let's not meditate

Last night a friend came to dinner and I opened up to talk about my latest concern. It was about watching my 20 year old son spend day after day sitting on his arse and going click, click, click, click killing imaginary zombies on a computer screen.  I told my friend that I think I must be annoying him because I can't keep quiet about my anxiety over his seemingly unheathly lifestyle.

I tell him I that it makes me mad to see his time being wasted and when I really can't stand it any longer and I need his attention, then I pull the plug on the Internet connection so that he's forced to disconnect and engage with me. I told my friend that sometimes, when he's not responsive to me or the world around him that I tell him "You're making me mad, I want to hit you'.

Ouch, 

she helpfully suggested that meditation might help me deal with the situation.

So, as I'm now 'between jobs', I agreed to go with her to a free lunchtime talk on transcendental meditation.  The talk was given by Dr. Norman Rosenthal, introducing his new book Super Mind

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318218/super-mind-by-norman-e-rosenthal-md/9780399174742/

I remember packing it.

So, there we were in middle of the front row, listening to the steady articulation of Dr Rosenthal as he told us how meditation has helped him become a prolific writer of best selling self help books.  As he was talking we watched his twitchy hand movements on the remote control as he struggled to manipulate the slide sequence.

He talked of the many benefits of twice daily meditation, but the most emphatic was the sense of ease and calm he claims to experience in potentially stressful situations. He gave the example of - when someone, perhaps your boss, tells you something that makes you mad inside and then maybe you go on do or say something and then later there are consequences, and before you know it, a drama has been unleashed - as if that would somehow be disastrous.

Ah, I get it Doctor, so you're saying that, confronted with people behaving badly, meditation can help us not to react; and your saying that you can teach us how to reach this advanced state of being (if we read your book and sign up for instruction). Therefore, at my book packing job I should have just put up with a one day a week contract, agreed to be guided by a voice activated headset, to being wired up and having my performance tracked all for less than a living wage, and you're suggesting that I could have dealt with the situation by practicing transcendental meditation twice a day for 20 mins (by the way, all he mentioned about that was that you sit comfortably in a chair for 20 mins twice a day), OK Doctor ... then what? What's in it for me? Inner calm ... er?

"No, I won't be going on Monday for meditation instruction" I said to a fellow audience member who'd parked his bicycle beside mine.

He said, "meditation is good, helps you deal with situations". "Like Dr. Rosenthal said, one thing can lead to another and before you know it there's a drama."

"But what the hell's wrong with drama?" He laughed. And when I said that if someone is behaving like an arse, then there should be consequences, things should erupt, actions and reactions should take place, drama, movement; it could even bring about change ... let's have drama, let's have life. "I want more drama in my life not less" he looked at me intently and went quiet.

"So, bye then,  I guess I won't be seeing you on Monday."

And we scooted off on our bicycles in opposite directions, me back to nag my son and ready to throw a paintball at any vehicle that might happen to cause danger on the road and he, inspired by Dr. Rosenthal, to sit on a chair for 20 mins twice a day to achieve a transcendental state that will help him remain inert in the face of upsetting situations and to avoid the supposedly undesirable possibility of drama in his life.

our baby in the toilet of a Sports Direct distribution warehouse

Our newborn baby was found abandoned in the toilet of a Sports Direct distribution warehouse. Yes, it really happened, here in the UK on January 1st, 2014. I say 'our baby' because it wasn't just the baby boy of a nameless, faceless 28 year old woman abandoned in the toilet; it was our sister's baby, the baby of our colleague, our friend, our daughter, our mother, our neighbour, our lover: a newborn human baby boy was abandoned in the toilet. 

I was reminded of this because this morning on the radio I heard that Sports Direct have pledged to improve conditions for their workers, they will abolish zero hour employment contracts and will put workers on a permanent contract giving them  entitlement to holiday and sick pay, as well as a more regular income.  

Sports direct should not be allowed to redeem itself, the fact remains that these workers have suffered horrific ill treatment and their exploitation has served to line the pockets of the shareholders.  And sports direct is just one of the many companies using zero hours contracts to further empower the already powerful. Does a baby need to be born in a toilet before society wakes up to its responsibility to care?  

