Other posts related to union
How my job screwed me over… again
Lincoln Adams | July 13, 2009 @ 8:03 pmAn update to the job situation at work: I am apparently so far low on the totem pole of importance that you’d have to dig 10 feet under just to get to me.
So there were all these openings resulting from union concessions and people retiring that I basically had the pick of whatever assignment I wanted, right? But since the notice went out and gave absolutely no information on these openings whatsoever, I stopped by Personnel and spoke with the manager.
“Yeah, hi, I was hoping I could find out more about these job openings, since there was no info given about them in the email?”
“What are you interested in?”
“Depends, I’m pretty flexible right now, so I could work in any assignment depending on the type of work involved. I’m working a night tour currently, so if there’s any night shifts available I might be interested in that too, that way I don’t lose any night pay just by transferring.”
“Actually we do have a few night positions available. Let me take your info down and once we get more info together I’ll let you know what positions might be a good fit. Since you’ve been here a few years you should have seniority over most of the other people also looking to be transferred, so you’ll be in pretty good shape to get whatever new position you decide to opt for.”
He took down my info, made sure my name was put on the list and said another notice would go out in the next few days that would outline all the new positions and what they entailed.
The next day it occurred to me that I should let him know about my college degree in computers, in case there was an opening in our Information Systems division. So I sent the personnel manager another email to let him know about my background in computers. Shortly afterwards I received this response:
Thank you for your email. Your request was given careful consideration, but all the positions have now been filled at this time. We will be hiring new staff in the fall and it is anticipated that another round of transfers will take place then.
Um, what? Over 20 positions were all filled already, in the space of a day? Really? And how long did you take me into consideration, the ten seconds it took for me to walk out your door before you took my info and threw it in the trash? Numbnut.
Around the same time I happened to learn my agency was chasing people who had retired off the job and bringing them back to work part time jobs, when those jobs should have been going to people like me full-time. It was a way to make an end run around the union concessions that had been made, which stipulated that a certain part of the workforce would retire early in exchange for having their positions filled by civilians who could work for less money. So now they get their full pensions as well as a part time salary, while the rest of us with weaker and weenier unions get hosed.
Nice. I had a feeling this was coming too, but I never thought the guy was going to blatantly lie to my face like that. If somebody ever BEGGED to have sugar poured into his gas tank, it’d be this snot monkey.
Ah well, there are at least some good news to come out of all this, and it’s that Mr. No-Personality will be carving out office space for himself instead of taking my desk, and that it would also be a few more weeks before he finally gets assigned here. My guess is that he is putting it off as long as he can in the hopes that something else comes up, but if not, he’ll just hole up in a corner somewhere and play Everquest all day. The best kind of supervisor I could ask for really: one who hides and stays out of my way. 
As for the screw-over, I could fight this, but it’s pretty hard to top what I have now. The night pay accounts for $400 of my monthly salary, but my hours still fall mostly during the day, so it never feels like I’m doing a graveyard shift. Not many people can say that either. The job is easy and the workload has been getting lighter, the hours are good, the benefits are excellent, it’s just the office politics and my coworkers’ inability to engage in… intellectually stimulating conversations that tends to gum things up for me. I can understand now why there are those who never want to work in an office and would rather be out in the field working alone than deal with all the politics and BS within. And then of course there’s the fact that there is absolutely no career or promotional path for this job whatsoever.
But… for now it suits me. I would hope though that it won’t be my lot in life to drift through this job without ever making a real difference:
Tags: coworkers, dilbert, email, job, money, office politics, personnel manager, supervisor, transfer, union, unions, workforce
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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Loading ...A Contract in Limbo
Lincoln Adams | December 2, 2008 @ 10:01 amA recent morning conversation at work:
“Dude, what is up with our union contract? Is it still in arbitration?”
“Yep.”
“Well I’m getting sick of this cloak and dagger crap and them telling us nothing about nothing. I want to see what it looks like so far.”
“Why?”
“I wanna know what my rights are.”
“Oh that’s easy. You don’t have any.”
Tags: arbitration, conversation, rights, union, union contract, work
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
Lincoln Adams | December 3, 2007 @ 11:59 pmThis post is part of the series titled, "Waging War At Work." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Fighting The Devil Woman
- Forced to Fight
- A Battle Won
- Countdown to Showdown
- The Last Mile
- Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
- You are the MAN!
I stepped inside the Commisioner’s office and entered another world. Leather couches, windows with curtains, and a bowl full of Hershey’s kisses placed neatly on a glass coffee table.
I felt like I was in an office at Trump Tower. 
“Can I help you?” A detective approached me.
“Yeah, I have a letter here for the Commissioner requesting an urgent meeting?”
