The Barking Dog. Nr. 18

The following is issue #18 of "The Barking Dog."

The B.D. is an unofficial, pro-worker, pro-union newsletter edited by Caroline Lund, a rank-and-file member of UAW Local 2244 at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA

SAFETY HAZARD

The hazard is reporting your safety concerns. I was recently suspended for refusing to do something I felt was unsafe. Now I can see why team members won't say something when they see an unsafe condition or work an unsafe job. Maybe we need a hotline to report concerns anonymously. Or maybe we should do what NUMMI really wants: come in; shut up; and work faster. --Richard "The Rich" Ortiz

Bathroom Breaks

Politicians talk about human rights problems in China. What about right here? Wouldn't you say one of the most basic human rights is the right to be able to go to the bathroom when you need to?

Laws in this country say employers must provide toilets and must provide employees access to the toilets at reasonable time intervals. It is not reasonable to say you can't use the toilet for the two and a half hour intervals between our break and lunch periods.

But that's what some Group Leaders try to tell us. It's especially the new GLs who break their heads on this useless quest to look good to their higher-ups and look "tough" to us line workers.

Our new GL in Final 3 spent his time timing one worker's breaks -- he accused Mike of taking three breaks in a day, totaling 39 minutes! Heaven forbid!

Then he followed another worker, to make sure that he was going to the bathroom. This same worker was given a write-up for stopping off at Medical to ask for an icepack for his sore back, thus saving the Company time that it would have taken to go on a separate trip to Medical. He was written up for supposedly "leaving assigned work area...without permission during working hours."

This same worker was threatened with a write-up for stopping for a moment, while returning from a bathroom break, to chat with a coworker while putting on new gloves.

I talked with some Final 3 people who are pissed off about the crackdown on bathroom breaks. Here are some of their opinions:

First the GL tells you three bathroom breaks a day is too much. If you accept that, they will be telling you two a day is too much, then one a day, and then they will be saying no bathroom breaks outside of break and lunch time.

Some of the first complaints about bathroom breaks came from some Team Leaders. Before they became Team Leaders these people probably used to take bathroom breaks 3 times a day too, but now they complain when we do because they don't want to go on the line to relieve us.

The GL told me it hurts morale when team members see others taking bathroom breaks. I haven't heard any T/Ms complaining about that. What really hurts morale is when members see Team Leaders standing around doing nothing, talking and laughing while we're busting our butts on the line (no offense to all you good Team Leaders out there).

And to have a GL spy on you, following you to the bathroom, that is disgusting. Don't they have anything better to do with their time?

I was talking with a Team Leader from Trim, and he complained about workers who go on a bathroom break and come back with a soda, thus proving that they "made a side trip." But the soda machine is right on the way back from the bathrooms! Why shouldn't people be able to pick up a soda on their way back? We need to drink fluids when you sweat on the line, and some people don't like water.

This company needs to remember that we are not prisoners but employees. We do not work on a chain gang here at NUMMI, although sometimes it seems like it. We have the right to go to the bathroom when we need to. And we should have the right to pick up a soda, make an emergency phone call, tie a shoelace, put our hair-clips in better, put on lipstick, take a headache pill, or whatever other personal things that "normal" workers have no problem fitting into their work lives. It's a matter of human dignity. --Caroline Lund

American History X

Here are some excerpts from a quiz on American history.

Q: Who was the richest man in America at the time of the Revolution for independence from Britain?
A: George Washington.

Q: What percentage of "We the People" could vote in 1776 [at the time of the United States Declaration of Independence]?
A: 10%

Q: Who said, "The people who own the country ought to govern it."?
A: John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Q: What great American told a British visitor after the American Revolution that he could make $257 on every Negro [slave] in a year, and spend only $12 or $13 on his keep?
A: James Madison, fourth President of the United States.

Q: What were the demands of the labor movement in 1830?
A: The 10-hour day and public education. [The work day was MORE than 10 hours back then.]

What the World Looks Like From an Internet message: If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of 100 people, with all of the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this: There would be

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, including North and South America
8 Africans
70 nonwhites,
30 whites
70 non-Christians,
30 Christians
89 heterosexuals,
11 homosexuals
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth, and all 6 would be from the U.S.
80 would live in substandard housing,
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition one would have a college education, one would own a computer

The Right to Read, Talk, Listen Reading, talking, and listening to music are all forms of human communication. At NUMMI it's officially illegal to read or listen to music while working on the line. They haven't yet been able to outlaw talking with each other.

