The workers were a bad lot, forever getting drunk! They didn't take their work seriously.

Sometimes they quit in the middle of a job and only returned when they needed something in their pockets.

Then Lantier would switch his attack to the employers.
They were nasty exploiters, regular cannibals.

But he could sleep with a clear conscience as he had always acted as a friend to his employees.

He didn't want to get rich the way others did.
"Let's be off, my boy," he said, speaking to Coupeau.