  

I left my job last week.  I left because, by accepting the changes that were to be implemented (see previous posts) I’d have been complicit in the ongoing exploitation: exploitation suffered by all those working under inhumane conditions. I’m now unemployed and possibly unemployable, so I’ll write.  I’m free to write without the need for self censorship,  I’m free to express my opinions. I walked away from my job at TBS, packing books for Penguin Random House because it didn't pay a living wage.  I’ll give my time in labour for a fair wage; I’ve spoken to a Director, I’ve tried to be active through the union and I’ve expressed my opinion in the workplace and in writing, but nothing changes, except that my work was reduced to 1 or 2 shifts/week.  

What are the powerful waiting for?  Can’t they see, smell, hear the babies being born in toilets? Where are the voices of the working poor? The underpaid lack the basic means to be heard, they’re off the radar, consumed in the daily struggle for subsistence, it's a hopeless struggle on less than a living wage, the working poor are denied the means for participation in society, they have no time, no money and no resources; hard working people in our society, today, are reduced to demonstrative acts of bodily function.  I’m not saying that the 28 year old woman gave birth to her son in the toilet as an act of defiance against her working conditions, I don’t have background information.  But the facts remain; a woman abandoned a newborn baby in the toilet of a Sports Direct distribution warehouse in the United Kingdom in 2014 and today 6th September 2016 it’s been announced that the company has taken some responsibility for improving conditions for its workers. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/09/how-sports-direct-effectively-pays-below-minimum-wage-pay

I QUIT

Today I had to quit.

The thought struck me as I approached the warehouse on my efficient and speedy bicycle with the wind behind me while gliding the corner in a pleasing way, the bicycle leaning in around the bend keeping momentum and without veering into the middle of the road endangering myself or other road users; I was in a good state of flow and riding high.

And it was then that the thought struck me, CRITICAL MASS I thought, that's what's wrong,  it's not happening (refer to my last post), it's impossible that there'll ever be the critical mass necessary to stand up for our rights in the warehouse, therefore we have no means to assert ourselves, we're just being consumed by the industrial corporation until we get wasted, exhausted, then discarded. There have been casualties, I realised as I lifted my bum off the saddle riding over the speed bumps through the car park, once a dead body was discovered in the car park, a worker had gone outside to rest and was later found dead in his car, I remembered.  What will become of me? There was clarity in the early morning summer sunshine, the end result of our input in this system is that people will suffer.  We are being pushed to work until we are rendered incapable,  and then when the point of exhaustion is reached we are rendered useless.  I have known all this for some time, these thoughts weren't new, the epiphany was that we really are powerless to generate the critical mass necessary to engineer change; to command a living wage and forge a system in which all workers are treated humanely. I have two options I was thinking as I fiddled with the lock to secure my wheels in the bike shelter; to stay, get wired up to a voice activated machine by a head set, a heavy and cumbersome wristband and a scanner attached to one of my fingers, a system in which I would need to talk to the machine that would then keep track of my picking rate and evaluate my performance or to leave.

So I gave one week's notice in writing to the agency and announced my decision to my co workers;  wonderfully hard working and humble and responsible people that I've shared life with over the past couple of years, I'll miss them.

The realisation (English spelling this time for ZAK) that I needed to get out or be consumed by the industrial machine was sudden and unforeseen this morning, I must be responsible for myself, and in this situation the most responsible thing is to get out to save myself, and  it had better be today, no time for delay.  I should explain why it is that working under these conditions is unsustainable.

Sustainability relies on a system that is ongoing, the flow on energy should be cyclical, in that  the energy that gets spent somehow gets fed back in to the system so that regeneration can take place.

How is my energy refreshed when I'm paid less than a living wage?  Like many other operatives I need to supplement my income with other work during evenings and weekends, all my time, my life is taken up with work, time that should be spent with family and friends, recreation time.  There's a notice up on the board today about the Bank holiday weekend.

It gave us an option to receive pay for the bank holiday by using up pay accrued payed holiday. So a bank holiday is not a bank holiday, just a day when  we don't get a shift,  Just shoot me, I thought as read the notice. This is so wrong. It's immoral and inhumane and I can't remain in this situation, I quit to save myself.  What means do I have under this level of exploitation to re-energise?  No rest days for warehouse operatives. Pay that is less than a living wage, is a death sentence, a slow death in which energy is sapped out of us by a drip drip effect, one underpaid shift at a time.

I quit to save myself.

critical mass

crit′ical mass′

n.

1. the amount of a given fissionable material necessary to sustain a chain reaction.

