Don't Drink the Poison.

I haven't had to deal with much injustice in my life, but last week I found myself suddenly staring it full in the face. Our contract had expired for work, and so after being under deliberation for several months we had a union meeting to discuss the changes. I sat in a room with my coworkers and watched page after page of clauses roll by with the underlying message that I am worthless as an employee and that I have little to no value. In this new contract I am expected to be available more, I cannot take a vacation for more than two weeks. Which may sound reasonable, except that I am a casual employee with no guaranteed hours, just on call shifts. They have made new rules making it almost impossible for me to get a second job, they didn't raise the on call wage, which would have been a small way for them to show they were at least trying to cooperate. Not only that, but to add to the insult, they have agreed to pay full time employees twice as much as part timers for being on call. Full time employees are never on call. It a cheap, sneaky move on their part to try and make this hideous contract more appealing to the full timers. I wish I was dumb enough to tell myself they didn't do all of this on purpose, and not because of the known fact that there are a lot more full time employees than part time, and therefore that we have little chance of defending ourselves. My reward for having a company I've never trusted cinch its fingers tighter around my throat, was a forty five cent raise. 45 cents. Apparently thats what I'm worth. The contract ended with a bribe. As if they couldn't sink any lower, they promised a thousand dollars to every full time employee who agreed to sign. Part timers would be paid according to hours. Which means the people getting stabbed in the back by this contract, aren't even rewarded for agreeing to do what they want. No, instead they are paying the people they have already made it so clear, are the only worthwhile employees in this disease of a company.

When the meeting ended (Suffice to say, I voted no), I stood by the windows and told myself to just breathe. I felt like I had just lost a battle I didn't even know I was in. I was saturated with rage. More anger I think than I have felt in my whole life. Part of me wanted to throw a chair through the window. The other part wanted to hand in my uniform and just walk away. I gave 18 months of sweat and tears to a job with the belief that at some point it would have to get better. But now I see the truth. That things are, in fact, slowly getting worse. I suppose I can at least hold on to the fact that it was only a year and a half and not any longer.

I got an email with the results of the vote today. 73% were in favor of it. Deep down, I had hoped for at least a lower number than that. If only we could make some sort of stand. If only a whole bunch of us could walk away from the job together. Throw down our stethoscopes and storm out, never to be seen again. But the company has the bigger hand, and I'm sure they know it. People have husbands and children and mortgages and car payments. They can't simply walk away.