I like my job.
But Monday mornings constitute that sometimes difficult transition from whatever state I'm in to book packer mode, I didn't get knocked off my bicycle on the ride to the warehouse and got there in time for a coffee from the machine, I've learned to like coffee from the machine in the canteen,it's free and I save money coffee by not making it at home. Over morning coffee before the shift Jack talked about how he'd tattooed himself at the weekend using a kit he'd been given as a present, he'd tattooed the name of his dead daughter on his forearm between tattoos of the grim reaper and a skull in a spider web, it had a delightful hand drawn quality.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mammoth-Book-Tattoo-Art-Books/dp/1849015686/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-3&keywords=mammoth+book+of+tattoos
So, more reasons I like my job;
the people, and being with people makes me feel alive. The banter in the warehouse this morning was mostly related to Gary, one of the warehouse team. Gary died at the weekend, complications with an operation to remove gallstones but the most awful thing is that I can't actually recall what he looked like, or anything in particular about his personality. Made me consider that If I died, how would I be described to someone in the warehouse that didn't know me by name? I asked the guy packing beside me, would I be described as the androgynous, middle aged woman with bad hair - every day is a bad hair day for me, partly because I used to self mutilate by hacking at my hair whenever life upset me - and I haven't bothered to break the habit because it now serves my lifestyle that involves not spending any money (because I don't actually have any), also I don' t often consider my appearance and don't even own a comb or a hairbrush. But the response was that I'd be described as someone who comes and goes, travels, is fairly quiet, and someone that keeps herself to herself, OH ... and I thought I was gregarious ... obviously not.
I like the people because they all have stories, and their lives and stories seem much more interesting than the stories I imagine are in the books we're packing, because they are real and written on peoples' bodies, their histories and her stories are apparent in way they stand and or walk or by the lines on their faces, some people have a spring in their step or a stoop or a frown or a set look of determination, Jim is fat (belly hangs below his genitals) and he sings mindlessly to tunes played on the radio, but when spoken to he is razor sharp and articulate, I like him. And then there's Frankie, 'king of the bin' he has wonky eyes, a very thick neck and his mouth is always hanging slightly open and looks like he'd smell, but he doesn't. Frankie has been to sea, he was in the merchant navy, worked in the engine rooms.
I like my job because I do physical labour for the reward of £6.51/hour, and I like that. Sometimes the effort is very real, so I need to push myself, I can do this by being conscious of how my body is moving, so I imagine I'm performing, and concentrate on being well poised and moving gracefully, I keep my back straight and my head up and carry books as if I care about them, it helps. Other times I just take Tramadol. The shift is always really good on Tramadol it gives me a wonderful sense of well being. I wouldn't want to sit in front of a screen all day in an office, I feel much more at home in the warehouse.
But back to thoughts on death. Gary is dead, even though I don't actually know precicelsy who Gary is/was, his wife used to work here so I was told, until she tripped on a carpet in the canteen and broke her shoulder and now she can't work any more. Gary had a nice car and no mortgage and had been looking forward to retirement. Of course when some one within our network dies we are made to confront our own mortality and that leads to questioning how we are spending our time, is it OK to be packing books in a distribution network?? Well I think it is. Books are good, stories are good, stories help us make us sense of our experience, I recently read a book by Karen Armstrong on Myth.
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/religion/myths.htm
Karen Armstrong is an authoritative writer on religion and history, so this short book on myth did it for me, she explains the function of myth in humans as a means of understanding those uncomfortable aspects of our existence that we cannot face without the elaborate packaging provided by the arts. So I am happy to be spending my time distributing this important information, I can see how book packing is serving humanity; it is a purposeful activity. It's not a waste of my life.
On Wednesday
warehouse operatives were advised to check shifts for alterations. We were advised that a meeting was to be held in the warehouse so the machinery was to be switched off and workers on the 10am - 6pm shift will start their shift at the later time of 10.30 am. The consequence was that we would take a cut in wages, and all because a meeting was being held in the warehouse ...
OUCH - my body got tense and twitchy, I got that same blood-boiling, feeling of outrage that I'd experienced last Monday ...
