What your story well demonstrates is that with the march of neoliberalism, free-market USA - socialistic EU is increasingly only a perception

No, DoDo, this illustrates the fact that, in many companies, there is a permanent tension between the will of the management to improve the productivity and the employees' demand for acceptable working conditions. When the management is stupid enough to try to impose this by force (or feels it is in a position to do so), it leads to conflict.

I started working in 1971 as a production operator (I was manufacturing steel parts on a lathe) and we already faced that kind of situation: we were working by the piece and the management always tried to diminish the production time standards and we had to cheat with the guys measuring the production time in order to maintain our bonuses.

Later on, in 1972, I was working on a production line and the management decided to increase the production rate. When the director came to the workshop, we stopped working and surrounded him to explain we didn't accept it and said we wouldn't let him go unless he called off his decision. It worked and we even obtained to get the normal pay notwithstanding the hours lost due to the strike.

So there's nothing new and working conditions were not that rosy in the past. And that means that maintaining acceptable working and living conditions is a permanent struggle.

 

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet