Back in the day when I was on piecework, I often faced retaliation. My “fixers” were often gone out of the mill doing shopping, getting coffee, or even sometimes taking their dog for a walk. If I would complain to my dept. manager about them leaving so often when they were supposed to be working, then I could count on my machines being cut back the next day. Usually we would run 6 if there was enough work, but then suddenly we wouldn’t need such and such a machine, and I would only be able to run 5. Payback for complaining. Lost machines is lost money when you are working on piecework.