n. any condition or situation tending to increase production through increased labor output; also, a point or bonus system, as the Bedaux system, designed to achieve this end.
- 1919  Fellow-Workers. Let us abolish the speeding-up system as speedily as possible.
- 1930  More and more workers are thrown out of industry as a result of the terrific speed-up system that the dress-makers are faced with.
- 1932  The question of the united front tactics in mobolizing [sic] the lumber and sawmill workers in struggle against wage cuts, speed up, for increase in pay was thoroughly discussed.
- 1957  The "speed-up," so bitterly complained of by unions in Canada and the United States, is the normal state of affairs in Russia.