2. an amount necessary or sufficient to have a significant effect or to achieve a result.

[1940–45]

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

I started thinking about critical mass on a bike ride at the weekend.  I was cycling in unison with a large group of activists to demonstrate outside an Israeli owned drone factory. It was important to do this because the Israeli defence force uses drones against Palestinians.

Cycling gives me great pleasure; I like the rhythm of pedalling, the cyclical turning of pedals and wheels, the pace; fast enough to cover distance but steady enough to enjoy the smells and sights and sounds in the environment along the way. But there was tremendous joy and energy generated by riding en masse that day,  it felt to good to be riding as a collective. Recently I heard Jannis Varoufakis in an interview say that humanity only exists in the collective, this was qualified by pointing out that  the word idiot comes from the Greek word for individual and so it follows that acting alone is idiotic whereby collective action demonstrates the workings of a civil society.  So, we were cycling together, as a collective with a common purpose, and we chanted  

We will ride 100 miles and 

We will ride 100 more

And we will ride for Palestine 

And we will end Israeli war

End apartheid

End apartheid 

End apartheid.

But how does all this relate to book packing?
Well, we are soon each to be harnessed to headsets, wristbands and a finger scanner. Pickers on the line will work in isolation, communicating only with his or her machine.  We will no longer have the facility to communicate with one another, the mass of workers will be fragmented to a series of idiots wired up to and controlled by the system and pitted against each other by performance evaluations while 'team leaders' in pink vests do the job of an overseer. 

 'Overseer', I think that's the word that was used during the slave trade to describe those who had the job of extracting forced labour on the sugar plantations of the 18th and 18th Centuries. 

An overseer in the past

An overseer today

The need for an overseer both in the past and today is because of numbers; those doing the work far outnumber those whose job it is to extract work from the labour supply. A large number of workers has the potential to constitute a critical mass so from the point of view of slavery it would follow that such a system would need strictly control of its workers. 

During the slave trade this was done with various barbaric methods.  Nowadays things are different, for example whipping is no longer routine. However, there are is a complex system of contracted labour supplied through agencies that exploits people to serve productivity and maintain discipline in the workforce (this can be explained in more detail in another post). In the place where I work the overseers have started to wear very bright pink vests, and there's a large screen at the entrance to the warehouse that displays our overseers standing together and smiling in their pink vests;  I think it's a stupid picture, but there it is, each time we enter the warehouse we're reminded that they are in power.  But we need to remember that we are many and that we too have power too. 

On the day I rode my bicycle to Shenstone with 200 other people, the drone factory was closed down for the day, so our common purpose was achieved, our demonstration was effective.

A Publicity Stunt

Way back January, a friend and I made a pledge to support an event; a bike ride from London to Birmingham and then on to a protest outside a factory that makes parts for drones to supply the IDF;

 http://www.redspokes.co.uk/thebigride/index.php

Yikes, now, I'm committed to actually doing the ride this weekend (I think I won't mind too much if I don't get offered a shift on Tuesday).

Participation is costing me £100, that's 2 days' pay and a fellow worker has donated £5.

I know that our lives seem precarious at times, in this fast changing world but I met people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and conditions for them are inconceivably oppressive and that's why I'm going on this ride, with a couple of hundred other activists, to raise awareness of Israeli apartheid and to campaign for it to end.

The link below shows how the separation wall, recently constructed by Israel (many more are planned), affects the daily life of Palestinians, an obstacle that confronts people each day on their way to work.

http://www.btselem.org/workers/20160731_inhuman_conditions_in_checkpoints

It has to be pointed out that passing through the many checkpoints is just one example among many ways that Israel administers it's system of apartheid against Palestinians whose land it illegally occupies.

So, the ride is supporting a charity that provides sports activities for children in Gaza, so I'm inviting you to make a donation through the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Rebecca-Rocket1

WE ARE THE UNION

'I'm not joining the union' said So and So on Tuesday morning. 'It does nothing for us'.

There's murmuring in the warehouse this week. Fuelled by visions of the 'new era' as supervisors can be seen marching around the place holding the new warehouse gadgets.  Gadgets to wire up to the workers to have better control over picking and packing and to increase efficiency. There's been notice that shift patterns will change to cover a 24 hour cycle; 6 am -2pm then 2pm- 10 pm and 10 pm - 6am ... 'er, no thanks'.

