[lbo-talk] Time Use studies

[Miles Jackson]

Jason wrote:
> On 2007-03-25 20:19:36 +0100 Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>> Another example of this: the job description for the Dean position
>> I'm temporarily occupying includes "other duties as assigned".  As
>> you might expect, this extraordinarily broad job description is not
>> found in the faculty or staff union contracts.
> 
> 
> Lucky them. It's been part of the contract for every shitty job I've
> ever had, which just happens to be every job I've ever had from admin
> assitant in a semi-privatised public service (where someone drew a
> swastika on a post-it note and stuck it to my computer screen and
> wrote 'die commie fenian scum' - funny story, I was very young and
> quite hurt. I told my mother's partner about it and he said: 'They're
> right, aren't they?'. They were.) to clerk in a nuclear medicine
> department, pre-press operative, kitchen porter and so-called graphic
> designer.
> 
> Now that I'm 'self-employed' (in other words an temp beholden to
> countless bosses) I can at least control my working environment,
> albeit to a small degree. As long as I can hang on I won't ever be
> going back. The ability to do as I please, even in the smallest way -
> Another cigarette and coffee? Fuck yes! Will I hand in my work late?
> Yep – is an amazing bonus. The only bloody one.

So let me see if I have this right: I point out how union contracts 
protect workers, and your reaction is--"thank god I'm a temp worker"? 
Wha---?!

Miles