Settling In

Well, the kids are back to school, the days are getting shorter, the mornings are getting darker, and so are the evenings. I've spent the better part of my summer looking out my office window.
Fortunately, things have not escalated since the tense evening - in fact, it turns out there was quite a lot of unlawful and/or escalated activity that day, and the company was super-quick to get an arrest injunction that says that the police are authorized to immediately detain anyone that's in contravention of any of the previous injunctions. That order came down the very next day after my run-in, and things have been fine ever since.

Well, a few new tools and tactics have shown up on the line... Namely airhorns, whistles, and various other noisemakers and props - but by and large, no more threatening activity. In fact, I hear there hasn't even been any vandalism or sabotage since the early in the last week of August - so that's really good news.

Another interesting development, (debatable whether it's good or bad, depending on your point of view) is that in the province that had many union members crossing the line, the company has announced that since there are now more union members working than striking, they will be reopening all the cafeterias, and suspending the free meals that have been dished out three times a day for the past six+ weeks. I suppose with 100% of the managers and nearly 60% of the union employees working in that province, that's between 75% and 80% workforce - and it would be awfully expensive to keep feeding a workforce of that size. Besides, there is no longer much fear of going in and out of the buildings there. I'm sure all the nearby fast food joints are happy with that decision too!

As for me, I'm a sucker for free food anyway - no word of a lie, I've gained 16 pounds in the past 7 weeks. My gut was greatful for it when it was here, but it's going to me much more greatful when it's gone!

Tense evening

Last night brought a new challenge, and a new page in the labour dispute.
As I was leaving the compound at the end of my shift, I was stopped by a couple of security personel about 100 paces from the picket line.
"I don't think you want to try crossing right now." He said, jesturing toward the driveway, "they've got some friends with 'em this evening to help bolster the line."
I had peripherally noticed that there were picketers blocking the driveway, but I hadn't focused on them until now... whoah, those aren't the usuals! These guys were BIG - all dressed in motorcycle leathers, and wearing an all-too-familiar insignia on the back of their leather vests.
"They're going to give you a HARD time if you try to cross right now. 'So far' they haven't touched anyone, but they haven't let anyone cross easily either. You'd best go back inside and wait it out, we've got more security on the way."
I looked up again, at the dozen or so er, 'longshoremen' who's glares were affixed on me, as they smacked their fists into their palms and shouted taunts of "come on scab, whatcha waiting for?"

As the taunts and jeers grew louder, more and more picketers started to congregate in and around the driveway. "What on earth are they doing HERE?" I asked the guard...
"They're making the rounds between a lot of the offices in this area - apparently they're teaching our picketers what a REAL strike is supposed to be like."
Oh great - that's all we need. "It looks like everyone's gathering around this entrance, can you call someone on one of the upper floors to looks down at the other exit? I wonder if anyone's over there..." I asked.
Sure enough, I was right - everyone was gathered at the exit in front of me, and nobody was left to blocade the other exit. "Well, if it's clear, I'm going to head out that way" I said.
"Good luck!" replied the guard, and I was off. I slowly made my way forward like I was going to aproach the blockade, and the heavy weights tightened their ranks. I then casually veered off to the far exit, and they ROARED! It was clear sailing from there, and I made it out alive ...that time.

I hate to say I was intimidated, because that's exactly what they want to hear - but hell yes, I was intimidated! The really frustrating thing is, I AM NOT A SCAB! I'm just a person that works in that building, that has nothing to do with either side of the dispute! No free lunch is worth that kind of stress, but don't get me wrong - worth it or not, I'll be back to work today, tomorrow, and the next day. This is my job, people. I have to do it. While it would be nice, in an idea world, if uninvolved parties could just quit their jobs in support of your dispute, yes, this strike would be over very quickly - but that's not reality - you can't convince me to stop going to work in support of your cause, I've got nothing to gain by it, and everything to lose... so why even bother trying to intimidate me into doing it? That's just not fair.

I finally did it

After debating for over a month whether to make this site public or not, I finally posted a comment on another related blog, and used my !(a_scab) username, which links back to this page. So, if anybody cares to follow it back, they'll find this site.

If you're reading this because you followed that link, or someone else that followed that link told you about this blog, please remember this: I didn't initially intend for anyone to read this other than myself. It started as my 'diary' really, of what it was like to have to come to work during a labour dispute. I'm still going to treat it like my personal journal, and assume that nobody else is listening - however, since there's the possibility that someone might chance upon this site and feel the need to post a comment or two, here are my groundrules:

1.) Don't mention the names of the company, or the union. Please simple say "The Company" or "The Union". My reasons for this are documented below. Basically I don't want this site to pop up on search engines, and I don't want any legal hastles like othe people with sites like this have had.

2.) Don't mention any names - nobody - not company people, not union people. No photos either.

3.) No flaming. I can handle criticism, I can handle heated debate, I can even handle being proven wrong! I will not accept blantant vulgarity, insulting language, personal attacks, and pointless off-topic diatribe.