Application forms have been made available for a few full time jobs in the warehouse available on the 2-10 or the 10-6 shifts (the slightly less antisocial shift will be covered by existing full time staff), again, no thanks.

I arrived for my shift today - on time - feeling good and ready to give my labour, only to be told that the entire shift had been cancelled and hadn't I checked my messages before leaving home? Well I had actually, and it turned out that a message had been written but not sent, I was given an apology and told I'd be paid, great I answered; 'I can go home now and be paid for the shift?' No Rebecca, you'll be paid for the hour you've wasted getting here.

Ok I thought, holding on to the joyful prospect of the next 7 hours of my life that wouldn't need to be wasted in the warehouse; I'd been given some time.

But my head soon got cluttered up with other thoughts, the realisation of how little control I have over my time and that they determined how the days of life were spent. I tried to push these other thoughts aside, didn't want to have my mood altered by looking at the big picture; I didn't like seeing the big picture, my pitiful vulnerability.   And then, thinking about the words of So and So on Monday, who'd said that the union does nothing for us, that we have no means for protection against the changes being implemented in this 'new era'; this technological invasion that threatens us; I get fired up and despondent in equal measures: fired up to fight back, to resist the changes ahead and at the same time I'm oppressed by the enormity of the task and resigned to the seeming inevitability of being subsumed in the wake of technological progress.

'Next week there'll be introduction sessions to the new head sets and wristbands' I was told this morning, 'there'll be training sessions beginning next week': my response was immediate; 'I probably won't be available on Monday', clearly resistant to change, to participate in the 'new era'.  What's the purpose? To increase warehouse efficiency? And to what effect? Who benefits?? Not me, and not So and So; we are forced to comply, to participate in our own annihilation, so that we can be tracked and monitored and pitted against each other for efficiency; they will be able to make new sets of pie charts, graphs and infographics; to construct the demographic profile of the most productive type of warehouse operative.  I think I might not measure up, how will I continue to function under those conditions? What of me can I put into the job? I'll be conditioned to communicate with an electronic device; I'll be directed by a voice through an ear piece; I guess that in theory, the automated system will prevent human error.  It will eradicate human error, human fallibility, we will remain flesh, we'll wound and bleed but there'll be less error, we'll be directed by machines to function without error, without inter-human communication.  I find myself looking at the material hardware hoping that it might not withstand a hard knock against a metal bookshelf,  I want to see it as vulnerable, I'd like to see it easily fall apart, dysfunction, and then be abandoned to landfill.  I imagine it leaving the space for  a new order world to emerge, one in which people work together laterally,  a world in which production and consumption activities are balanced, in which citizens of the planet work together for peace and life, all of life on the planet and beyond, and for sustainability.  And then I think, I'm just an old fart that can't deal with change, a Luddite; so I give myself a talking to, 'get over it woman, it's progress, it's happening, work the transition, embrace the change'.

The future is clear says Janis Varoufakis;

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvgdtF3y0Ss

we are approaching a new technological era in which manual labour will surely be replaced by robots.

Where do we go and what will we do when the robots come??

My response to So and So was that WE ARE THE UNION. But we are tired and we're scared.

REVOLUTION REQUIRED

Democracy; I can't believe the majority have voted to leave the EU; voted for isolationism and what? Demonstrated a shallow set of values based on self interest and fear.  I think, as I've explained in my previous post that through the EU we had a chance to put humanity first and combat the power of the market driven corporations that are driving growing inequality, and that this is a global problem, there's no quick fix; living in a fortress won't take us anywhere, we'll stagnate and rot in an incestuous bog pit; rising sea levels (because we'll be ineffective to control the global challenge of climate change) will flood the islands and then Britons will be the ones heading out to sea on makeshift rafts.

Who owns the planet anyway??

Idiots everywhere, look around you, the world is united, we are all connected, here am I sitting on a bed in Tehran, writing a post that could be read by people in countries all over the world - we are united - we can't go back to a feudal system of regional warlords (even if they are duly and democratically elected); we need to shape a future based on how we function in the world today, a world of machines and algorithms, a scary world where the rules are changing fast, so we need to think and act together to save humanity (and of course the planet).

Fuck

I'm scared.

When I return to the UK am I going back to a society of brainwashed morons?  Will they even let me in?  Will my non-British friends be exiled?

Cameron needs to resign, to go and dig a hole for himself and sit in it so that we can throw things at him.

