After several days of dealing with agencies and interviews, I finally found a job at an electrical parts factory (which also supplies parts for new energy vehicles). This job involves 12-hour shifts in two shifts, with an hourly wage of 20, but actual pay is deducted for meal times. However, if you leave before completing a full month, the hourly rate is calculated as 16. Before entering the factory, the agency boasted that meals and accommodation were included. In reality, only accommodation is included, and a meal allowance of only 200 yuan per month is given, which is actually less than one meal per day. For night shifts, there is a daily subsidy of 20 yuan and a free midnight snack is provided. This meal allowance is not even paid together with the salary but is credited to a meal card issued by the factory, which can only be used in the factory canteen and supermarket. The capitalists deduct part of the workers’ original wages and call it a subsidy, as if they are being charitable. Even so, they still try to cut corners. After searching for a long time, since these factories are all quite similar, I ended up joining this one that does not require miscellaneous deposits or expensive medical examination fees. In this way, I have become a member of the working class in terms of economic status.
How do the prices compare to regular restaurants and supermarkets outside?
The cost of two meals in the factory canteen is equal to the cost of one meal outside.
6.7
This factory recently received a large order and is short of workers. The newly hired outsourced workers are directly assigned to night shifts and heavily exploited. I was assigned to the inspection department, mainly responsible for two steps in product inspection. It’s quite simple — just put the item into the inspection machine and press the button. However, it’s very dangerous if your hand gets caught inside the machine while it’s running. There is a picture posted next to the machine showing a worker’s finger that was crushed last year. The capitalists put this up to warn workers, but in reality, such safety accidents are entirely due to the capitalists madly increasing the labor intensity on workers, plus 12-hour night shifts that mentally exhaust the workers, causing them to accidentally touch the running machines. My position is indeed not complicated, and there is no heavy physical labor, but I have to stand for twelve hours straight, continuously inspecting without stopping. It’s somewhat like the work I did in a milk tea shop. However, I saw other workers occasionally take out their phones to look at them, and after asking, I found out that we are allowed to bring phones or wear earphones to listen to music here. Later I also started taking out my phone occasionally to slack off a bit. But after more than ten hours, my legs became extremely sore and I was very sleepy. The worker next to me said it’s like this the first time, but you’ll get used to it later. (To be continued)
6.7续
我所在的岗位有七八个工人左右，分别负责不同的检测工序。有的是一个人负责一台机器一道工序，有的操作两台机器两道工序，还有的是操作三台机器同时搞一道工序。但这样又导致每道工序的劳动效率是不同的，有时候前面的检测的快，就会给后面效率比较低的堆积很多产品。迫使后面的人提高劳动强度，在机器还没完全停的时候就把产品从机器上拿下来，减少更换产品花费的时间。这样的话危险的概率大大增高了，虽然熟练了一般没什么事，但是这种超长劳动时间折磨下，精神疲惫疏忽是很容易发生的。而且这东西和流水线差不多的，一个人摸鱼会影响到其他人，产品堆积下来没搞完也是留给下一班的工人做，所以一个人不太好摸鱼。我一开始也是摸鱼再加上不熟练，堆积了很多产品，最后也是留给其他工人或是旁边工人来帮我搞完。然后我这个检测是非常自动化的，人就只用更换产品按下按钮就行，我观察其他制造的岗位也差不多，基本也是自动化设备，可能会比我们更复杂一点。
我们部门工人大部分都是十多二十岁的，我旁边的有一个工人才十六岁。一开始听他口音比较像我以前学校里的河南同学，我就问他是不是河南人。他说对啊，他是河南某城市的。之后我就跟他说我以前去过河南（虽然当时是去淫乐去了），他就问我有没有尝试过他们河南的胡辣汤。后面他问我几岁，上不上学了，我跟他说我是高中毕业就没读了。之后他跟我聊到之前来我们这里帮忙的两个工人也是高中上完没去上大学了，他还说看来是都看透上这个大学没什么卵用了。我也说确实，这个上大学确实没什么用。不过我没接着说中修大学的反动之处。暂时相处下来感觉他还是比较热心的，告诉我一些注意事项，我有时怕积压产品，干的比较急，他也让我别急，慢慢干。不过他我还看到他言语骚扰一个女工人，看那个女工人感冒了一开始问她吃了什么药，后面就跟她说找个男的抱着睡一觉就好了…我看他们关系看着还挺好的，下班或是中间休息经常在一起。有些像小资学生一样。
Talk more with these workers, it looks very interesting and can broaden your horizons.
How did the female worker respond? In the future, you can observe their relationship more carefully; it feels a bit suspicious.
The female workers didn’t say much, but their relationship looked quite complicated. I’ll look at it again later.