The Time Control Of Labor And The Strategy Of The Workers

This paper is a filed work on the labor process of food delivery workers in food delivery industry.On the basis of deep interview of food delivery workers and observation of their work and live surroundings,it is tried to show the significance of the effect of time variable on the labor process of food delivery industry which is formed by virtue of new technology.It is known from the research that the controlling mode of capital on labor process shows diversity and obscurity in this industry.Different than traditional factory production systems,time is an important tool to control capital and to restrict workers.Despite workers don't have to strictly follow the nine-to-five"punch in" requirement,which seems like that they have more freedom than traditional workers.However,capitalists have set up work disciplines about time for workers by means of domestication.They use new technologies to strictly record and supervise labor process by time.And,the constant waiting for work produces the "all-weather workers".In addition,the capitalists have set up "traps" in the labor process of workers by means of time,which has a result that the workers' private lives and time have been eroded seriously.Therefore,time has become a new method for capitalists to control labor process of workers,and the kind of control is particularly pronounced in the take-away food delivery industry,where consumers demand "punctual","rapid",and "on-call" food delivery.Meanwhile,workers' subjectivity has been expressed in the condition and the method of time.Based on the pressure of survival and development,employees negatively "agreement" with a series of time-related disciplines made by managers.Besides the negative "agreement",workers also positively try their hard to vie for power to control time in labor process.They ingratiate consumers with emotions,try to obtain help from companions,and keep good relationship with managers to gain time and reduce the economic losses due to complaint.Through the analysis of the competition strategy for the control of labor process in food delivery industry,this paper portrays the relationship in this filed.Because of the control of capitalists and the resistance of workers,the relationship is in a dynamic state.However,time is their powerful weapon,which is embedded in labor process as a condition and method.