Labour & Pop Culture: Speed Up

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is Maria Dunn’s “Speed Up”, a folk song about work in Edmonton’s (now defunct) GWG clothing factory. The Royal Alberta Museum has a brief overview of the history of the factory, one that largely ignores the effect of automation on the workers and only tangentially touches upon the workers’ experiences as immigrants and union members.

By contrast, the Aspen Foundation for Labour Education has built a very interesting curriculum around the GWG experience for social studies teachers. This includes a recording of an hour-long performance that combines video of GWG workers with the Sings of Maria Dunn. https://youtu.be/NvRJ3HCa0N8

“Speed up” is one of the songs from the production. The most interesting part (lyrically) of the song is how the worker understands that the employer is constantly increasing the pace of work:

Now that I’ve gotten good and fast
They’ve upped the ante for my task

Yet the worker accepts this (perhaps because she has no choice) as the price of getting by and building a better future for her children:

Come weekend, it’s another race
Another job, another pace
Each dollar more a saving grace
To bring my family to this place

I’ll tell you how the work went – speedup, speedup, speedup
Not one second was misspent – speedup, speedup, speedup
My fingers nimble, face intent – speedup, speedup, speedup
I’d like to see you try it friend – speedup, speedup, speedup

Now that I’ve gotten good and fast
They’ve upped the ante for my task
Each time I get ahead, they’re back
To raise the bar and stretch the slack

Each extra inch seems like a mile
So bundles take a bit of guile
You snatch the small size with a smile
It’s “head down” for another while

Come weekend, it’s another race – keep up, keep up, keep up
Another job, another pace – keep up, keep up, keep up
Each dollar more a saving grace – keep up, keep up, keep up
To bring my family to this place – keep up, keep up, keep up

My husband, I—we’re healthy, young
Still, who knows what we’re running on
We pass each other the baton
When one comes home, the other’s gone

Sometimes I need a little cry
All I do’s just scraping by
For making friends, there’s little time
It’s “head down” for another while

Each pocket, seam and bottom hem
I’ve sewn for my children
I watch them grow and know for them
It’s worth it all in the end

-- Bob Barnetson