#labor studies

[racefortheironthrone]

If management finds a way to automate jobs during a strike, is that scabbing?

Peripherally.

The automation itself is more part of the general category of management strategies to restructure workflow and production methods in order to reduce the need for, and thus the power of, labor. This dates back to the origins of Taylorism itself in the 1890s as an effort to “steal the brains from underneath the cap of labor” and through to the emergence of Human Relations and Industrial Psychology in the early 20th century as a means to better control workers. So I think you could see in as essentially equivalent to classic speed-up and stretch-out efforts to maintain production at as low a cost as possible during a strike, and thus break the union.

However, the dirty truth of automation is that there is no clean way to fully substitute machinery for labor. Due to the inherent limitations of technology at any stage of development, you need labor to repair and maintain and monitor automated systems, you need labor to install and operate the machines, you need labor to design and program and manufacture the machines. (This is one reason why the job-killing predictions around automation often fall flat, because the supposedly superior new technology often requires a significant increase in human labor to service the new technology when it breaks. For example, this is why automation in fast food has proven to be so difficult and partial than expected: it turns out that self-checkout machines are actually very expensive to operate in terms of skilled manpower.) And to the extent that a given automation contract or project is being undertaken during a strike in order to break that strike, that’s absolutely scabbing.

[racefortheironthrone]

I remember in grad school, I read this book called Indispensible Outcasts by Frank Higbie about migrant workers/hobos who organized through the IWW. There's a chapter in the book about this college-educated Progressive reformer who goes out to the Midwest to work as a migrant farmworker and report on the working conditions on the farms. Initially this young dude (when he's not writing extensively about how hot the other farmhands are) is rather contemptuous of the other workers who he thinks are being lazy and not working as hard as he is.

At one point, one of the other workers takes him aside and tells him to cut it out, because as he explains they're getting paid by the day, so if they bust their asses and get the harvesting done sooner, they're just fucking themselves out of a paycheck, whereas if they take it at an easier pace, they can squeeze a few more days or a week or two's pay out of it. He not so subtly hints that this reporter is fucking things up for the rest of them, and that someone will shank him if he keeps it up. This completely blows the college boy's mind and starts him down the path of radicalization, because he didn't realize that the work-pace was a completely rational response to an iniquitous employment regime.

So don't self-exploit, because someone might shank you.

[chiquilines]

Public garden study date!!

[acelizystudying]

first general chemistry laboratory demonstration: survived!🌞🦩👩🏻‍🍼🧪

• bionics & laboratory literally are my lives, i’m so into this life i created to myself (even with the countinous stress factors, running out of caffeine & insomnia:D)

[delawaredetroit]

"If I were only looking to keep up...then I'd never be the best...!"

This is a big change from Izuku's Act One characterization when he was largely focused on catching up to his classmates. Of course he had All Might's expectations in the back of his mind since chapter two, but that wasn't as pressing when he was still learning how to turn One for All on and off again.

Even before he was accepted into UA, Izuku wanted to be a great hero like All Might. But the transition from "I need to keep up" to "I must be the best" starts in chapter 100, the first chapter of BNHA's Second Act. Chapter 99 is where Act One officially ends as its title is “The Beginning of the End, End of the Beginning”.

This first confrontation scene with Sir Nighteye is where Izuku really begins to double down on this path towards "being the best"

[feeshies]

I needed a photo of myself for this group, but I don't have a professional headshot and I haven't had a photo of myself taken since like 2018, so I just had the unenviable task of taking a photo that:

Was outside of my apartment (to show I'm not a loser who spends all day inside)

Looks like it was taken by someone else (to show I'm not a complete loner and people actually spend time with me)

Is flattering

All while not looking like I'm taking a photo of myself to anyone who observes me

[starship-squalleater]

i have more.

[commonrosary]

September 2nd, 2024 | Labor Day Weekend

Today was a break off of class, but not for studying! Spent the day doing most of my weekly readings and video assignments. - responded in 200 words to ASL History Forum - Dorothy Lee reading - Myth reading - Medicine Supplement reading - Ancient North American chapters 1,2, and 17 readings - viewing of Meadowcroft and Gualt sites - viewing of Guest Lecture for North American PreHistory - Ice Age Footprints documentary viewing for North American PreHistory - watered plants and cleaned room

[boycritter]

its getting harder and harder to quiet the part of my brain that wants to be a humanities major

[racefortheironthrone]

There was a classic Simpsons episode where Springfield Elementary teachers went on strike, and the PTA responded by bringing in residents (including Marge Simpson) as replacement teachers. Would this count as union busting or crossing the picket line? If yes, I wonder why it was depicted as largely benevolent considering that Simpsons writers and plots tend to lean liberal.

Let's not mince words, it's 100% scabbing. It's not just crossing a picket line as a customer, it's crossing a picket line in order to work as non-union temporary labor, with the intent to crush the strike.

I don't agree that it's depicted as benevolent behavior - the whole gag of the middle portion of the episode is that the scabs are terrible fucking teachers. Frink is completely wasted in preschool and doesn't let the kids play with toys, Jasper is a physically abusive idiot who gets his beard stuck in a pencil sharpener, and Moe and the like are total pushovers when it comes to Bart's pranks. The only one who can manage a classroom at all is Marge, and even then she's incredibly embarrassing and unprofessional with Bart. (Notable difference compared to how she does in "Whacking Day.")

