I thought while B was out on strike (hopefully not for long) I would talk about what is going on and how we have been affected by it in the past week.
Week 17
The end is finally here! This past week things have happened rather quickly. Here is a timeline of how the past week went.
Monday-Emails/Texts were sent out informing them of contract negotiations and a meeting on Tuesday to go over the contract offer and possibly voting on it.
Tuesday-There were two meetings held to go over the bullet points of the contracts and to inform all the workers of what the contract says. B and his work wife were on the phone for what felt like hours discussing what they should do.
Wednesday-Voting on contract. It passes but by a slim margin. We received a letter via FedEx during the day giving instructions on how the return to work will happen if the vote passed.
Thursday-Reality sinks in and the contract passed!!!!! Yipee!!! So they have been telling us that after a contract passes it will be about 3-4 weeks before B goes back to work. Nope more like 3-4 days! B starts back to work on Monday.
Friday-B was busy trying to tie up loose ends with the side work he has been doing.
Saturday-B worked his side jobs trying to finish up the work he promised to do.
Sunday-It was time for B to pack his bag to go back to work tomorrow morning.
It was a chaotic week, but in the end the results are good.
Now let’s talk about this voting process that the union does. From what I understand it was supposed to be an anonymous vote. When B came home he told me he was the 14th person to vote. When I asked him how he knew that he said when they signed in they were given a ballot and it was numbered. How convenient that they have numbered ballots. (Note:Sarcasm) So you sign next to your name they hand you a ballot, you walk away, and (I am not sure they did, but would guess they did) put that number next to your name. Why would they do this? The only reasoning I can come up with is if the vote went the way they didn’t want they could contact those members and talk to them before there was a revote. Now the union also has a better idea of how each union member thinks and will vote on future issues.
B found irony that the last day they worked was Feb. 7th and the last day on strike was June 7th. Exactly 4 months to the day! What a coincidence!
Yay for going back to work. That is weird but it is the same way when we do our political voting here. We have to sign our card and then take out card and get a ballot that is numbered. I’ve never seen then actually number them but since its all an assembly line kindof thing they could easily figure it out if they wanted I’m sure.