Does "tried to counter the blow of each new production drive" mean...?

To counter means to resist. Each new production drive is being compared to a blow (as in a fight) and the workers resisted these blows or strikes using collective inertia.

Thanks.
production drive, production competition?

Production drive means someone has set mandatory goals. Someone else has to meet those goals.

Every time the supervisors came up with a new production goal, the workers tried to do less and less.

Greater urging led to less effort.

Joe(I've worked in situations like that.)Nation

Production drive = campaign (ordered by central government) to meet a production target.

Long time no see, Joe.
Welcome back.

And thank you all.

Should I have said "I haven't seen for quite a while"?
Is "long time no see" still in use and has been treated as native English/standard English?

"Long time, no see" is still used, though probably not among those under forty years old and only between two or more people who know each other well enough to know it's being used in a joking fashion.

It's interesting and I hadn't thought about this before, and I hope others here will back me up on this:
When two people have been writing to each other, as we do here, the comment is expressed as "I haven't HEARD from you in quite a while." As if the reader has been reading the other's posts out loud.
Having said that, this forum has a certain visual aspect to it, that is my picture next to my writing, so it would also be acceptable to say "I haven't SEEN you here lately." or, even more casually, "Long time, no see."

Joe(I'll try not to stay away so long.)Nation

Never standard; possibly jocular mock Native American pidgin.