The company splashed the Administration and visitor area with free safety notices distributed by the State Government but would baulk at any more positive or costly action on the plant. The men working the plants had one representative, the rest were other trades, white collar men, drivers, storemen, clerks. The Wandering Jew made no objection to this intrusion of the Christian religion. He only attended the Safety meetings every three months. They were impressed by his concern for cutting cost.
The thing went to a vote among office workers, draughtsmen and storemen and majority rule established that the top landing was safe. This freed the Glass Canoe from having to attend meetings. Most of the time they were not represented: There was no one outside Puroil to appeal to. It functions as a leisure centre, where an assortment of whores service on an industrial scale the men who go down there on their breaks or whenever they can skive off.
These sequences are like the pub scenes in The Glass Canoe, with dialogue featuring what passes for wit amongst uneducated men i.
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His nearside front wheel came off just as he put the brake on. What do you think he did? He thought she was waiting naked for him and it inflamed him. You should have seen him go to town! Tied in knots on the bed, wriggling like snakes, sweaty skins slapping and sticking. I had to leave. And yet there are parts of this novel which made me laugh out loud. The occasional post-modern flourish got my attention.
Very occasionally the narrator makes his presence felt in the first person, and at one stage the reader is enjoined to make a judgement:. Dear Reader, please read the sentence again. The Baritone is shuffling papers as a sign he has finished talking; the Shepherd is taking his time, not going to be hurried. After all, he has to do the dirty work. Police Gazette galley proofs beckoned.
Surfie was busy doing what all Backroom Prisoners did, glue bits of paper together. He looked down just in time to see The Cop pull up and begin to alight from his bike. Surfie then proceeded to tip the contents of the flagon over The Cop who looked up in time to feel several drops of moisture hit him from above and to just glimpse a disappearing head.
The Cop hastened up the stairs to The Backroom, opened the door and asked with great annoyance as to who had poured the water over him. The Backroom Boys were heads down and bums up gluing bits of paper together. He pleaded for compo and got it. His wife got care. Industrial Prisoners of all ilk, for that matter all nations, may have very similar stories as I related above.
The book itself consists of writing that is gritty, harsh, writing that has a close to the bone brutality and is also very masculine in style. It can also be very humorous. I laughed out loud several times.
- Sweet-and-Twenty.
- The Unknown Industrial Prisoner.
- Equality of Educational Opportunity in Japan.
But we also get the softer philosophical views by some Industrial Prisoners and at times this can come as a surprise. As the reader I was battered by cynical, sarcastic, finger nails on a blackboard satire and irony page after page.
Then out of nowhere would come beautiful prose that had an almost spiritual quality. Yes, a quality that was rare but there nonetheless. And that, for me, gives a very surprising and attractive dimension to this superb novel. After all the observations of the gritty blue collar shenanigans I also think that there are recurring themes running throughout the book.
After reading the last few pages a couple of times I might add there was also, I think, a theme of Belonging. With the economy seemingly getting tighter the Prisoners are less inclined to have choice as to where to find other work if they really wish to leave the Prison. Shifts get longer, accidents happen. With this the themes resonate. In fact this book could be written for the beginnings of the industrial age.
A work house with indentured labour is not that far back in time. Though we no longer have indentured manufacturing workers in countries such as Australia, manufacturing workers are seemingly under an increasing threat from globalisation, globalisation that is supported by multinational corporations. This tends to leave Prisoners thinking that their futures are in a state of limbo.
In Australia we see the present closure of the auto manufacturing industries in Adelaide. Unemployment is already high and as I write another batch of the seemingly weekly redundancies are announced in that city. The Prisoners belong to a Union but it matters not. The Union sign off changes to their conditions in agreement with the multinational corporation at the Prisoners expense.
The Prisoners become more inclined to slack, to sabotage, to not give a care about anyone else, bar themselves. They become their ineffective Union and even their predatory employer. My generation had a sense of loyalty to a local employer and that employer had a similar sense back towards their employees. Nowadays one seems a mere number, Prisoners expect to have many multiple jobs in their working lives.
In Japan was it Salarymen who spent a life working for the same company? Maybe we never went to that extreme in Australia and other western countries but it came close. Loyalty is now thrown out the door just as the multinational corporation throws Industrial Relations out the door and in collusion with the very organisation that should be there for the prisoners.
Work Place Health and Safety.
Editorial Reviews
The Prisoners notice that the corporation ignores their safety. There are industrial accidents and even deaths. It reaches a point of cynicism by all Prisoners. The results are a mix of sabotage and finally the cataclysmic. Even today, in the day and age of authorities supposedly caring about occupational health and safety, in the not too distant past Iron Bar stood in the federal parliament of Australia and berated the country to stop vilifying a great Australian Multinational Corporation that had to head off shore so as to not pay the victims of their asbestos poisoning.
What a great name, Iron Bar.
It could have come straight from a novel called The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. His plea could have come from a novel called The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. I am unable to explain this. They were part of their surroundings, the land, the industrial complex, the very surroundings they found themselves in. Small Publisher of the Year. Your basket is empty.
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, by David Ireland | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
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