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
