>>>>"They could talk about their wives, cars, and colleagues. They could tell jokes and comment on what was going on around them without their bosses every knowing"

These mills were in the pacific northwest (Oregon, Washington and British Columbia). That isn't 18th century england with longstanding social classes. The "bosses" out west, the ones in the mills, weren't posh boys who never mixed with the workers. I cannot believe that supervisors and management wouldn't pick up on these signs very quickly and probably used them themselves.