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on-the-job action

Worker resistance at a liquor company

An account of resistance at a closing-down alcoholic drinks company by Roy, a shipping clerk.

There was a time when I was a temp worker, an employee of Kelly Services. It was always amusing when I, obviously male, walked into a new assignment, when they'd called for a "Kelly Girl." I got to see a lot of people cutting slack for themselves in the world of work. As I moved around, one assignment in particular stands out as a hotbed of slacking off.

Direct action at an electronics factory

A brief account of workers' co-operation and workload-reduction at an electronic transformer factory by Jay, a coil winder .

While working as a coil winder in a big transformer factory, we workers faced the dehumanising "science" known as Minutes Times Motion, which is where a computer estimates how long it should take to complete a task such as building a transformer.

A bank tellers' sabotage

A brief account of sabotage by bank staff, by Jason, a (former) bank teller.

I was sick of starving so I needed a job. I walked into the California Employment Development Department and this was posted on the wall: "Be a bank teller. We'll train you." I didn't have any experience at all. I just went in and took an aptitude and math test and aced them both. Then I went to a week of teller school that was run by Bank of America.

An account of car factory sabotage

A brief account of sabotage at a car manufacturers in Detroit by Eugene, a carburator assembler.

It's common to hear people complain about American cars breaking down and having problems; there's always some goddamn thing wrong with them. It's almost always internal, and they have to take the car back to the shop and figure out what's wrong with it. It's not an accident or a fluke. These machines are designed by engineers who know what they're doing. They're precise.

Laing workers to strike at Terminal 5

Hundreds of workers employed by Laing O'Rourke at Terminal 5 will stage a two-week overtime ban and strike several times in December and January.

The first strike days have been confirmed as starting at 6.45am on Friday 16th and ending 6.45am on Tuesday 20th December, an overtime ban will start at the same time, and further strikes are planned between the 20th and 23rd of January. The dispute is primarily over a £1/hour increase on bonuses which other contractors on site have agreed to.

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