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=
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