workers to hold strong because the 'scabs' in this case don't really know what they're doing.
He's a class traitor, just like when aristocrats become revolutionaries. Big support to him, but he and the other people who are scabbing aren't "workers", their class interest directly contradicts that of the striking workers.
Babe wake up, it's time for your daily "office workers are not proletarians" take on hexbear!
Oh man, somebody should've told me I own my means of production, I would've refactored it to feed people or help do urban planning or something useful instead of WebShit:tm:
Love when the bourgeoisie are people who make a high salary for their labor. Not defending gross overcompensation of office work but, yea...
It isn't though, if anything they are interested in the workers' demands being met, allowing them to go back to the office, they're not getting a bonus for doing a job they aren't even trained for and they're being forced into longer hours under threat of termination.
The thing is they are actually more replaceable than those factory workers even if (and partly because) they get payed more.
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"white collar workers aren't proletarians but also blue collar workers are stupid and lazy"
fuck off
Damn management is making itself work 12 hour shifts 6 times a week? Pretty incredible if you ask me
Yes, who do you think makes these contingency plans?
As it turns out, corporations that size have huge hierarchical structures and “manager” isn’t a very useful term because it describes both lowly office drones and multi-millionaire executives. I guarantee the person who wrote this info did not make the decision to adjust their schedule themselves. I’ve been in companies who asked workers to voluntarily sacrifice salary or benefits “for the good of the company” and it doesn’t go well.
Not the people working 12 hour shifts lmao
:bruh-moment:
That would make them internal labor aristocracy, still workers though, just with unaligned interests
Love to understand salary workers as somehow different from hourly workers even though both earn a wage
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This type of arrangement is incredibly common for industrial companies. No one ever hires scabs, they just force the office people to work these insane shifts to cover. This is part of the reason I hammer home the idea that white collar professionals are not "working class". Workers on the shop floor understand this too - those friendly engineers at your DSA meeting are MANAGEMENT to the hard hats.
You're seeing actual management pit two groups of workers against each other and you point at one of them and exclaim "not real workers!"
Edit
Frankly, this sounds like something that a chud would say to sow division.
This playbook has been run for over 100 years. One of the more blatant examples was racist ass white unions not letting black people join and then going full :shocked-pikachu: when black folks ended up as scabs. The idea that a junior dev is “management” and therefore “not a worker” because they work in an office is straight up Pinkerton propaganda. Literally, union busters will insert people onto the floor to talk shit about the office people and vice-versa.
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Do you own the means of production? Or is your income dependent upon showing up and performing a job of some kind? Congratulations, you're a worker. And yes, coordinating people and resources is a job.
Pay and prestige differences between white collar and blue collar workers are just there to obfuscate their shared class interest. Don't buy into the capitalist's propaganda here.
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:downbear:
I disagree re my reply to this same comment. They may be more likely to turn class traitor but they are absolutely still working class.
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They're paid to be scabs. That's literally why John Deere hires engineers to do sbitnwhen they could get someone without a degree to do "plant engineering" or maintenance much cheaper.
The people that the Labor Notes guy got texts from I guarantee are some 25 year olds who haven't quite figured out what their role is. The older, more experienced PMCs know the score.
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I'm basically in the same boat as you brother. I never intend to doom people. I just like to share a perspective that I rarely see represented in leftist discourse.
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I don't watch TV, this is my life lmfao. 22 year old kids make as much money for a 40 hour work week as people at the very top of the hourly pay scale, in jobs that take 20+ years seniority.
Maybe it depends on the industry or workplace, but this would be unthinkable at every place I've worked at. Throwing untrained salaried workers at tasks they have no experience with is both doomed to fail and will make the problem worse by forcing those workers to start looking elsewhere.
They aren't "untrained". They don't pull accountants or anything like that to do skilled tasks. They ask engineers who work in maintenance, or do process design or machinery upgrades. People who know how the shit sorta works but don't run it all day long normally.
Process engineers or some others might be able to replicate tasks for processes or equipment they’re familiar with, but there are likely far fewer people in engineering roles who could do that than there are production line workers. Even then, knowing how a process or piece of machinery works certainly isn’t a guarantee that they can perform certain tasks to level of quality or speed of a line worker who’s been doing it for years.
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:yes-honey-left: just fucking join the strike then
I will also join
It’s based to cross a picket line now?
If you're so incompetent that your mere presence is an obstacle to profit, then yes!
Slow-walk the work and fuck it up as much as is plausible. Make it more costly than shutting down.
What if this is just a delay tactic? Put some randos in front of the machines, below smoke everywhere and maybe that’s an extra few weeks that the strikers have to strike for. Maybe it’s not meant to succeed, just slow failure as a means of negotiating better.
I think watching a bunch of useless and unsellable merch thanks to incompetence get produced will only embolden strikes and cost the company more money.
This is absolutely an, "I'M NOT OWNED, I'M NOT OWNED" moment.
If it’s doomed to failure, this is probably the case. Let’s hope it’s doomed to failure.
Anyone who crosses the line is a scab, and I think we all agree on what we think about scabs. That said, the company is trying to break a strike by putting a bunch of engineers and managers to work on the shop floor and humiliating them. They will only prove how valuable those workers were in the first place.
These are the brainiacs who decide just because it's theoretically possible you should hold a +/- 0.00005 inch diameter on a gearshaft coated in super-hard chrome and maintain a surface finish between 4 and 8 microinches root mean square. Even tossing the whole labor struggle aside, I'd just love to see them try.