Vol. 76/No. 1 January 2, 2012
With the end of the year approaching the bosses have begun to hand out holiday “bonuses.” Class-conscious workers take this “blood money” and turn it into contributions to build the communist movement.
Over the last several weeks 11 workers have contributed to the Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund.
Eric Simpson, who works in the Starbucks factory in San Francisco, sent a note along with his check of $10. “The CEO was Fortune magazine’s top CEO of 2011. Starbucks’ stock is up 37 percent since the beginning of the year. Blood money.”
One-off payments from employers—safety and production bonuses, contract-signing incentives, holiday gifts and the like—are referred to as blood money by communist workers. 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.
“I have sent in a contribution to the Capital Fund of $255.89,” Maura DeLuca writes from Des Moines, Iowa. “This is blood money I received from the wind turbine manufacturing company I work for. Part is a production bonus, part a ‘sign on’ bonus for my having stayed there three months.”
The Socialist Workers Party’s Capital Fund helps finance long-range plans to build the communist movement.
“It’s assumed that those of us still considered temps will not be paid for the upcoming days off around Christmas and New Year’s,” continued DeLuca. “We also can’t get the insurance the company offers or accrue vacation days. Yet, we’re supposed to be happy with the one-time bonus for staying there three months.
“The production bonus comes from making the company’s monthly production quota. We’ve had to work the majority of Saturdays since I’ve been there. The little time we have to recuperate on the weekend, along with speedup to try to make the goals and unsafe conditions, has resulted in frequent accidents. There have also been a number of cases of skin rashes and respiratory illnesses, due to the materials we work with and the lack of ventilation.
“When my coworkers ask what I’m going to do with my bonus, I’ve been explaining that this truly is blood money and I’m turning it over to the Socialist Workers Party’s Capital Fund so it can be used to help build a working-class movement.”
Workers who want to make a contribution can contact distributors of the Militant listed on page 8 for more information.
—EMMA JOHNSON