Inane Asylum

As I type, I’m anxiously awaiting a phone call to let me know if I have a job to report to in the morning. That is the short cliff-notes version. Here is the long version of today’s story:

I belong to a union…yes…collective bargaining. Just like the one that the Governor of Wisconsin is trying so very hard to take away their rights to. I had no choice mind you, other than to NOT take this job. I came here in 2003 when I finally got a job offer to get me off the ‘ships’. I had been sailing as a civilian onboard USNS surveillance ships almost ever since I retired from the Navy. I enjoyed that job a lot, and saw lots of the world in the 7 years that I sailed. However, being gone all the time wears you down…and that job, if you’re not on a ship working, then you’re not getting paid. I was SO happy to land this job here…a SHORE job! A chance at having a life again! And it would mean working with spacecraft now and then even…What a job! There are very few days that I go into work unhappy with my job…you know…when you dread coming in? I almost NEVER feel like that. Sure we have bad days here and there. VERY FEW.

However. It’s a union shop, and once I accepted the job offer I had to join the union. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing either…because I can surely say they have taken care of us very well over my 8 years here. All my years on the ships I had no collective bargaining rights, and each time our contract was won by a different low-bid company, WE the workers took it in the shorts with the NEW job offer. Over my 7 years that I worked on the ships I basically started over 3 times, taking less pay and benefits each successive time. And my only other option was to leave the ships and go look for a job elsewhere. So having this job where the company can NOT ride roughshod over us, (forcing us to accept things that we don’t want to accept) has been pretty awesome. Someone has my back, and that’s actually a pretty good feeling. I watch the company screw over our salaried folk almost daily, and they can’t do that to me.

And that brings us to now. As of last Thursday my little world was quiet and normal. And then right at the end of the day we get the email that the company has finally made their final offer. Our contract expires today (Sunday). Our contracts typically run between 2 and 3 years. Near the end of each, our bargaining committee gathers with the company negotiating committee, and they try to hash out a contract proposal that is acceptable to all parties. All the previous times since I’ve been here they have been able to successfully do that. An offer where the negotiating committee returns and gives their recommendation that we accept the proposal. Sure, there is always give and take..that’s the way it’s supposed to be…nobody gets everything they want. But no deal-breakers. Until this time. Today at noon we sat thru a long presentation by our bargaining committee as they went thru the companies “Last, Best, FINAL” offer, line by line. Explaining how the negotiations went, what we were asking for, and what was offered in this final proposal. The 2 major sticking points are the pension and the health insurance.

As to the pension, the company is apparently trying to get away from pensions and just give you some extra money and let you take care of yourself…to free themselves from the “Liability” of you having a pension. However to do that they realize that everybody currently employed under today’s ‘pension plan’ will never accept that. So they are trying to split the union. People already there will be under the current plan. Anybody new who hires in after tomorrow will be under the NO pension plan (they will give them some money into a 401K type plan each quarter, and it’s up to you to make that into your pension). The union doesn’t stand by this divide and conquer type of proposal. Effectively throwing any NEW employees under the bus. During the discussion they reminded us to think about all the people before us. Had THEY done this years ago, then we wouldn’t have the benefits that we currently do. All those years they have stuck to their guns and NOT let the company take away benefits of a younger generation of workers.

The second sticking point is the company is trying desperately to limit the healthcare plans available to us. They have already forced all our salaried personnel onto their own company “Self insured” plan. It has much higher deductibles and is overall not a very satisfactory plan. The union has fought this tooth and nail to keep HMO’s and other options available to us to choose what works best for us. Also to keep down our costs in purchasing this plan. The company would like nothing more than to have EVERYBODY under this plan, as they will make more $$ that way. Under this years negotiations, the company realized they had a big sticking point already in the pension, and seems were not going to give us TWO huge sticking points. So they graciously slipped in the new plan as ONE of the available options. And along with that, they are going to go to each area and find which is the most popular plan, and THAT will be the only other plan offered as of Jan 1st 2012. They will have successfully negotiated away all the remaining options. Making them one step closer to having only the one plan.

And so….the negotiating committee gave us their recommendation: they have unanimously agreed that we should turn down this proposal and vote to strike. And by unanimous, it turns out there were three different collective bargaining teams negotiating with three company groups in three separate rooms of the same building at the same exact time. These are all our union brothers from various other contracts that all fall under our Union umbrella. On all THREE of these negotiating teams, it was unanimous. The company offered the same proposals to each of the three groups.

And today we voted. There are 2 separate votes. One is to accept or reject the contract offer. The other is to authorize or not authorize a strike. IF we vote to reject the proposal (it takes a simple majority vote for this) then they look to the strike vote. That takes a 2/3rds majority. IF we vote to reject the contract, but don’t get the 2/3rds vote to allow a strike, then the contract is approved and we go back to work. That is the possible outcomes of today’s vote. Our membership where I work is a small percentage of the voters in our overall contract…the majority work up north. We both held meetings at the same time today and the vote is over at the same time….5pm Sunday evening. It’s almost 7pm now and I still haven’t heard the outcome. I don’t mind telling you that I’m literally quaking in my boots as I type. The very thought that I might go to a picket line instead of my job tomorrow is quite nerve wracking. Jeannie will have a fit and probably have an explosive ulcer if I were to go on strike. However it’s out of my hands. I won’t even tell you how I voted, because for one, this is a public forum and I don’t want it to ever be used against me. And two, it’s nobody’s business but my own. I can see a valid argument for voting either way. I like my job, and the overall offer was a very fair offer. And the thought of going on a picket line makes me sick to my stomach. In fact, I need to eat dinner before I faint or something. Sitting here typing away, NOT knowing my future is just killing me.

OK…I’m back from dinner, and while I was eating I finally got THE phone call that I was waiting for.

I report to work as usual in the morning…the majority vote was to accept the contract. And I feel happy yet sad at this thought. Tomorrow this vote won’t mean a hill of beans for us, except that we still have our jobs. And next year more of the same. However, 5, 10, or 15 years down the line today’s vote really will mean something. Because anybody hiring in after tomorrow will be under a different retirement plan than the rest of us. And all we can say at that point is “Sorry…we took care of ourselves”. I think that will make me sick to my stomach too. I might be working side by side with this unknown person who will be affected by today’s vote. I don’t have kids, but others do, and maybe they will hire into our company someday (or maybe not). But we just threw them under the bus to save ourselves. What a horrible decision to have to make. I’m sure glad there were lots of other people voting…I’d hate to have to make that one all by myself.

And so…crisis averted. I can let my stomach unwind and maybe get some sleep. Gosh…Friday was still a normal day, and depending on how this vote went I might be picketing tomorrow. On strike. For nobody knows how long. Thank goodness I don’t have to find out. I wouldn’t wish going on strike on anybody. But I can see why it’s an important tool to have at your disposal. I don’t know the details of the Wisconsin state workers, but I can say that I believe we should have the power to band together to stand up for our rights. For Democracy. Because that’s what it’s all about in a nutshell. Today I had a little taste of it for myself. It was terrifying. Yet exhilarating in some ways. I had a vote in shaping our next three years.

And tomorrow morning the job will go on like nothing happened today. But I know better. Something DID happen. And I hope to remember it vividly 3 years from now when we do this again. And I hope everybody else remembers too. 

Have a GREAT week!