My price has gone up. I want the boss's $4.50.
K
On Aug 29, 2012, at 12:51 PM, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
>
> Why can’t words mean what they say?
>
> Robert Kroetsch
>
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