Individualized casual labor leaves workers unable to speak against abuses

Evidence

Mostly living on subsistence wages, they endured ever-shifting combinations of working too hard and lining up to get hired again—a demoralizing process known as the “shape-up.” Their hours were subject not only to the whims of the nepotistic gang bosses who would or would not hire them, but to the unpredictable rhythms of the shipping economy. Once on the job, they encountered the “speed-up,” being expected to work faster and faster and facing increasing rates of injury and risk. But in their atomized state, the longshoremen had not been able to refuse these terms; there was always someone who’d happily take their place, abuses and all. A former longshoreman who recalled working anywhere from two to thirty hours in a single shift said that complaint was not an option: “If you would say anything of that kind you would just simply be fired.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 284

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the Milgrom law-merchant point that atomized one-shot players cannot sustain cooperation — refusal is the worker analogue of reputation discipline.