This is a little talking drum, also sent by Mike's parents. He wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but it didn't take him long to figure out that it lights up when he hits it! This was sent along with his Tiny Tory T, a new spring outfit, and some meat, jam and chocolates for us. Thank you!
OK. Here's why the strike happened. For our purposes, the big "parent company" will be called PC, Mike's company, the subcontractor, will be called MC and the union will be U.
Alright. The last time we left off in the saga of contact negotiations, PC had decided to buy back MC. U was delighted. Talks resumed, with all three parties at the table. Things were supposedly going well, but after a few weeks, U started to get grumpy. They felt the process was too slow, and that PC was starting to dig in its heels on important issues, like wage.
To add a little pressure, hoping to speed the process along, U launched stage two of work-to-rule. It banned any training - including the new guys hired for summer, who are currently mid-training. It also banned team meetings, overtime, unsupervised conversations with managers and pagers from being left on outside a shift - that was two days ago.
Under these conditions, talks resumed. Everyone was a little agitated by then. U was mad because things were stalling, and PC was mad because U was playing hardball.
One thing to note, the sale of MC to PC was conditional on a collective agreement being reached. At yesterday's negotiations, PC kind of snapped. They accused U of being too inflexible, and questioned why they ever thought buying MC was a good idea. Some very colourful language was exchanged, then PC stormed out of the room. A great start to the day. THEN, MC started yelling at U, calling them selfish and accusing them of risking the company's future for some stupid perks. More loud, colourful language, then MC stormed out.
U, hurt and alone, pulled a "screw 'em all" tactic against both PC and MC, and called a strike right then and there. It was an impulse call, made in the heat of the moment.
As a result, no-one is prepared for a strike - the deadline wasn't until April 9 after all. Mike's union meeting last night was basicly telling everyone that story, and how they regret not holding off a bit - at least until after Easter so everyone could get the paid holiday. But, what's done is done. They don't have anything prepared beyond a loose plan. They aren't going to do anything until Monday - by then they'll have a schedule to distribute and everything else in place.
I've never been part of a strike, so I don't know what's normal, but this union is going to be doing some petty low things, in my opinion. Flooding e-mails and phone lines, picketing manager's houses, that sort of thing. They told everyone to keep it as unrelenting and harsh as possible, because it will make the strike as short as possible. The last three strikes were 7, 11 and 18 weeks long.
That's about all we know for now - we'll know a lot more on Monday. We don't know what kind of time committment this wil be - they'll schedule everyone for 15-20 hours a week, but he may have some blocks of time off. Who knows.
I kind of side with the company on this one - with everything but wages. Mike told me what the company offered and it's a joke. However, the union is digging in its heels on some really stupid things. They want Easter Monday off. Who gets Easter Monday off!? What are they, bankers? Some of the other things they want would be nice - they want a shift premium for the evening hours, which the PC guys get. I can totally see that - in the winter, they're working outside in the cold AND the dark. It deserves a shift premium. We'll see how things play out. Hopefully it will be very short. It looks like "short" means a couple months, but if that's the best they can do, I guess we'll have to live with that.
Happy Easter everybody! I'll keep you posted as things unfold.
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