Greek bakers in the Italian Bakery, Boston

Rodney Everts | From apprentice - master baker - foreman, with 20 years of struggle. Was forced on the old management as part of a racial-equality ruling; endured the daily coldness of the old Greeks, but made his way up through sheer determination and merit. | The change of management was a release; the new national company was less racist in character, and welcomed the technological changes in the bakery | Welcomed most of all the retirements of the Greeks and the hiring of the polyglot workforce. Responsible for choosing most of the people on the shop floor. | Angry at how blindly the workers work; but the low level of solidarity and skill is not the workers’ fault. | Angry at the company for preferring non-union workers; if they were better paid, they would stay longer. | Angry at the company for using flextime schedules as a lure for low-wage work. | Wants all his people together on the shop floor, at the same time, to deal with problems together as best they can. E.g. the overflowing trash cans | | But the foreman stands alone. The people beneath him do not see themselves in the same clear way. |

1970’s Boston | 1990’s Boston | Owner | First owner: a very poor Jew/ an American entrepreneur without Italian roots | Sold to a medium-sized publicly traded organization/ a giant food conglomerate | Managers | Italian | With Italian surnames, the shop-floor foreman is black. | The Union | | Bakery jobs had passed from their fathers to themselves via the local union (prejudices) | The power of the bakers’ union has eroded | Rigidly structured wages, benefits and pensions | Non-union workers; if they were better paid, they would stay longer.