Worker's rights.....

Bear with me, this is long....

As I've often said, I grew up in a factory town, a gritty, grimy corporation-run horrible place, lots of brick row houses, lots of despair in the air. And lots of subliminal opression. I think that is why I sort of liked books like all of Dickens' novels, and cried over 'Les Miserables', when I was thirteen, reading it out on the stoop. (Which drove my mother nuts... she wasn't concerned with what I was reading, but sitting on the stoop, the stairs were cement, and cool in the summers, and she would yell at me to get off them, because I'd get hemmarhoids, yup... Her only forbidden book was 'Gone With The Wind'... 'because it told all about life'... I guess it was the birth scene, and it sure didn't tell all about life...)

It was mostly a sad place. But the one thing you had to watch out for were union people, because you could get fired if you were even seen talking to an organiser, which happened to 'da Ven'. You got the fear of Gawwd put into you if you were a parent and scraped to provide for your family. They had them coming and going and there was no place to go except stay in your place. Or you would get black-listed. I've been there, all right.

Dickens gave me a sense of how unjust and unfair. a lot of people's circumstances were. You really have to grow up on the wrong side of the tracks to KNOW what that feels like. And I was determined to box myself out of there, and do something productive.

So I got lucky, and had half a brain. And chose paths that led me to the most important summer of my life. Working in Munich.

1400 college students, and some of the shocks of my life. The first one was early, some JUSO (young socialist) roping me in to march down to the directors' office and demand they not throw away food every day and give it to the poor. Or we would go to the yellow journalist rag, and strike on the opening day of the Olympics. It worked. And for all their bluster, they pushed me to the front as speaker, which was really frightening. I've described that earlier here, somewhere on the blog.

It was a liberating feeling, and what I had heard about 'socialism' and feared was dispelled. We did something good. But it didn't stop there.

The 'bosses' decided to restrict us to our housing only. That was very problematic. Our rooms were four-to six bedders. And everyone in them were on different shifts, so someone was ALWAYS having to sleep. Going into town was expensive, the prices in Munich at the time were outrageous. So when that Ukas (decree) came down from on high, who showed up at my door? That red-headed firebrand who could whip you up into a fired-up emotion, and say, 'This is unfair.'

And before I knew what in the world was happening, I was marching down to the bosses, and that little guy pushed me to the fore again, without me having any preparation to know what I was going to say!

In High School, if I got called to give a report in English class, I was so intimidated, I couldn't get a word out, would turn red, and stammer. I was embarassed because I didn't have the right clothes, and wanted to sink into the floor and land in a corner of the basement where no one could find me again.

I think our first successful confrontation with the management made it easier. And it came so easily. I laid out the problems, our financial one wanting to save money, and if they would ban us, we wouldn't be able to save anything, and that I didn't think it was fair, and how would they like it if the press got a report on how they would treat us badly. They aquiesced. And we had the run of the entire Olympic village on our time off, and not be hidden pariahs.

In the middle of the Games season, they suddenly sent about a third of the students back home.... the ones that lived furthest away, like the Philippines, which was devastating for them, and we tried to stop that too... and lost.

Unfortunately. I wish my paternal grandfather had been alive when I got back... I think he would have liked hearing that.

But when people are talking about collective bargaining... you win some, and you lose a big one, but at least you FIGHT. That is basically what we were doing. It wasn't about personal gain.

And yeah, I know... people's motives aren't always pristine, and you can get a knife in the back. But that summer was a catalyst that made me feel I wasn't just this small invisible person, and could DO something good for a majority of people.

Collective bargaining always happened later on in my life. It's about sitting down, and explaining what you think is wrong, and being listened to. It should be a major principle in one's work life. And it served me well.

And I never even realised it before, but I never gave up on it. In the year 2000, the place I worked in was taken over by corporate types, and of the four new guys, the one overlooking the financial end was a hard nut to crack. He could really come down on me if he thought I was going rogue on him, and didn't like independent thinking.

I switched the pc's browser at work from Microsoft Explorer to Firefox, because the security is better, after we got a deadly virus that killed our system, for instance. He was livid. I demonstrated it for him and explained why it was better. And he was still pissed, and said, ''Where are the drawbacks?'

'Well, there are reports that the browser 'might' freeze, but I've seen no sign of it.... AND I have been using it for over a month on my low end outdated pc, and it works fine. And I would NEVER put anything on the company machine unless I tested it thoroughly.'

He begrudgingly let it stand. Begrudgingly. Because corporate types don't LIKE being shown there is something better than what THEY decide, and he was the 'expert' for the computer stuff.

But he got over it.

We often got into policy issues, and really talk (between four eyes, as we say). And I would come up with an idea, and often he wouldn't like them. But he wouldn't dismiss things out of hand. He'd narrow his big eyes, and say, 'Why do you think that?' 'And we would go back and forth, and yes, sometimes his counter-arguments were so good, I would say, 'Oh. Good point, hadn't thought of that.' 'And concede. Or often, I could make the case, and he would acquiesce.

Those discussions were always respectful, sometimes got heated in tone, but never acrimonious. It was sparring. And for my part, trying to acheive something good for everyone.

That is what collective bargaining is about. Let's face it... if you are working for a company, you want that company to do well. Because it is also your livelihood, and if you think some policy is going to be damaging, you speak up, and try to get your own point of view across, because 'da MAN' is somewhere else most of the time, and doesn't have the day-to-day view of what is happening. I may not have been 'liked' by two of the four. But I received respect, and wasn't turned off out of hand.

Half-bullies like it if you have the balls to stand up to them.

Except----I liked that guy, because he listened---and would say I was right when I was right.... and I was never afraid to say I'd been wrong in an assumption. It's about respect, and coming to decisions that are best for everyone.

I've been a union member since I arrived here. My chapter did doodley squat for our sector of work. But I knew that if things were bad, I could go to them. And they would help. And I had a really bad KRIPO guy go after me one evening, (criminal police) dissing me for being a fat-cat unionist, I mean he was one really bad-assed cop with issues. And I was so sick of this guy terrorising my people, I pulled up the pay document of the union, and what they had given us, plunked it down, and said, 'I've been here 25 years. And this is what I earn. I speak four languages, I worked twelve hour days for most of that time... how' do you think I'm scamming people?'

He was shocked. Because my branch is the most underpaid in the country. And after that he backed off, and was respectful.

Sigh.... unions. There is lots to be said.

But the good people of Wisconsin should be proud, and remind me of better days, and I wish I could be there for moral support. Walker is such a wanker, words fail me. But that fight is about a lot more than people 'wanting more'.

I understand that from a very different perspective. What is going on there is just unspeakable.