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TriSec is anti-union. I guess.
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/27/2018 22:54:50

I gotta vent someplace.


I've been mum about this, since it's such a hot-button issue at my shop. Several weeks ago, I was approached by some of the guys - they're trying to bring a union to the ol' Trolley Shop.

Of course, I was initially enthusiastic. My grandfather and father were part of the musician's union. (Pops still is.) My brother at the GE in Lynn, is his union representative, and spends more hours working on the political action committee than on the shop floor these days.

We got to the point where the company was served with the papers for an election. Naturally, the reaction was swift - within days, "union-busting" lawyers hired by the company were in our midst, making presentations and some wild claims.

Not fifteen minutes into the meeting, it had devolved into a shouting match, with the conductor who started the movement lashing out at somebody who was on the fence.

I was horrified.

The fence-sitter, a dear friend of mine, was reduced to tears by the attack and I had to talk her down off the ledge. This is not what I envisioned at all.

Argument and counter-argument have followed, and factions very quickly formed among the conductor corps. Fortunately, I play my cards close to the vest, and managed to become a liaison of sorts between the two warring sides. Things had settled down until this morning.

We had the company CEO up from Key West, and our new head conductor had the floor, as well as our local operations manager, freed at last to actually voice their opinions and make impassioned pleas.

I must say it worked. My friend is the Head Conductor, a job I interviewed for myself, and he's been in the role less than a month. He's not had a chance to even try to make his mark, and it seems unfair to shackle him with a union contract.

When the meeting broke up this morning, I wandered down to the conference room to introduce myself to the company CEO,and I happened to pass the office of our Safety Officer. She was sitting at her desk in tears - and again I had to talk somebody off the ledge.

This isn't in my job description.

But that's not the big deal today - not long after the meeting, the gentleman that was organizing the union (and had led the shouting match previously) took a heart attack in the office and left the shop in an ambulance. (He's OK.)

I was personally horrified. This has gotten us so riled up, people are nearly dropping dead? I had already decided to vote NO, but after the union leader nearly died today, the whole rest of the effort instantly collapsed. The rest of the conductors decided to withdraw the petition.

We'll see - the company and corporate are running scared, and may make some concessions, but they don't have to. We have the right to try again in one year's time if nothing changes.

But damn - I got out of my wet clothes and into a dry martini the instant I walked through the door tonight. I really don't know what to think right now.

 
 

15 comments (Latest Comment: 03/28/2018 20:27:20 by Will in Chicago)
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