I'm a grunt for God's sake, I pack books in a warehouse, I don't watch TV or read the papers, I observe and ask questions and seek truth and beauty, but I'm now thinking, who are these people, the majority, that have voted to leave?  What are they seeking?

I want a dictatorship, we're out of options.  I'd gladly be led by an enlightened dictator.

my notes on the EU referendum

Before I left UK for one of my regular trips to the middle east I wrote down 10 good reasons to stay in the EU to give to a colleague as part of a competition to swing his vote; just one vote, a co worker was undecided and open to opinions from both sides of the debate.

I scribbled down my ideas, they're not well informed or supported with facts and figures or political rhetoric, just my thoughts as they they appeared on a piece of scrap paper I picked up from a shelf in the warehouse.

MY 10 GOOD REASONS TO STAY IN EUROPE

1 GLOBALISATION HAS HAPPENED - so we need to organise societies according to our time, the way things are now - and that is that networks and organisations transcend those traditional national borders - corporations will exploit people and resources irrespective of small national concerns, laws, cultures languages.  We need to be united globally to combat the power of these massive capitalist enterprises - such as the one that exploits me and the other workers on less than a living wage (that is an addition, was not included in my original note) - that are focused on generating money for the benefit of growth, it is not reinvested in people and this must be redressed.

2  As part of Europe. Britain as a country has influence, globally and in the EU so we can affect laws and strategies - not leave policy making to France and Germany.

3  More effective security - criminal activity operates globally, so should security.

4  Democracy - we as Brits can participate in a democratic process through choosing candidates that  can and do act as our representatives in Europe (OK, could do with some reform); we can elect suitable representatives to drive the changes that we need for a more humane world and better equality - to stop this trend of a widening gap between rich and poor.

5 Europe is good in principle, a body of decision makers with representatives of a diverse group of smaller states, some very socialist principles others more liberal, provides be a balanced way to guide policy and legislation.

6  Freedom of movement - surely we benefit by easy access to Europe - & within Europe - education, sunny, southern Europe, unrestricted travel and the right to stay and work and live throughout Europe is a good thing, we should hold on to these benefits.

7  Economy - much UK business is with Europe, this could be governed by restrictions if we leave, also less investments in UK. We would be in competition with Europe!

8  Immigration - we need to deal with the root cause, which is global inequality brought about by greed of money making corporations - this imbalance could be better addressed through a united Europe.

9  Opportunity to lobby and change the EU to make it work better for us and become more accountable.

10 PIZZA 

and there you have it.

a tenner

I wanted to make the title of this post 'an important tenner', but what I accidentally wrote was  'an impotent tenner', of course, it's both important and impotent, I'll explain;

In November 2015 we had been sent home an hour early and then had £6.25 cut from our wages.

Well it wasn't from impotence that I've was given it at work yesterday, on the contrary, this was the result of us (minimum wage agency employees) claiming our entitlement to be paid for a whole shift.  And a big well done to those who contributed to this small but significant symbol of our entitlement to more humane conditions of employment.

Last week I saw a chocolate 2 for 1 offer and spent £6 on 4 bars of chocolate then realized I'd worked almost an hour for that treat from the bargain bucket at the supermarket, hmmmm, not a good impulse buy!!

But I'm getting side tracked, so here's the important tenner

So yes, it is important but it's also impotent because it was the union that reimbursed us and not our employer or the company for which we provide the labour; the agency remains exploitative, and the tenner has changed none of their inhumane practices, the important struggle for a living wage continues ...in agonizingly impotent small steps.

no, you can't read that

Growing social inequality concerns me.

It seems that the trend of growing inequality is completely out of control, and that humanity has been totally consumed by the system, pumping the economy, generating more wealth for the wealthy, and we, the workers remain powerless as the evil corporations (such as the one I pack books for) thrive on this system of exploitation, exploitation of the people that power them.

How can we stop it?

The workforce is now so oppressed that it doesn't even realize the situation. It seems that people are too preoccupied by scavenging on the margins, feeding off the scraps; bound to labour to generate ever increasing profits for the wealthy, we're  gagged, we have no voice and there's no means for  dialogue, we are conditioned and bound to work,  we pump the machines that make capital for the corporations, we get tired, yet we keep on working, we work to feed ourselves and to survive and ... and can't stop to think.

