Just wait, Mitt & his gang will get you back there (although maybe $3.00 an hour is too much).
You remember far too clearly, Ken....
Doug
On 2012-08-29, at 8:43 AM, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Set in 1978. Minimum wage is higher now but still sucks.
>
> K
>
> On Aug 29, 2012, at 10:05 AM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> K Ah the sweet rewards of labour!!! When is this set $3 is not recently!!??
>> P (ex shop steward)
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Kenneth Wolman
>> Sent: 29 August 2012 14:21
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Snap: Dignity of Labor
>>
>> I take the job because it pays $3.00 an hour and I haven't worked in
>> months.There is a new baby in the house. It will give me something to do
>> until my ship comes in, tugged off a shoal and cast out to sea. I'll get up
>> and help my wife feed the baby. II will be late night-shift work. I don't
>> care. Boredom breeds danger. It is close by and close to a MacDonald's
>> faux-restaurant for the 30 minutes I get for lunch. Screw my arteries.
>>
>> The extruder oozes plastic cum for dimestore childrens' toys. I learn the
>> trick of industrial sabotage from the foreman, who makes $4.50 an hour. No
>> benefits, of course. The foreman is a good guy who hates the place too.
>> Accidentally open the door to the extruder, he whispers. Alarms will go off.
>> The machine will stop spurting. You're getting paid for downtime anyway.
>> Technicians will have to reset it. Reset could take half an hour. Nothing to
>> do. Go outside with machine coffee and smoke. On a hot night even the ooze
>> of humidity is refreshing. Forget the insult of this work. Forget there is
>> no future except moving in with my in-laws, 110 miles from New York.
>>
>> In the morning I sit with my wife in the kitchen. We feed the baby his
>> bottle and Gerber fruit. I hold him so he can spit up on my shoulder. My
>> wife looks at me. "You're going to quit, aren't you?" I nod, call the shop,
>> and tell them I'm not coming back. Oh well.
>>
>> A few weeks later my ship comes it. It is the Lusitania, so I find out. For
>> three years I live with a target below the waterline, but the work pays
>> better than $3.00 an hour. I can get used to fear of death by water because
>> that's why they pay me.
>>
>> KTW, 8-28-12=
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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Robert Kroetsch
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