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

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

Unfortunatly, that was all they did.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Why did you stay?

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

Also the economy was still recovering.

And your brother?

He had a hard burn out

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

Yeah it was really bad.

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

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

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.

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

That jammed me further right than I have ever been.

Has your brother recovered from that?

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

What was his reason for staying?

Him. Well. I think it was a gradual thing. He thought he was doing everything right. Up until he got promoted and things started falling apart.

Sometimes I feel like walking out of my place too. You get all women working together, you get drama.

And I'm guessing the union also pushed him left but he's still stuck there.

Also, back to our dad. He was the first member of our family to graduate from college. Up until his generation nobody even finished high school. So he was very insistant that we be persistant. All throughout our childhoods he didn't like us giving up on things.

No, his place was not unionized.

What pushed him left was the company owners failing to deliver, making his job more difficult than it needed to be, and telling him to man up when he said he needed assistance.

He needs counseling

He's been in counseling non stop for the past three years.

Your stories are always so interesting.

Thank you.

3 years?! Something is not right then

Oh yeah. It's more personal than I am comfortable getting into in this format. Maybe someday I'll talk about it. But part of the problem is that bit really isn't my story to tell, and I don't think he's like me talking about it.

Understandable. Thank you for sharing. I learned a new quote and feel a bit depressed now based on his situation. Poor man.

Very nice

Great stories Bee