We're drones, workers, remote controlled moving objects, all the more noble characteristics of our human existence have been eroded and all that's left is drive, driven to work, driven to serve  the system of our oppression.

I made this animation last weekend, that's my foot pumping (representative of all workers, all the working poor), working the machine; and in my version of events the fat cat bubble bursts, and it must burst, or better still, start eating itself so that suffers an unsightly implosion.

Meanwhile I despair;  there's a bad vibe in the warehouse, we're not getting the shifts we need to cover living costs, so we're not earning a living, yet we work (see previous post).

And then I there was this on my pick sheet,  And the Weak Must Suffer What They Must? by Yanis Varoufakis;

 https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/books/and-the-weak-suffer-what-they-must/

No cloak, silly underpants or angst-ridden sidekick, a superhero in the guise of a well educated Greek bloke with a message for the masses, fantastic!!

I got excited.  Assured that this publication would have the answers to my questions; what happens to workers under free market capitalism? When multinational corporations govern and their purpose is to generate more capital, more and more, feeding the few and making them fat - where does this trajectory take us? Boom-bust, boom-bust-boom, boom bust ...? And we work, pumping and grinding for booms and busts .... I don't know?  Despair, voting apathy, head down, the last golden eagle in England feared dead, no, it's not a canary, sacrificed to show that the air is bad and that we're doomed to die, don't look up, pump the machine. Is there no alternative? So, I paused picking and packing, must read that book, I thought so I went straight up to the office to order myself a copy. 

A few days later, when I hadn't received it I was told; 'you can't buy that one'.

They didn't let me buy the book. OK,  I came across this in Ted Talks, Yanis Varoufakis has some answers to my questions;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB4s5b9NL3I

Now I'm an adoring fan, there's a hero among us; arisen from the ashes of a country annihilated by the EU. Yanis 'superhero' Varoufakis is here to fight the evil corporations and lead us to a future in which people who work for businesses own those businesses, such a set up would mark the end of waged slavery; he has a vision for a functional democratic system in which we can all be participants,  he's fucking brilliant.

I invite you to become a follower, I am.

Next animation will be capitalism eating democracy.

A living wage?

Today I'm not packing books and I won't get paid. Instead I've chosen to realize the death of a woman with whom I've shared laughter and joy and dance and wonder, I'll be attending her funeral.

I've been asked to read a poem; it was found after her death among her belongings and it now serves as her self-subscribed  legacy (there's no ISBN no.), it can't be ordered online and it's not recorded in any publication to be packed in a box and transported, so it'll be delivered to you directly, it's as follows:



Restless

Sweet summer has come.
Roses are bending
Turning their painted colours to the sun,
Children heard calling
Whoops and hollers
Important things we all must do can wait
While we look outside for signs of rain

Surely the time has come to change things
To change the essence of my existence
To let thoughts run free and take hold
Finding places, finding the place where 
I am not mean or discontent.
Sometimes I think I am there, but not
Yet, though I have seen colours in 
The fields where love has embraced me.


I was forced to think of death on my way to work yesterday I noticed a gravedigger at work in the Cemetery as I cycled past, the vision of the grave digger tossing soil up from the deep hole, the final resting place for a dead person, it got me thinking.  Thoughts of living and dying, thoughts of my inevitable death. And then of my life, and of my work, my work in a book packing warehouse for less than a living wage.

I begin to get angry.  The Tory new minimum wage is not a living wage.  A living wage would be a level of income that affords me to realize my life before my body wears out and dies.  Working for a wage should facilitate living. Pay rates below subsistence block the living afforded by those on a real living wage: so, my hourly rate has risen from £6.70/hour to £7.20/hour; according to the Living Wage Foundation that would be £8.25, so it's still not a living wage.

No compassionate leave to bury a parent for us non-living-wage workers on zero hour contracts.

Today I choose to live, 

and tomorrow I want to live, I choose not to work to die, 
so I said no to the shift offered me for tomorrow.

book packing: 'nothing will come of nothing' King Lear, Shakespe...

book packing: 'nothing will come of nothing' King Lear, Shakespe...: Wandering back to the warehouse from the toilet on Thursday, I had to navigate a group of women in heels and pencil skirts tagged as visitor...

