A slowdown (
UK: go-slow) is an
industrial action
Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increa ...
in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...
or efficiency in their performance of these duties. A slowdown may be used as either a prelude or an alternative to a strike, as it is seen as less disruptive as well as less risky and costly for workers and their union. Striking workers usually go unpaid and risk being replaced, so a slowdown is seen as a way to put pressure on management while avoiding these outcomes. Other times slowdowns are accompanied by acts of sabotage on the part of workers to provide further disruption.
Nonetheless, workers participating in a slowdown are often punished, sometimes by firing and other times by law.
Examples
At
Ford's plant in
Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...
, UK, during the 1970s, workers introduced a slowdown after Ford management increased the
production line
A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...
speed from 18 to 21 feet per minute. This was a second speed increase, and workers felt that this was unfair. After a go-slow by production line staff, Ford management reduced the line speed back to 18 feet per minute.
In July 2011,
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the List of airlines by foundation date, world's third-oldest airline sti ...
engineers introduced an unusual slowdown where right-handed engineers used only their left hands to operate essential tools.
[''The Age'' - "Qantas engineers pledge whacky, wrong-handed strike action", Gabrielle Costa, July 13, 2011]
Rule-book slowdown
Another form of slowdown is known as the rule-book slowdown. This refers to the "rule books" that govern workers' actions, usually either for safety or quality purposes. In practice, many rules are loosely interpreted in the interest of efficiency. A union seeking to employ a slowdown tactic may take advantage of these common rule oversights by having workers "
work to rule", obeying each and every rule to the fullest extent, which consequently will greatly reduce productivity.
This has the advantage of allowing workers and unions to claim that no malfeasance is being committed, since they are doing only what the management's rules actually require them to do. For instance, many subways are required to keep doors open for a certain amount of time at each stop, whereas in practice doors are often closed sooner. Likewise, a bus driver typically may take the same liberties with traffic law that drivers do, and are often overloaded with passengers, while an experienced pilot can safely fly in some inclement weather. In a "rule-book" slowdown, the bus driver may drive more slowly and conservatively and with a proper passenger load, while the pilot may refuse to fly in mildly inclement weather.
Slowdowns are related to but can be distinguished from
work-to-rule, another action in which workers refuse to perform more than their required duties.
See also
*
De-policing, police force slowdown
References
Labor disputes
Protest tactics
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