4.) I will edit (up to and including deletion) any posts that break rule #1, #2, or #3.

This is not a forum for free speach, this is my diary. If you want your opinion posted here, these are my rules.

Wow, has it been ANOTHER two weeks already?

Two whole weeks and nothing to report. Sure, I've had my picture taken while crossing the line enough to fill a photo album by now, but that doesn't bother me any more - amazing, eh? I figure with all the flashes I see, these guys must be spending an absolute fortune on batteries for their digital cameras, and if they're not using digitals, I'd be surprised if there was even film in the cameras. I mean, why do you need 24 pictures of the same guy in the same car at the same time every morning? Why would you even bother developing that?
The injunction has been a real godsend too. I haven't had to worry about getting my can in and out of work at all in three weeks now. All the guards know me now, and I feel really secure and comfortable.

Here's something interesting that I wasn't sure I could talk about, since it wasn't really public info, but since the company has released some numbers, I think it will be okay if I talk about it;
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the company has extended an invitation to return to work to the unionized employees of one province only. There has been wide speculation about exactly how many of them actually accepted the invitation, crossed the line, and returned to work against The Union's wishes. At one time, romours were as high as 60 to 70% crossing the line, while the union maintained that 'no more than 300' or 'less than 10 to 15%' had crossed. Well, as I mentioned in one of my first posts, my team administers computers inside the company and on the first day we were given a list of some 13,700+ userids to cancel - ensuring that bargaining unit personel no longer had access to company resources. Yeah, a bit of a knee jerk reaction to be sure, but it wasn't my decision, I was just doing what I was told. Anyway, the point to this is, over the past 5 weeks we get lists every single day of logins that can be re-enabled... so while the union is busy proving their numbers by the amount of people drawing strike pay, and the company is busy proving their numbers by having payroll audited, I figure it's pretty cut and dry that if I'm told to re-enable a union member's login, that means they're back working for the company, right? Now I'm dancing a fine line between what I can divulge here, so I'm not going to give exact numbers, but trust me, when the company says "more than 50% of B.U. employees in province XYZ have crossed the picket line and returned to work", they're underestimating. The numbers we see suggest that (give or take about 1%) around sixty percent of that province's unionized employees are back to work. Take that to mean what you will - the numbers don't lie.

I have no idea what this mean for the company or the union - I mean, it can't be good for the union, but how is it bad? I don't know. As far as I've read, these employees can't 'quit' the union, they can't form a new union, so they're still bound by the constitution of their union, and they're not making any friends there. But what kind of pressure is this really putting on the union? Even if 100% of that province returned to work, they're still outnumbered by the rest of the country - they'd lose any vote, so they can't ratify OR decertify - at least that's not my understanding. So, it's really an interesting situation, and for once I'm really thankful that I don't have to pick a side in this one - I think it's going to be really rough for all those people (crossers and picketers) to work together again when this is all over. But not to worry! The company says 'workplace harmonization' will be the #1 priority when the job action is over ... let's hope that means what I think it means!

Starting to heat up on the line

Well, a fairly uneventful week went by quite quickly. A series of injunctions and court orders has, by and large, kept the picketers away from the driveways and entranceways, so getting to and from work hadn't been a big deal at all... but starting last night, things took a bit of a turn. Even though there's still an injunction in effect that's supposed to keep the driveways clear, when I left last night, there were at least 15 people blocking my way.
I waited patiently in my car while my picture got taken three times, and various names were hurled my way. It could easily have been much more intense, but one of the guys on the line, who happens to be a friend that I've golfed with occasionaly, spotted me, through me an honestly friendly smile and a wave, and moved out of the way. It really changed my whole perception... instead of having my guard up, I suddently realized that he's just doing what he has to do to keep his kids fed, just like I'm doing what I have to do to keep MY bills paid. I smiled and waved back, and a big weight was lifted - all of a sudden I didn't even mind being held up. In fact, the thought even crossed my mind, to pull over and show him the new Driver I had in my trunk! Then again, that might've been pushing it...

There WAS one guy that kept taking my picture, so I pulled out my digital camera (which I always keep handy when aproaching the lines) and snapped his picture a could times ... I figured this would accomplish either:
A.) Show him he wasn't intimidating me
B.) Show him that two can play at that game
And that there would be one of two possible outcomes
A.) He'd get really angry
B.) He'd realize how silly it all really was, and get a chuckle out of it.

Fortunately, he started chuckling. After all of that, I was only held up for about 60 seconds, and then I was on my way. One of my coworkers who walks to/from work wasn't so lucky a short time later when he walked through the line. As I heard this morning, he was taunted and shouted down for several blocks a some of them followed him part of the way home.

This morning, nobody was blocking the driveway, but at least 15 people were lining each side of it, and as I turned in, they started yelling "SCAB! Hope you're proud of yourself, SCAB!" etc, etc, at the top of their lungs. It wasn't hard to cross the line today, but that's certainly the most "angry" they've been towards me yet.