I like to read on the line to make the time pass and help the boredom of doing those 400-plus jobs per shift, each exactly the same as the last one. Other people like to talk, or listen to a tape with an earphone.

A Group Leader told me, "NUMMI doesn't pay you to read!" No, the Company pays us to do our jobs, to build those cars. But if I can do my job with high quality, and still be able to read a little, then what should they care?

Assembly-line work tends to make you brain-dead. Why should the Company object to us stimulating our minds by reading or talking, or soothing our minds with music, as long as we do our jobs with quality? Smart management people will overlook stupid rules. -- Caroline Lund

From Saturn: Worker Dissatisfaction Mounts Thomas Hopp from Saturn sent "The Barking Dog" the results of a UAW survey of Saturn workers.

82% thought union members should be able to elect their union reps, instead of the current method of their being "jointly" selected by union and management.

74% were dissatisfied with attendance guidelines.

85% thought job placement procedures should be changed.

Tom writes: "Quality at GM's 'star' plant has plummeted....There are thousands of defective cars parked outside. The Detroit papers are already writing Saturn's obituary (headline: "Saturn ranks with Edsel as major blunder")....

"Worker dissatisfaction with the Saturn Memo continues to grow [the Memo is the tiny UAW contract with Saturn, which calls for a "cooperative" relationship between union and management, with "mutual respect," -- where have we heard that before? --] "The Saturn workers, faced with miserable overloaded jobs, rotating shifts, and not even allowed to directly elect all of their union representatives, are looking for someone to blame. My answer to them is always the same. The Saturn Memo is responsible."
-- Thomas Hopp

Live Bait & Ammo Gregg Shotwell works at a Delphi plant in Coopersville, Michigan, which makes fuel injectors. He is a member of UAW Local 2151, and was elected a delegate of his local to the last UAW Constitutional and Bargaining conventions. Gregg writes a newsletter for his plant called "Live Bait & Ammo," which he sends to "The Barking Dog."

Delphi used to belong to GM and made parts for GM vehicles. But last spring, GM "spun off" Delphi (sold it), so now it is an independent parts supplier. GM got rid of Delphi because the average wages at independent parts suppliers are about half or less than wages at GM assembly plants, so GM is hoping to get its parts cheaper from an independent Delphi.

Delphi workers negotiated the right to transfer to other GM plants, or retire early, which they are doing in droves.

Gregg writes about the trends in the auto industry:

"Outsourcing has replaced insourcing. Tasks multiply and classifications dissolve. Speed-ups accelerate without time studies. Manipulation charades as employee involvement.,

"Capitulation parades in cooperative uniformity under the banner of company/unionism. Job insecurity is designed into the system to strop the competitive edge.

"Pizza replaces bonuses. Human Resource managers treat their customers (that's us!) like slaves. The main motivational tools are fear and anxiety. It's management by continuous stress, not continuous improvement. when they want more production, they whip the horses. .

"The International UAW appears indifferent to our dilemma. The porkchoppers are well insulated. The outsourcing to non-union job shops proceeds pell-mell without any interference from the Cooperative Caucus. Union officials are running herd for the company. . . . " --Gregg Shotwell

From "The New York Times":

"The gap between rich and poor has grown into an economic chasm so wide that this year the richest 2.7 million Americans, the top 1 percent, will have as many after-tax dollars to spend as the bottom 100 million.

"That ratio has more than doubled since 1977, when the top 1 percent had as much as the bottom 49 million, according to new data from the Congressional Budget Office." -- Sept. 5, 1999, article by David Cay Johnston

Barking Dog Web Site The Barking Dog has a web site, although it is still under construction, so if you go there, don't get impatient. Matt, formerly from NUMMI Maintenance, has generously donated his time and talents in constructing this site. The address is: abarkingdog.com

The site is interactive, so you can give your opinions and they can be read and responded to by coworkers. There is also an ad section where you can advertise items you want to sell.

Ideas or comments on "The Barking Dog" can also be sent by email to: lundshep@jps.net