Vol. 76/No. 30      August 13, 2012

“This is a quarterly bonus for $467.49 from an electrical assembly factory,” wrote Dennis Richter from Chicago. “There was a rich discussion on the shop floor around what this blood money represents.”

Blood money is a term communist workers use to describe so-called bonus payments and other bribes from the bosses or their government that press workers to accept speedup, wage cuts, concession contracts, dangerous working conditions, or to try to keep a union out of the shop.

“This is a nonunion factory and our hourly wage is determined by the company’s yearly review of everyone’s performance,” Richter continued. “None of the seven workers in my department received higher than a 1 percent increase for this year. Many agreed with my point that we didn’t need a company gift every quarter, but instead an hourly raise in wages and to get this we need to have an organization, a union.”

Tony Lane in Minneapolis sent in a quarterly safety bonus check for $40.81 and the following note:

“A worker is still recuperating from a serious accident with an overhead crane. The company doesn’t want to talk about it. The safety officer said in the last meeting, ‘I can’t say anything. There’s an ongoing OSHA investigation.’ He was on third shift, so day-shift workers still got a bonus.”

These donations were among several in the recent period. In May alone contributions totaled $2,231.42. Class-conscious workers take this money and turn it into its opposite by giving it to the Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund, which finances long-range work of the party.

Pat Fernandez in Houston described how she got her $188 blood money. “The boss of the machine shop where I work handed out these ‘quality production bonuses’ along with a speech declaring that anyone caught slowing down would be reprimanded.” She added that workers do many long, hard hours without air conditioning and ventilation.

To make a blood money contribution, contact Militant distributors on page 10.

—EMMA JOHNSON