Forever Temp?: Once a bastion of good jobs, manufacturing has gone gaga for temps

[marmar]

from In These Times:


Forever Temp?
Once a bastion of good jobs, manufacturing has gone gaga for temps.

BY Sarah Jaffe


Betty McCray, 53, has moved around a bit in her lifetime. She’s worked as a chef, a nursing home attendant and a welder. Throughout, she says proudly, she has “worked union,” even in states with anti-labor right-to-work laws, such as Tennessee, where she moved in 2010 to be closer to her son.

That changed in 2011, when she found work at a Nissan auto plant in Smyrna, Tenn., preparing parts for the assembly line. Not only is this job non-union, but McCray doesn’t technically work for Nissan—she’s employed through Yates Services, a temporary staffing agency. She’s one of a growing number of people who do the physically demanding work of manufacturing, but who, as temps, have none of the job security and few of the benefits that many Americans still associate with the sector.

McCray found the job through the local unemployment office, which referred her to Yates. As an “associate” (the firm’s preferred term for temp), she works alongside permanent Nissan employees, but she is treated differently. She says she is paid less, gets no personal days and has to bring a doctor’s note if she is sick. Her job feels precarious, like she could be let go at any time.

The path to becoming an “employee,” that elusive goal, is far from clear. Tracy Logan, 34, worked through Yates on Nissan’s assembly line for a year before winning a promotion to a position as a robot tender, overseeing the robots that spray paint on the car parts. To his surprise, he remained a temp. “When I first arrived at Nissan, that position was considered Class A—only Nissan personnel can hold that position,” he says. “I put in for it, thinking that would be a way of getting on with Nissan. Somewhere in there, they changed the classification of the job, but didn’t let us know.” ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15972/permatemps_in_manufacturing

[kelliekat44]

1. It's all about killing off the unions by the RW...it's irony at its best.

There was a time when the blue-collar workers were all for unions...now many have joined the ranks of the GOP and fight their own self- interests....just to be against Obama and the Dems that Rush and FOX paint as the evil "socialists" or anti-Christian-"muslin-loving" moochers. Just think how far this country could have advanced without the greedy corporatists and their bigoted consumers.

[El_Johns]

3. +1. There is so much going on under the surface; I think we'd be shocked if we knew the

extent to which the workforce has been privatized, temp-orized, and such, and the lack of worker protections now extant.

Like having to work for 3 months with a chest infection because if you take even a unpaid day off you might get fired. I had to suck up to my boss to get any time off at all, & it was an hour here & an hour there, with him acting like he was being all magnanimous.

[madrchsod]

2. my daughter was hired by one of the three companies in our town that doesn't do temps

she left a one manufacturer and within two weeks she was hired by another.
she has an excellent work record and over 30 hours of osha training.

i've been hired by both company and temp services and they totally suck...

[Ron Green]

4. Democracy At Work (Workers' Self-Directed Enterprises)

and MEDICARE FOR ALL!

That'll fix this nonsense.

[intheflow]

5. This author's just catching on to this?

I was a temp in manufacturing 20 years ago. So were all my co-workers. The only people who weren't temps were management and administration. This has been going on a very long time.

[TheMastersNemesis]

6. Until There Are Fed Regulations Forcing A Change In Business Models It Will Get Worse.