Also, it's not necessarily the case that Simpsons writers are always left-leaning. John Swartzwelder is notoriously incredibly conservative and his scripts tended to push his libertarian views pretty strongly.

[lakemichigans]

being trained at a new job is like if you were a toddler being potty trained but you were 100% conscious of the fact that everyone around you already knows how to use the toilet and even though they're expecting you to have some accidents they're still going to get annoyed when they have to clean up your shit

[sparrow-in-boots]

at long last, the Desmond study is done!! enjoy <3

the actual studies and resources under the read more to not clog your dash. hope yall enjoy it mwah i love you

faces on chronological order

francisco notes

and if you'd also like to study his expressions, here's my comps below

further references used:

[georgierre]

going into the rabbit hole of labor conditions in f1 is crazy . i mean we always have to assume most companies underpay their workers . that's just a given when it comes to capitalism, even for the media you enjoy! but there's an interesting point to make of. the non-driver employees have incredibly big stakes in the issue of financial transparency, especially since they're more underpaid than the drivers and higher-ups of the grid. the gpda cannot and probably should not strike unless they view other f1 employees as crucial stakeholders in this case against the fia

[barefootbaltimore]

Did you know that if you go to a hospital while in labor they will give you fentanyl directly into your spine and that's not a problem but if you test positive for cannabis (a substance that is legal to purchase on every street in your state)they WILL send social services to your home.

[reasonsforhope]

"How much safer has construction really gotten? Let’s take a look.

Construction used to be incredibly dangerous

By the end of the 19th century, what’s sometimes called the second industrial revolution had made US industry incredibly productive. But it had also made working conditions more dangerous...

One source estimates 25,000 total US workplace fatalities in 1908 (Aldrich 1997). Another 1913 estimate gave 23,000 deaths against 38 million workers. Per capita, this is about 61 deaths per 100,000 workers, roughly 17 times the rate of workplace fatalities we have today...

In a world of dangerous work, construction was one of the most dangerous industries of all. By the 1930s and early 1940s the occupational death rate for all US workers had fallen to around 36-37 per 100,000 workers. At the same time [in the 1930s and early 1940s], the death rate in construction was around 150-200 deaths per 100,000 workers, roughly five times as high... By comparison, the death rate of US troops in Afghanistan in 2010 was about 500 per 100,000 troops. By the mid-20th century, the only industry sector more dangerous than construction was mining, which had a death rate roughly 50% higher than construction.

We see something similar if we look at injuries. In 1958 the rate of disabling injuries in construction was 3 times as high as the manufacturing rate, and almost 5 times as high as the overall worker rate.

Increasing safety

Over the course of the 20th century, construction steadily got safer. 

Between 1940 and 2023, the occupational death rate in construction declined from 150-200 per 100,000 workers to 13-15 per 100,000 workers, or more than 90%. Source: US Statistical Abstract, FRED

For ironworkers, the death rate went from around 250-300 per 100,000 workers in the late 1940s to 27 per 100,000 today.

Tracking trends in construction injuries is harder, due to data consistency issues. A death is a death, but what sort of injury counts as “severe,” or “disabling,” or is even worth reporting is likely to change over time. [3] But we seem to see a similar trend there. Looking at BLS Occupational Injuries and Illnesses data, between the 1970s and 2020s the injury rate per 100 workers declined from 15 to 2.5.

Source of safety improvements

Improvements in US construction safety were due to a multitude of factors, and part of a much broader trend of improving workplace safety that took place over the 20th century.

The most significant early step was the passage of workers compensation laws, which compensated workers in the event of an injury, increasing the costs to employers if workers were injured (Aldrich 1997). Prior to workers comp laws, a worker or his family would have to sue his employer for damages and prove negligence in the event of an injury or death. Wisconsin passed the first state workers comp law in 1911, and by 1921 most states had workers compensation programs.

The subsequent rising costs of worker injuries and deaths caused employers to focus more on workplace safety. According to Mark Aldrich, historian and former OSHA economist, “Companies began to guard machines and power sources while machinery makers developed safer designs. Managers began to look for hidden dangers at work, and to require that workers wear hard hats and safety glasses.” Associations and trade journals for safety engineering, such as the American Society of Safety Professionals, began to appear...

In 1934, the Department of Labor established a Division of Labor Standards, which would later become the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to “promote worker safety and health.” The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which legalized collective bargaining, allowed trade unions to advocate for worker safety.

Following WWII, the scale of government intervention in addressing social problems, including worker safety, dramatically increased.

In addition to OSHA and environmental protection laws, this era also saw the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

OSHA in particular dramatically changed the landscape of workplace safety, and is sometimes viewed as “the culmination of 60 or more years of effort towards a safe and hazard-free workplace.”"

-via Construction Physics (Substack newsletter by Brian Potter), 3/9/23

[lizardsarecute]

I just learned that the spacing between the straps on korsica's gauntlets are asymmetrical too.