June 27, 2011 - Courage My Love

Okay so the union did not go on strike. I am at work, everyone is here. WTF? I think we are going to lock them out on Thursday. Some ships did not arrive. Customers are finding other ports to offload. We only scheduled about 25% of the workforce to be here anyway. Oh well. Will update later.

June 28, 2011 - The union booked, but did not go out. The company then served a lock out notice, effective Thursday morning. The union asked to come back to the table, which will happen tomorrow. BFD. It's crazy Karma right now, because the only rail link we have with the mainland got hit by a barge last night and will be out of commission for the next 6 weeks. Freaking crazy times.

June 30, 2011 - company and union still at the table, tentative agreement to a 30 day cooling down period during which no walk outs, lock outs or strikes will occur. Most of our boats have cancelled and our customers have gone elsewhere, so it is very quiet. I think they will settle, the bargaining unit is saying that their union did not give them enough information (which is seriously a bullshit comment - did no one read the fucking offer?). People get sucked into the rhetoric and emotion of the negotiation and make really stupid decisions based on what their union leadership has told them. When they see the customer and the work leaving, it hits home, when there is the possibility of no paycheck for the foreseeable future, it hits home. The most serious issue not resolved was the 7 day work week, which affects "new hires" only, not one single person in the current bargaining unit would have to ever work a Sunday (unless it was offered as overtime and they choose to do so, or if they voluntarily accepted a posting to that shift). The union did not tell them that it would not be applied to them, but if they had of read the offer then they would have been able to see that for themselves.

Union leadership, sadly, is like mini management. They see themselves as above and apart from their fellow workers, they are supposed to defend everyone's rights in areas of discipline etc, but people are seeing that their defense and support is selective.

I'm still looking for a hero, I can't find it in management, because most of them are whores or pimps and would sell their mother if the price was right and I can't find it in the union, who are either on their knees fellating management, or posturing like rampant bulls over a herd of cows. They are all fucked.

July 6, 2011 Update - apparently they bargained all weekend and then it all fell apart on Monday. We are back to square one. Compounding the problem - our only rail link with the mainland got all fucked up by getting hit with a barge during a high run (tidal and freshet). It looks as if that could be out for several weeks. So we cannot ship by rail. Customers are taking their work and leaving, no boats are coming in, I sense impending doom. On the upside, it's totally amazing weather, not too hot, a nice 24 or 26 C with breeze off the water, my garden is loving this.