Well……. The peons need to feed their kids and send them to school and shelter their families. So, yes, actually it is for them too. 12 hour shift jobs usually pay better and have longer contiguous time off. But, yes, these are all happy side effects. Profit doesn’t give a shit, and if it could find a way to get the same for less it would.
I never worked in a line, but have seen a lot of antiwork discussions, and also the discussions on commute ... I know 12 hour shifts are arduous, but you do 12 hour shifts for 4 days then on one hand you reduce 1-2 days of commute, and on the other hand maybe you can commute at better commute hours.