Could a zombie work force take over the unskilled labor market?

[Erebus]

big business owns the government. Corporations such as Target, Wallmart, General Motors, etc now have a major hand in deciding policy in the country. This has a major impact on how workers are viewed by their companies. A law has passed which most big companies have taken advantage of. An employer has the right to resurrect a former employee after death for continued service to that company. This is part of the contract that the employee signs when hired. This process has been active for several decades, and the Zombie squad is a common sight in many parts of the labor force.

This resurrection process is not cheap, so only big corporations can justify the expense. These zombies cannot follow complex commands and are relegated to performing unskilled labor. however, they are the perfect example of what a good employee should be. They are obedient, are able to work 24/7, dont bitch and moan about work safety or ask for pay, and are cheap to maintain due to not being affected by decomposition. Even better, they don't violate the fair labor standards act set in place by those annoying and ridiculous labor unions which demand a minimum wage and 40 hr working weeks on account of the person already being dead. Its a win-win from the employers perspective!

Can a zombie work force completely overtake the unskilled labor market and replace the living?

 

[Devor]

These zombies cannot follow complex commands and are relegated to performing unskilled labor...

This is where it falls apart. Have you ever done any unskilled labor? It's not really that it's unskilled. It's that it takes no outside skill to do the job. They teach it all in house. But jobs at Walmart and McDonald's and convenience stores are not at all simple.

A zombie that cannot follow "complex commands" can't do much of anything.

 

[Tom]

Can a zombie work force completely overtake the unskilled labor market and replace the living?

Realistically, no. Poor/working class people will still need to eat, pay rent, etc. The majority of jobs available to them would be unskilled labor, so as long as living working class people exist they will continue to make up a big part of the unskilled labor workforce.

I can also see unions experiencing a huge influx of new members in the face of something like this. As a consequence, there's probably going to also be a lot of political pushback and lobbying being done by these unions-- I'm pretty sure that trapping people into a contract that allows them to continue to be exploited even after death would be seen as a MASSIVE workers' rights violation. Not to mention that zombies would be filling jobs that could be going to living people who need money to survive--I can't see unions being big fans of that either.

All in all, I think this would be a great way to create some conflict in the plot. The old unions vs the big boss narrative, this time with a necromantic twist!

 

[Devor]

Aside from the ethical concerns, I can't see people being comfortable with a corpse getting anywhere near people's food.

 

[Orc Knight]

I'm kind of with Devor on this. Probably work better in theory on jobs not dealing with food but in all likelihood it's probably easier to build a golem or any magic robot and have them do it. Cleaner too. And yeah, coming from one of those labor sorts of jobs that they teach in house and at entry level to let you gain up, it tends to get a bit complicated. But for basic manual labor to move an object from one place to another it might be seen as useful. Then again, golems, clockwork robots and the like would still probably end up cheaper and with less taboo issues surrounding them.

 

[Elvin Cross]

What Orc said, and will the story include that one stray zombie where it would cause a world wide epidemic?

But,what is this story about,I'm curious why it needs a zombie workforce when Japan in RL already have 24/7 working robots with only monthly maintenance cost and electric bills.

 

[Laurence]

For all of the reasons above, perhaps you create the new zombie type. Undead that nobody clocks in to. Businesses simply place these undead workers in towns far from their loved ones. Would give you a chance for a little twist.

I imagine you’d have to go more down the route of assembly line workers, each undead repeating one task over and over, rather than supermarkets in which things get a bit complicated. There are lists of mind numbing jobs out there - will be hard not to offend anybody!

The 40 Most Boring Jobs in the World (Apparently).

 

[Laurence]

For all of the reasons above, perhaps you create the new zombie type. Undead that nobody clocks in to. Businesses simply place these undead workers in towns far from their loved ones. Would give you a chance for a little twist.

I imagine you’d have to go more down the route of assembly line workers, each undead repeating one task over and over, rather than supermarkets in which things get a bit complicated. There are lists of mind numbing jobs out there - will be hard not to offend anybody!

The 40 Most Boring Jobs in the World (Apparently).

To clarify, I’m talking undead that don’t look or smell like undead. They don’t rot and nobody knows what’s going on - until one gets his hands cut off in front of the MC and keeps working.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Erebus Why real zombies, when you can get brainwashed humans, who act like zombies, huh?

 

[Ireth]

Erebus Why real zombies, when you can get brainwashed humans, who act like zombies, huh?

Technically, the brainwashed-human sort ARE the real zombies. At least as far as Haitian voodoo is concerned.

 

[Writer’s_Magic]

Ireth Mmh...Right! I forgot this. It would be awesome, anyway.