A MACHINE MADE OF MEAT--RICK'S FACTORY EDUCATION

 

    I am not making this up, and it is a direct quote from a short story by Terry Bisson in 1991, a Science Fiction story, from which they made a short film in 2006. In the story, two aliens are remarking that they cannot believe these "machines made of meat" actually could contact outer space. The reason I am quoting Terry's brilliant story is that this is a viewpoint that so many CEOs and managers of workers have in our country. The assumption is that people on the floor do not need any special treatment, safety guardrails, or anything which would preserve their health. They are simply "machines made of meat."

 

    My husband, who earned money for college (Michigan State) in the 1960s worked in the enormous General Motors plant in Lansing, Michigan. He saw guys get killed trying to unload the trains which came right through the factory, carrying thousands of floor pans and parts for the cars. Old timers, who knew better, would open the doors and step back quickly as sometimes the floor pans just leapt out of the compartment, killing whomever was unlucky enough to stand there.

 

 

    Another time, he saw a coworker operating a forklift carrying heavy floor pans when the load started to shift. The worker jumped out and put his hands out to prevent the load falling, only to be crushed beneath the load and killed. Horrifying. And you can imagine that the workers went out on strike in 1964-65 to protest unsafe working conditions and to ask for more precautions.

 This would also apply to the section of the factory, which was immense, where people spray-painted cars in cubicles where the temperatures were often 100 degrees. Most often than not, those workers were men of color. I wonder how many of them developed lung cancer in later years.

    Rick talked about the unrelenting heat, the noise (no head phones), the boredom, and the toxic smells. I am convinced that his partial deafness is a result of working in the GM plant. He was "lucky" to have the job of unloading trains which had some variety. Other guys were not so lucky and might have had the job of putting in the left-side rear spring in a car, over and over and over. The dull repetition must have been soul-crushing. 

    And ya think this is just in the past? I don't think so. Given, we have made some progress and there are more safeguards in many workplaces. But just think about meat-packing plants and  how dangerous they can be. The GOP (God-rot their corrupt, greedy soul) wanted to lower the age for workers in some of these plants to age 14, and I think succeeded in a few states unfortunately. If I remember, there was at least one teenage boy who died working in such a plant.

 

    That brings us to AI, which is another way of offloading and disrespecting American workers. If you read the news, you will have seen that the AI Data Centers are HUGE polluters, often built near black neighborhoods. What a surprise! And that they use up massive amounts of water which should by rights go to the communities they are near. Even though we are not seeing "machines made of meat" in the AI revolution, we are still seeing the same old, same old crushing of workers and lack of thought for their health and futures. 

 

    It reminds me of one of my favorite old films, "Modern Times," starring Charlie Chaplin. If you saw it perhaps you will remember Charlie working on the assembly line with two wrenches, tightening screws as the line went past. The bosses sped up the production so that in the end, Charlie was bug-eyed trying to keep up with his job.

It was seriously funny and prophetic, but true to some factories where the assembly lines were sped up to boost production. Rick said that GM sped up the "line" when he was working there, and it was one reason for the strike. Apparently, the line was quite close to the trains coming through the factory, making for a seriously dangerous environment.

    Is there a solution to all of this? I think unionization is the biggest weapon workers still have. If I remember correctly, our country has one of the lowest rates of union membership in the Western world--13%. And, of course, the GOP is strongly against unions and workers organizing. Quelle suprise!

    As the daughter of a radical who organized ship builders in the 30s, I am a firm supporter of unions and anything which puts more money into the pockets of workers and helps to lower the extreme wealth gap in this country.