Vol. 75/No. 3 January 24, 2011
Employers are fond of showing “Christmas spirit,” after taking it out of our hides all year long. A number of workers decided to send these holiday “gifts” from the boss to the Socialist Workers Party for its Capital Fund, which helps finance long-range plans to build the communist movement.
One-off payments of this kind from employers—safety and production bonuses, contract-signing incentives, holiday gifts, and the like—are referred to as blood money by communist workers, because they are bribes to convince workers to be grateful to the boss instead of standing up and fighting for our interests. All the while the bosses are speeding up jobs, paying us little, and treating us without dignity day-in and day-out. A few of the letters that accompanied recent contributions tell the story.
“Enclosed is a $150 blood money contribution,” wrote Naomi Craine and Bernie Senter from Miami. “We have each received $75 in gift cards—incentives for showing up to work on time and working faster.
“The job is a project to digitize 60,000 home-foreclosure files of one major Florida bank. Among our coworkers are a number who themselves have recently lost their houses. As a result of our talking politics on the job one coworker has already bought a copy of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, and several others are considering buying the book.”
“I’ve had no raise in over three years,” wrote Vivian Sahner from Atlanta. “So this $561.75 check amounts to little more than a quarter raise over that time! Please put it to good use.”
“Enclosed is a $25 blood money contribution,” wrote Norton Sandler from Los Angeles. “Management handed out equivalent gift cards to a local supermarket before Christmas. The cards were accompanied by a note that read, ‘We would not be where we are today without everyone’s support and dedication to a common purpose. It is that effort that makes YOU very special.’
“That from a company that hasn’t given workers a pay raise in more than half a decade.”
And this letter was received from Jacquie Henderson from Houston: “The bosses at the mill where I work gave us ‘year-end bonuses’ for our ‘good work’ throughout the year. At a company meeting they pointed to plant improvements, including the new sign at the door flashing nearly 1,000 days without an injury.
“A coworker asked about workers he had seen with injuries who were still working, and was told those weren’t ‘lost time injuries.’ In other words, workers are being pressured to come to work hurt. Two days later the worker who asked the question found himself back at the temporary agency—the mill suddenly had no more work for him.
“Many workers see the $100 we got as a cheap bribe to cover up for low wages and bad conditions. Several commented it is also to pressure us not to report accidents. I am glad to be able to contribute to the party’s work to end the dictatorship of capital.”
Workers who want to contribute blood-money bonuses can do so by writing or calling distributors of the Militant listed on page 5.
—PAUL MAILHOT