Message from @Grumplebee

Discord ID: 407778078300045313


2018-01-30 05:54:24 UTC  

Lol

2018-01-30 05:55:05 UTC  

This relates back to me and my brother. So we used to be very close on the political spectrum. Fairly conservative. Then we got jobs.

2018-01-30 05:55:55 UTC  

He worked at a factory that was not unionized. Worked hard, got promoted, and moved to another factory out of state to get them up to snuff. This was the main factory for the country run by a small group of super rich guys.

2018-01-30 05:56:47 UTC  

Like imagine the stereotypical rich factory owner turn of the twentieth century stereotype and you'll get the idea, and they got up to some shady stuff. including hiring illegals etc.

2018-01-30 05:57:22 UTC  

Yes.

2018-01-30 05:57:57 UTC  

So they failed to deliver on a lot of the stuff they promised, he's the only guy in the entire factories QA department which means everyone hates, him, and the cost of living means hes making as much money as he had been before the promotion in pracitcal terms.

2018-01-30 05:58:19 UTC  

He also was supposed to have a team he was managing that never got delivered on.

2018-01-30 05:58:53 UTC  

To spare the blow by blow he had a mental break down, quit his job, and moved hard left.

2018-01-30 05:59:09 UTC  

Now at the same time. I was working for a unionized hotel.

2018-01-30 05:59:43 UTC  

I don't much care for unions, but the union rep lady was friendly enough, and the hotel was constantly claming to not have any money.

2018-01-30 06:00:25 UTC  

It's a mutbillion dollar international corporation that is owned by *another* multibillion dollar corporation

2018-01-30 06:00:44 UTC  

So i'm not a fand of the pleading poverty and me and the union lady kind of bond on that point.

2018-01-30 06:01:19 UTC  

I end up going to their meetings volunteering for stuff, and long story short I become a shop steward.

2018-01-30 06:01:34 UTC  

Which is an unpaid union rep that has an atual job on site.

2018-01-30 06:02:08 UTC  

Ah OK. I was going to ask what that was

2018-01-30 06:02:28 UTC  

once again sparing a lot of details I get fired from my job because of my union involvement. Which is highly illegal.

2018-01-30 06:02:44 UTC  

union steps up, and gets me reinstated with back pay. Which is good.

2018-01-30 06:02:54 UTC  

Unfortunatly, that was all they did.

2018-01-30 06:03:43 UTC  

I continued working there for five years or so after this. And I can most liken it to being a zombie. Managment treatement as an essentially dead entity that was still shuffling around the property.

2018-01-30 06:04:04 UTC  

The HR person took to calling people into her office and telling people how terrible I was.

2018-01-30 06:04:30 UTC  

Managment also made it known that staying in my work area and talking to me was not acceptable.

2018-01-30 06:05:01 UTC  

Wow, I'm so sorry that happened to you.

2018-01-30 06:05:28 UTC  

When I called my union rep and asked if this was some kind of harassment they told me in no uncertian terms that because I was a white a straight male there were no laws protecting me about workplace harassment.

2018-01-30 06:06:49 UTC  

I should also clarify that over the years the entire staff of the union changed, this included a non english speaking latina (despite the stereotpye of the hispanic housekeeper, most of the houskeepers around her speak primarily Russian), and a genderqueer guy.

2018-01-30 06:07:01 UTC  

How long ago was this? I thought that excuse is a current thing.

2018-01-30 06:07:19 UTC  

No it isn't. This was around four years ago now.

2018-01-30 06:07:34 UTC  

Why did you stay?

2018-01-30 06:07:53 UTC  

Well at this point i'd been working there seven years. So habit mostly.

2018-01-30 06:08:03 UTC  

Also the economy was still recovering.

2018-01-30 06:08:27 UTC  

And your brother?

2018-01-30 06:08:36 UTC  

He had a hard burn out

2018-01-30 06:08:50 UTC  

The pay was garbage, but the benefits package was pretty great. Union didn't have a thing to do with that.

2018-01-30 06:08:57 UTC  

Yeah it was really bad.

2018-01-30 06:09:22 UTC  

I had one too it was more gradual than his. I quit there to try to become a school bus driver.

2018-01-30 06:09:48 UTC  

But I failed out of that program, then lost another job. Then worked seasonally at a gift basaket place for six months.

2018-01-30 06:10:36 UTC  

But I was moving left politically because of the union stuff. Until it became clear they weren't going to follow up, and just kind of left me swinging in the breeze.

2018-01-30 06:10:58 UTC  

Bosses were coming after me for any infraction. It was a mess.

2018-01-30 06:11:23 UTC  

That jammed me further right than I have ever been.

2018-01-30 06:13:30 UTC  

Has your brother recovered from that?

2018-01-30 06:14:05 UTC  

Not really. He hasn't worked in a couple years now. It was really, really bad.

2018-01-30 06:14:31 UTC  

What was his reason for staying?