A-Infos (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #235 - Chronicles of alienated labor: "We were friends ... "Damien, foreman (fr, pt) [machine translation]

Chronicles of alienated labor by Aline Torterat, Occupational physician Damien, foreman 
construction[1] ---- I started working very young in public works. The action, the 
outdoors, a certain autonomy. I liked and I still love it. Then, by chance, I found myself 
specialize in the field of sealing. Quality is the main and it requires a good 
professional control issue. In addition, the sites do not abound, therefore no risk of 
unemployment. I spent over 15 years in the same company. This is where I learned 
everything. I was appreciated for my skills and my strength. It's true, I can say that I 
have never been sick. I am a great athlete. I am strong for my 40 years. ---- Then one of 
my best colleagues embarked putting himself on his own. Starting his business well, he 
took me with him. Normal, we were friends, and we knew we had common values.

I resigned and I became his foreman, to lead a team of seven or eight roofers. Obviously, 
it was not idle, it is a very physical job with earthworks and heavy work with vibrating 
tools and chemicals when spread hot bitumen. My team worked fine because I did not was 
reluctant to work with them.

I was a little coach. And now that at the beginning of the year, I suddenly strangulated 
hernia. Emergency operation complications. So I got off work two months. Then at home, I'm 
falling and I'm left with a severe ankle sprain and the requirement to go through a cast 
for a month without being able to set foot on the ground, followed by several weeks of 
rehabilitation . New stop of a month and a half has extended the first. Unfortunately, my 
ordeal was not over.

Because the bending, I compounded the problem of my right shoulder. The pain was 
unbearable. It took surgery. Two months additional stop because of my job. My boss had 
been a bit quiet during the nearly six months of absence. Just two or three calls. When I 
came, he made me understand that he did not believe too much in my story rebounds and he 
told me he would not consider me if I wanted to go. It was really a friend. I realized it 
had become a boss who no longer had any of the same issues as me. His company, that it 
pays him, his dominant power allowed him to erase the particularity of our relationship I 
thought egalitarian. I just figured a good salary report changes things in human 
relationships. I have an appointment in the business that I had left. They will take me.

[ 1 ] Only the name is changed, the rest is authentic.
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