Slavery Is Not Job Creation

If I were a vegetarian, I’d probably be a mellow fanatic. I wouldn’t wear leather shoes, I wouldn’t eat jelly babies that contains gelatine form mammalian sources, my catfood would be dolphin friendly. When there’s a mindset that I disagree with, I refuse to be part of anything that supports that mindset. And this leads me back to my job.

Obviously, the aim of any major company is to make money. Minimum expenditures for maximum profits. But when is the price you pay too high? The company I work for is situated conveniently close to an informal settlement. This means that they (I refuse to say “we”) can dip their greedy hands into the struggling community and provide them with jobs. Some job creation is better than no job creation, but after hearing some behind-the-scenes info, I cannot imagine how the company’s owners sleep at night.

a) Some big bosses came to visit the factory, and noticed that we were using raw materials that had expired more than a month before. They made a big hoo-ha, the managers made a big hoo-ha, and everyone passed the buck until it landed on the poor sod who issues the products from the fridges. They opened a disciplinary action against him, humiliated him in a few shouting matches, and finally suspended him from his bottom-of-the-barrel fridge-packer job. Once the big bosses left the building, our managers recalled all the rejected raw materials and insisted that the factory continue using them. Because it still smells alright, and is worth a lot of money. They are rolling around in double standards and new cars, and the fridge guy now has no way to support his family.

b) Yesterday I found out that some people get payed not per hour, but per weight of raw material/product they prepare. This is grand, because the harder you work, the more you earn. Incentive? Not here. The line of ladies who spend every day on their feet, from 6 am to 3 pm, cutting raw meat into 1x5 cm strips are paid by the bucket. R6.00 per bucket filled. It takes them a goof few hours to fill a bucket. The ladies who cut spinach have it even worse: They are paid 50 cents per kilogram of spinach prepared. Spinach is feather-light, especially when cut. It takes them an average of four hours to cut a kilo of spinach. That’s 12.5 cents per hour. South African cents. That translates to $0.01 per hour, working with sharp knives and standing on your feet for 9 hours.

 

This company is grating against my moral grain.