fragments of an attempted writing.




  • Excessive overtime was rife, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip showed a worker did 98 hours of overtime in one month, the Observer reported.


  • During peak periods of demand for the iPad, workers were made to take only one day off in 13.


  • Badly performing workers were humiliated in front of colleagues.


  • Workers are banned from talking and are made to stand up for their 12-hour shifts.


    • That overtime is beyond the normal 12 hour day shift.  Daily wage is a little more than $11 per day.  From here. 
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    2 comments:

    1. Atychi05 May, 2011 06:32

      Oh, but just imagine the surplus-value, Owen. So dreamy. And with all that overtime pay (especially if one really expends one's labor-commodity over the course of several months), the worker may actually be able to buy an iPad. See, capitalism does let them enjoy the fruits of their labor. Sigh.

      If anyone ever needed to be convinced that capitalism does not confer freedom but actually stifles it, one need look no further than the fact that these workers sign an agreement not to commit suicide. Good God, if one can't even eek out the bare minimum existentialist gesture towards freedom in suicide, then something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

      ReplyDelete
    2. COSMIC FAMILY05 May, 2011 10:12

      Apple as enlightened, frictionless progress weaved into the fabric of post-ideological upper middle class life is created by the blood, misery, and despair of captive third world populations. Surprise!

      ReplyDelete

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