I'd bounced in to work after a lovely weekend with friends and family to an announcement of the corporation's revenue and profit for the first half of 2014; 'figures up from last year', I checked the figures after work and found that the corporation's profits for the first half of 2014 were £73 million pounds and shareholders' stocks had increased by 6%.
So,
why are agency workers (on 7 and a half hour/week, minimum wage contracts) being informed of how many billions of pounds the corporation makes in revenues? These figures might be impressive to the shareholders, but for people working in distribution network they serve no purpose other than to fire up a sense of unfairness and outrage. The information just served to highlighted how we workers are being exploited for profit that benefits the fat stakeholders through streamlining distribution and extremely efficient labour management that is made possible by exploitation of these sincerely hard working and completely adorable people packing books in the warehouse.
I can only assume that this announcement was made as a test to determine any reaction from the workers...
are these workers compliant? Are we getting away with this labour management policy of flexible labour that streamlines the business and makes juicy profits to satisfy our fat bellies?
Why were we being provoked?
I felt confused,
had they made this announcement in the wrong meeting?
Surely this information was better directed to the shareholders not the contracted packers on minimum wage.
I looked around at my fellow workers, there was Jane with and anxious look on her face, ready to get on with the task for the day, never to be seen slacking in case she had her 5 shifts a week reduced and in that case I know she'd struggle to meet her expenses ( Jane likes to swim in the sea before a shift during the summer months and her hair is always neatly plaited and her glasses are clean, and she has an infectious and rather loud laugh, but she gets furious if she doesn't get to work 5 shifts a week)
so, today in response to the prospect of having half an hour's pay cut from my wages for the next day's shift I went to see my employer in an office in the corner of the warehouse, she was talking on the phone when I went in so I waited and was called in after a few minutes, she had blonde hair and was wearing pink plastic bracelets on both wrists and her iPad was covered in a sparkly pink case, I told her that I had come to express my dissatisfaction at the plan for the next day and that perhaps the agency could negotiate with the company to provide us with pay for a full shift regardless of management wanting to hold a meeting in the warehouse
she said that the working conditions were better here than at the chicken farm, to which she also supplies workers
she reminded me that I choose to do this work and have therefore accepted these terms of employment (and I agreed) and that the agency had secured the contract with the company by promising to supply a flexible labour force ... I said my bit, she said hers, and when we had begun to repeat ourselves I left and went back to packing books, but my mind started to process the situation and I regretted not saying more, I could have developed the conversation to expose her complicity in labour exploitation that I see as a global problem. I was packing books beside Colin (always smartly dressed as is his wife, they have worked there together for 15 years and often leave the warehouse holding hands), he was attentive to my rant that went something like the following;
I bet she buys fair trade coffee and boycotts NIKE trainers in order to condemn labour exploitation in developing countries, but doesn't the idiot see that she is complicit in this global capitalist system whereby corporations get rich and people get poorer and poorer?
11th September
I haven't pushed the button to publish this yet because it is so unfinished, there is so much more to say, but I am tired, my legs ache ... days in the warehouse are spent bending down or reaching up to pick books from a shelf (20 is usually the most I can carry at once) and then carrying the heavy pile to the box to be packed, it can be wearing. Today's shift was half an hour shorter than the usual 8 hour day so I spent 7 hours packing books but got paid for 7 and a half, the union agreed to pay it's members for the half hour that was deducted from our wages. This was an outcome beneficial to promoting union membership among other agency workers, as well as a providing us with a good sense of satisfaction that our complaint had been acknowledged and supported by the union (Unite). The money owed to us from loss on income amounted to just over £3
but, some dignity was restored, and most importantly we have been talking amongst ourselves on the line.
A young 19 old, new to the job asked me what purpose union membership would serve him? I was so happy that asked and that we got to discuss labour conditions and the possibility of negotiations related to our work.
Another good moment today was when I picked the new novel by Marina Warner 'Stranger Magic' http://www.marinawarner.com/publications/bookdetailsnonfiction/strangermagic.html
and mentioned to Steve (also a union member and our workers' form rep.) that she had recently resigned from her post at Essex University in protest of management strategies of the University http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/novelist-marina-warner-compares-uk-university-managers-to-chinese-communist-enforcers-9709731.html I mentioned to him that Marina Warner was an inspiring role model for me and Steve told me that he very much admired Tony Benn, whose books we also pack.
