Retirement on the Line by Caitrin Lynch

Author:Caitrin Lynch [Lynch, Caitrin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Political Science, Labor & Industrial Relations, History, United States, State & Local, New England (CT; MA; ME; NH; RI; VT)
ISBN: 9780801464560
Google: kbYEG3Gr0CwC
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2012-03-08T05:27:48+00:00

Conclusion: Corporate Loyalty and a Way of Life

Vita workers consider Vita a sanctuary, an oasis; they experience it as a place that is comforting and caring, where they can belong. As Grant’s evocation of antique people and antique machinery suggests, for some it is a world reminiscent of the past—and many workers value it for its familiarity. In her study of Walmart, historian Bethany Moreton describes the ways in which the Ozarks occupy a place in the imagination of many Americans as an “imagined homogeneous yesterday; America’s yesterday.”21 Walmart, today one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies, strategically crafts a corporate history that appeals to a sense of place and identity of its workers in its nostalgic origins in the Ozarks, America’s heartland.

There is a long history of companies immersing themselves in their local contexts to better conduct their operations, and the history of manufacturing in the United States famously involves dynamics of family and factory, where factories connect to the community through family connections and through playing a family-like role in communities. We have already seen how Vita Needle’s workers have deep and varied ties to each other outside work. A second German magazine article explains that building on community connections is a managerial strategy. After noting that Mike hires only locals because “this makes the new beginning easier for everyone,” journalist Stefanie Hellge continues:

But there is another reason. As a rule, there are already medical records in the local hospital for the people from the area, in the event that something really does happen, in case someone falls or becomes ill. La Rosa, who is 50, ensures that each is up to the task he or she is assigned, and he has long since become something of a social worker. If someone doesn’t show up for work, he will telephone. If no one answers, he will drive to the employee’s home and knock on the door until someone answers. “We have a social responsibility for these people,” La Rosa says, “and we pay attention to that.” That also means having to accept that his employees become slower as they age or having to overlook someone falling asleep on the job, such as Marion, 96, who nodded off on her stool at the end of each day until her children forbid her to keep working at Vita Needle. Her last day was a Friday. On Sunday she was dead.22

Here we see several motives behind the managerial policy of hiring locals, which we already know contributes to the workers’ sense of sameness and belonging. On the social end, Mike wants people to “fit in” (a term he has used in discussions with me), which they will if they already have connections to each other. But on the more logistical end, he wants workers who are already registered at the local hospital and who live nearby so he can check in on them (like a social worker) if they do not show up to work.

A team of researchers has

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