In my youth I worked for a company that was almost completely unionized. Each job had a “standard”, the number of items/products to be produced in an hour or on a shift. This was probably the result of negotiations between the union and the company. Anyway I found that the amount was usually set at a rate which reflected steady work, not fast or slow.
Management told us that you were not expected to meet standard immediately as each job took time to do well. The union folks warned us not to exceed standard or you would be in big trouble.
Safety regulations were very tight and demanding. Violations could get you fired. Some safety rules I found as ridiculous as some of the union rules but overall the plant worked well and I never saw an accident.
Uh huh, and why exactly would that be? Probably not that hard to guess, actually. Another thing, never understood the phrase "Give War a Chance" but with a unionized army and union negotiated weapons firing "standards" that if exceeded would bring "big trouble" or some such nonsense, guessing maybe there might be a lot less killing and wounding per day.
The union folks warned us not to exceed standard or you would be in big trouble.
in a past life i was a class-a machinist before doing Motion&Time Studies, and i knew how the game was played
a few rates got changed that needed to be changed for years...