September 24, 2003 - 2:49pm -- jim
"Reverse Engineering Freedom"
Geert Lovink and Florian Schneider, Makeworlds #3
During a noborder camp in a small town in Romania a young guy passes
by. He works for a corporation that manufactures hardware for
brand-name electronics companies near the border to Hungary and Serbia.
He tells the story of an unsuccessful attempt to unionise the workers of
this factory. About 3500 Romanians are employed there for a wage of
eight dollars for a twelve hour working day. Their dispute was not
about salary. The workers' discontent grew out of despair -- how were
they to overcome the powerless position they were in as an outsourced
post-industrial reserve army, fully exposed to the fluctuations of
just-in-time production while forced to be graceful for the privilege
of having a job in the first place? His story ended as it happens
every day around the globe. Snared within the boundaries of the local,
the struggle of the Romanian workers didn't have a chance to be
recognized. Irrespective of whether the free lunch includes desert, a
few extra dollars are thrown into the pay cheque, or health insurance
is part of the salary package, management will not hesitate to fire
all those who start a union within the factory. It's a vicious circle.
Every attempt to self-organize leads to nothing but an affirmation of
and increase in the power of a corporation that operates globally and
constantly blackmails workers in Romania, Scotland or Singapore with
threats to close down the factory site and move production to China or
Mexico.
