GE Appliance Park Worker FIRED for Injuries Endured on the Line
On Friday, August 7th, a worker was fired from GE Appliance Park because they were unable to continue working on the line. After almost a full shift the previous day, they nearly passed out and stumbled away from the line, unable to stand up without collapsing back down, and had to be taken to the hospital. The entire production area was in disarray after their team lead also took time off due to physical injury, and some other workers in the area had recently left the area. As a result, production was overexerted to the point of total meltdown, and the injured worker was let go the following day having exceeded their probationary attendance limit of two points (two points alone being enough to trigger an investigation and possible termination).
They were exemplary worker who never once arrived late, brought in food for their fellow workers, and only missed work because of said injuries endured on the line. It wasn’t the first time, either. On their second week they arrived sick, because probationary workers don’t accrue sick days for their first six months, and endured a similar injury where they temporarily blacked out. As recent articles suggest, this is nothing new for Appliance Park. An EMT worker on site claimed, “This is the tenth time GE has called 9-1-1 today.”
Throughout all of this—despite daily injuries at the plant—the union has remained silent, choosing not to fight against exploitation but to “cooperate with the bosses,” showcasing their inadequacy and outing themselves as agents of the status quo. Far from being negatively impacted, the bosses have raked in more money than they could ever dream of spending, profiting immensely from the high-turnover and stress they inflict upon the workforce by exploiting their best workers to the point of injury, and then discarding them in exchange for new labor taken from their endless pool of desperate hires.
No matter how sophisticated the caring veneer Haier meticulously projects, the bosses at GE Appliance Park are ruthlessly committing social murder by displacing workers with little to no push back from the union, depleting even team leaders to the point of physical harm and injury, and discarding human beings like broken tools every single day.
When will it be enough? When will they be satisfied? Slow down the line? Show mercy? Hire more workers? Raise wages?
Only when the working class gains the revolutionary class consciousness required to challenge the existing order, recognizes capitalism as against its own interests, begins to organize and speak with one another intentionally and freely, and take matters into their own hands would the bosses even begin to consider the thought. To see this as an individual struggle is to give up on fighting entirely. Indeed, we have nothing to lose but our chains.