'nothing will come of nothing' King Lear, Shakespeare

Wandering back to the warehouse from the toilet on Thursday, I had to navigate a group of women in heels and pencil skirts tagged as visitors by labels hanging around their necks.  They were huddled together at the entrance to the warehouse observing its activity; one had clipboard. On passing I overheard the clipboard informing the others that operations were soon to be updated with the introduction of headsets and wristbands to improve efficiency of picking and packing operations ... 

this caused me to slow down and then stop.

In my head, I was imagining what would be going through the heads of the pencil skirts - I see, high-viz vests controlled by headsets and wristbands, hmm, more organized and better controlled, operations can then be optimized and that should serve our business, it's going to make the pie chart look good, and it provides a better facility to monitor and track progress.

I looked back at them and imagined the clipboard saying to the pencil skirts huddled around her - this mess you see here, people in various states of disarray, is now going to be taken under control, automated,  what you see here, people counting books and putting them in boxes is now on target for reorganization, a new approach has been approved and will be implemented in the near future, we have warehouse operations under control.

I'd stopped because I wanted to say to the pencil skirts that maybe, in our high viz-vests and steel-toe-capped boots, we look like a sloppy part of the operation, a part that needs needs cleaning up, sanitizing and tighter control: I wanted to join the little gathering; look each one in the eye and explain that we are workers, active on the front-line, and that we are people, but

I did nothing.

We do nothing.

I'd been away for 5 weeks and there's been no progress toward a living wage.

The pencil skirts shuffled out of sight, led by the clipboard, back to their pie charts, I went to get myself a drink of water and I stopped there, I couldn't help but to regard the situation, and I became  aware that I'd done nothing, said nothing.

I know I have a voice through the union, but it remains mute.

Why???????????

Because we do nothing.

We're like Cordelia, mute in the face of authority,

'my love's more ponderous than my tongue' she tells the tyrant

'nothing will come of nothing' spells out the authority.

These words repeat in my head, bang, bang, bang; an alarm bell, I'm doing nothing.

And the dehumanization continues, more rust has fallen off the van, shall we mail it to the director? There needs to be a reminder in the offices and board meetings of our plight and the problem of misdirected accountability. They don't have a 'cost of living' pie chart to ponder, to direct their misguided business targets, our faces don't appear on the clipboards, if I do nothing they see nothing, we remain overlooked, and we're about to be automated with wristbands and headsets, silenced and shackled.

Time is running out, no one cares and nothing gets done.

I've spent a good few minutes now, at the water dispenser,  just standing there,  realizing that I do nothing and that nothing will come of nothing.

I get a purple sticker and write on it 'living wage please' and stick it in the middle of my chest, no one remarks; after lunch I stick it by my name on the sheet with the list of names for the next day's shift.

The next morning I get  a message telling me not to come in.

Nothing will come of nothing,

so I write.

panic in Detroit

Hello to team leaders, supervisors and directors.

I'm away from the warehouse, in case you hadn't noticed.

I'm not on holiday, I'm in Tehran spending time with my son who was taken from me by his father when he was 6 years old, he's now 15, so I've needed to come and go for the past 9 years to maintain a contact with him; and I'm working here in Tehran, scratching a living as an editor. 

But I don't forget about my book packing job at the warehouse.  And I'm concerned for the people that aren't getting the shifts they need to cover their living costs these days as work slows down during the winter months.  Actually, being away allows me to see the situation somewhat objectively, and realize that nothing is happening.  Nothing changes, nothing shifts, the exploitation continues, causing workers' livelihoods to become more and more precarious.

I talked to a director before I left, and I took to the meeting a rusty chunk of metal that had fallen off a worker's car to demonstrate that maintaining life's basics such as keeping a vehicle on the road is problematic on less than a living wage. Maybe he listened, but I suspect I just provided an hour's entertainment on a Monday afternoon, while he felt gratified that the meeting had fulfilled his obligation as part of a management team that advocates openness and creativity.

Anyway, during that meeting the Director tried to explain his problem of accountability to the business side of things?

In response I asked him to to consider accountability to people in the business, in particular us warehouse operatives on less than a living wage.

and

if a company can't pay a living wage then it's not a viable business, is it?

A pause.

Oops ... I'm on uncommon ground here, I'm talking to someone that probably uses pie charts to communicate;  his objective is to make profits for the shareholders, he may be assuming we share this goal, so I'd better not pursue this.

We were sitting across the table as two people, albeit at opposite ends of the business hierachy, but nevertheless as two people operating for the same business. I had a sense that I'd touched on something sacred, I imagined there was a mantra among the office staff 'our divine purpose is to make money for our most reverend shareholders'.