It made me think of something my building manager said a few months ago: "If and when job action starts, expect it to be fairly civil unti l they've missed a paycheque or two. Once they've missed three or four, it's a whole new ballgame." - Well, today marks three weeks. Another 6 days, and they'll all have missed two paycheques. Here we go, I suppose...

On another note, things on the inside are, quite honestly, pretty much back to business as usual. I know, that sounds exactly like something the company would want me to say, but truthfully, from everything I've seen and heard, we really ARE rolling along smothly. Yeah, we're all a lot busier, but I've made quite a few internal requests in the past couple weeks that I would have expected to be handled in 3 to five working days, and every one of them was handled within 3 to five hours. Take that to mean what you will... maybe we're not prioritizing well, maybe there's something big and time consuming that is being ignored, who knows - I can't explain it - all I know is, work seems to be getting done quite quickly lately.

They've also finally worked the kinks out of the 'food' arangements too. We're now getting hot buffet style catered food twice a day. And this is really quality stuff. I'm loving it. If for no other reason, having to get across the picket line is almost worth it for the food alone. I'd say I'm saving at least $250 a month by not having to buy lunches and dinners.

It is hard to eat though, sometimes, knowing that a lot of the people we worked side by side with for years, are out on the picket line eating baloney sandwiches and water because they have no idea how long they're going to have to make their strike pay last...

Back to the same-old, same-old

Well, yesterday was the first regular work day after the long weekend, and the numbers on the picket lines have been bolstered.
There has been no talk about my car, and I haven't been stopped at the line since Thursday, so that's six days of clear sailing. I haven't had my picture taken in all that time either. Sad to say, but it's almost becoming routine.

There have been no further acts of vandalism in the past 5 days. One person (not an employee) was reported to have been arrested on Saturday in connection with some of the vandalism.

The word is that over half of the unionized employees in Alberta have decided to come back to work, and there are rumours that The Union and The Company have actually started talking again. This is a really great sign, if it's true. On the radio this morning, the union president said things could be rolling within the next couple weeks, so that would actually make for a really quick strike.

As for my job, most of the confusion has cleared and it really is business as usuall around here - not much to report, which is quite fine with me! Stress levels are way down!

Long Weekend

It's dead today - both inside and out. At 1PM I counted 5 picketers walking the line, and another 2 sitting in the shade. Of course, that's about how many people are at work on this floor today too.

I guess The Company got an injunction the other day that says the striking workers can not picket within 10 feet of either side of a driveway or entranceway, so this is HUGE - it means no more worries about being able to get in/out of the office.

It's interesting to watch the picketers now. They walk all the way down the sidewalk to a driveway, then they take off their signs, cross the driveway, and then put their signs back on. I suppose that technically, they're just pedestrians when their signs are off.

So about an hour ago, I get a call from the guy that I was out of the office with on Friday. He says "Which way did you leave the building on Friday?" "Straight out the back", I say. "There was nobody around - I breezed right through".
"did you go fast?" He asks...
"Um, no... there was a guard there that I had to wait for, then it was clear 'till the stoplight."
"Well, rumour has it that the union has targetted your car. They say you were going fast and that's an endangerment to their picketers."
" well, I was barely crawling, there WERE no picketters, and there was a guard standing right there."
"Oh no, not to worry", he says "They're just upset about getting the injunction ruling against them, and they've got an appeal coming up. They're grasping at straws for reasons to have it over turned. Apparently they've been told to write down licence plates and this is happening all over the place."
"Well, if they say I was speeding or came close to anybody on the driveway, the're outright lying ... I've been calm and cautious..."
"Hey, not to worry, I'm sure you didn't do anything, I'm just telling you to be extra cautious, 'cause the word is they're targeting sporty little cars like yours."

Well great. That makes me feel better. Getting my picture taken, fine... nothing personal. Getting the finger, fine... nothing personal. Getting blockaded, fine... nothing presonal. But I'm supposed to believe that when a person, or person's vehicle is "targetted" that it's nothing personal? Now that got me upset. Fortunately, I'm sure it's just another scare tactic. Everything else didn't work, maybe filing false claims about breaking the law will? True enough, the prospect frightens me, but I figure I've safe for several reasons. First, and formost, it never happened. Even if ten picketers say they saw it (even though there were none to be seen when I left), the guard would have seen the truth, and our surveillance cameras would have seen it as well. Second, this was just a rumor. Nothing to get worked up about. If something had really happened, i'm sure I would have had a call from the police, or our security department by now.

While all of this may or may not be reassuring, I can't help but wonder, now that we were supposed to have no more worries about getting across the line, how hard will it be to get into work after the long weekend is over? Then again, That's exactly what they want isn't it... to make it psycologically difficult for people to cross the line. One more reason I'm convinced it's just a ploy!