Most people I know don’t go to work to make friends - they go to work to pay the bills. Choosing to talk or not to talk to “Sally”, “Sue” or “Bill” makes no difference at all. Decent companies train employee’s regularly on safety and the such. Nothing hostile about not talking to someone.
Heck, I wish 99% of the folks at my place of employment would just shut up and leave me alone ! Most are useless idiots anyway with no plans to change. Are you a progressive socialist ? You gonna FORCE me to talk to folks? Should I have something to say, I’ll damn well say it - if not, silence is GOLDEN !
Snoot ;o)
In theory. Reality on a modern production line or tool room is that you are constantly interacting with fellow workers. Modern management structures are relatively flat meaning information flows sideways rather than up/down. What the UAW Local is proposing is to hinder that information flow. Productivity will suffer and there will be opportunities to sabotage fellow workers. (where is that workpiece? Oh I gave it to ‘Joe’. And the workpiece is conveniently planted in Joe’s toolbox)
Them or me? ;-). I think you miss my point. The most highly functional organizations I have worked for communication was a key to their success. Additionally, so was a lot of intrinsic knowledge ( that is why I use the term "good will" because Accounting and Wall Street might view it as such ) on how things are done to offer that service or make that product that you only get from the old timers in the trenches that have that knowledge in their heads, yes, that knowledge may have not been digitized yet, it not in a manual printed or in a PDF file on the company wide training systems or standards.
So if that wise one is Union and does not share that info, how does it help the organization? It doesn't.