I realized that to pursue that discussion probably wouldn't be very constructive, and that I didn't have much time. I'd made my point. 

So, the meeting continued, and I was presented with more absurd justifications on behalf of the company for continuing to operate in violation of its pledge to meet labour standards including that of a living wage.

But I don't want to get side-tracked on a rant about wages, I have visions beyond the reality of my life as a wage slave, as I mentioned, being away from home allows a broader perspective, a glimpse of an alternative scenario.

To read while I'm away, I brought with me a book with me that had caught my attention while I was packing it; 'The Last Days of Detroit' by Mark Binelli ISBN 9780099553885, it's an exquisitely written book about Detroit, the city that went bankrupt.

Financial collapse is not to be feared.  There are cycles, boom and bust, life cycles, cosmic cycles, the earth circles the sun that gives us the changing seasons; warm periods of fertile growth and then cooler winters when the earth is less productive, bring it on I say, it's in the natural order of things:

DEATH TO NON-VIABLE BUSINESSES.

And bring on the space for new opportunities; regeneration, a fresh start; a clean slate, a blank canvas a chance to develop, to break the same old, same old situation of continued subjugation and fear and servitude to capital growth. 

Amazing things are happening in Detroit in the vast areas of spaces left behind by the industries that closed down.  People have initiated their own projects, community vegetable gardens, self-organized civil protection, vast areas of affordable spaces for artists and start ups. So, just as the boom/bust model of the car industry in Detroit has facilitated innovation and exciting new projects, led by the unemployed people left behind from the collapsed motor industry, society should have the courage to let go of a business that isn't working (I don't want to be blacklisted from the Union for saying this).

The Detroit model is a lesson for us all, and not a situation that needs to be resisted at any cost,why should we, us workers taking a non-living wage, be used/abused to keep the company in business?

You guys, this is wrong.

And do read the book I've recommended, it's a good one.

And here's a music recommendation with on the same theme

Panic in Detroit by David Bowie

on getting sick - just don't

I'm still coughing and falling asleep and generally not feel quite right and that's after being stuck down by a nasty cold last Tuesday, at about 4pm, 2 hours before the end of my shift.

So, I couldn't work on Wednesday and I thought I might have been OK, but couldn't work on Thursday either so I only did one shift last week, so I'll be paid £48 for the week and that's actually not enough.

I did spend today (Sunday) doing some editing work, but I won't get to send off the invoice for that until next month, so money is tight.

Maybe that explains my behaviour this morning, I was woken up at 6.53am by a phone alert asking me to work the 8-4 shift today, I could hear rain, couldn't see outside, it was still dark, put on my waterproof gear, grabbed my freshly charged bicycle lights swung open the garage door and started pedaling up the hill.  It was raining hard, very hard, there was water running in a stream down the road that sprayed up my the leg flapping legs of my waterproof trousers, cars approached without dipping their headlights for a barely visible cyclist and then sprayed me, and another car and another, I was forced to ride at the side of the road were the pools of water were deepest, I pedaled hard for 6 miles concentrating, not to lose focus from the bright headlights of oncoming traffic,  and got sprayed with dirty runoff from each passing car, I kept my mouth firmly shut tight and my eyes wide open, roads are busy at that time of the morning.

I got to the warehouse and clocked in only a couple of minutes after 8am, 'you're looking a bit dishevelled this morning Rebecca' well I wouldn't have come in if I'd realized quite how hard it was raining',
'Oh no, we needed you this morning'

I had to stop and think, I was feeling awkward,  what was I doing?
Am I obliged to be on stand by, ready to leap into action to meet the demands of warehouse operations? 

Oh dear, my response this morning shows that I don't really understand my position as a casual laborer, I've got confused, let's put this in perspective,  I'm paid less than a living wage with no guarantees of work, I can't get sick, it's simply not an option, and I can be on the list for a shift and then be told that there isn't work for me just 1 hour before the start of that  shift, actually on Monday I didn't check for phone messages before leaving home,  I got to the warehouse only to be told to get back on my bike because I wasn't needed that day.

I didn't know I was part of a rapid response team, ready to be woken up with a call to come to the rescue and then behave like a firefighter setting out on a rescue mission to a burning building,

I'm an 'idiot worker', I thought to myself.