“Hmm, let me get one of our secretaries here.” He got on his phone and buzzed her. When she came in and spoke with me, I learned I didn’t even have to write a letter, I could have just shown up in person and requested a meeting right then and there.
“Are you kidding me??” Man, I was getting jerked around by everyone. Whoever I spoke to earlier about getting a meeting must have thought I was the press and made up that B.S. excuse about a letter just to get rid of me. The secretary I was speaking to now buzzed in one of the chief detectives, who read my letter and asked me a few questions. He then told me the commish was unavailable but that I would be getting a call back soon.
My hopes bolstered a bit, I left and stopped by my union office. Even though I didn’t show up in my section, I was dressed and ready to work, I wanted my union president to note that I had shown up at their office ready to work, and to inform my supervisors where I was.
The union president wasn’t there though, and not quite sure what to do with me, the secretary there led me to the vice president, who then took me into the conference room so we could discuss the problem. They tried to call my union rep several times, but she apparently disappeared off the face of the earth, so it would just be me and the VP. After we sat down, once again I was being subjected to the same tired old arguments: she hadn’t done anything to me yet, I had no standing, I’m putting myself in jeopardy by not coming to work, blah blah blah…
Whatever. I did take their advice and called in Time Office to let them know I’d be taking off another day. They had to clear it with the head of my division first, who let them know that while they’ll approve more vacation time, they wanted me to know that I was being foolish burning up time like I was. No indication at all that they would move Devil Woman either. It was just something I had to accept, and I could either continue to burn up time, or get AWOLed, or worse.
At that point it occurred to me that the Commish’s office may have been blowing me off too. All I had was the promise that they would call me up, but I had no idea when. Meanwhile I was still burning up time here. I decided to go back, and simply squat there until I got some attention. They did have nice leather couches after all, so I could wait all day if I had too. 
I went back, spoke to the same detective I met earlier, and it finally began to dawn on him that I simply wasn’t going away. He got up to go get the Chief of Police. Chief of Police comes down, asks me to walk with him back to his office.
And that’s when the real confrontation began.
Tags: battle, chief, commish, commissoner, corruption, curtains, detective, detectives, excuse, face of the earth, fight, hershey, jeopardy, job, secretaries, time office, union, union president, union rep, vice president, vp
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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The Last Mile
Lincoln Adams | November 30, 2007 @ 11:20 amThis post is part of the series titled, "Waging War At Work." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Fighting The Devil Woman
- Forced to Fight
- A Battle Won
- Countdown to Showdown
- The Last Mile
- Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
- You are the MAN!
“She’s still here Linc.”
I blinked a few times. “Are you @#$% kidding me?”
“I kid you not.”
I hung up my cell and threw it across the room. The woman almost drew a gun on my relative (who also works the same job), and they expect me to work in the same section as her???
3 weeks of this crap. I called my union. My union thinks I’m the bad guy. But after hounding their fat hairy asscans for days on end, they finally talked to the bigwigs and my union rep assured me she would be moved out the day after Thanksgiving.
She lied right to my face. Motherfrick useless union whore. I called her cell and left an urgent message, but of course she never called back.
Well that’s it then. I donned my uniform, grabbed my audio recorder and headed out the door. I was going to make a visit to the Commissioner’s office and see the big man himself. I had enough.
After I pulled up alongside headquarters, I took a long, deep breath. In seven years I had never gone in to see the Commissioner. Hell I didn’t even know what his office looked like, but I would soon find out now. Rather appropriately, the commish’s office was at the end of a long hallway on the second floor, and as I walked that last mile, I knew I was putting my job on the line. I was going over the heads of all my bosses and bypassing my union altogether. I paused for a few seconds outside the door, trying to gather myself and keep myself from visibly shaking. I prayed hard and asked God to watch over me.
And then stepped inside.
Tags: audio recorder, battle, commish, corruption, deep breath, fight, God, hallway, job, last mile, seven years, Thanksgiving, union, union rep
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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Countdown to Showdown
Lincoln Adams | November 25, 2007 @ 3:41 pmThis post is part of the series titled, "Waging War At Work." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Fighting The Devil Woman
- Forced to Fight
- A Battle Won
- Countdown to Showdown
- The Last Mile
- Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
- You are the MAN!
I won a small victory at work, but it may not be over just yet.
Tomorrow I go back to my job for the first time in a month since this whole debacle began. Even though my union called and let me know the Devil Woman would be moved back to her old section, my coworkers were telling me a different story. I also heard that my supervisor might be transferred out as well, but nobody seems to know anything about that either. There’s a feeling that the brass might be pulling some maneuvering stunts here so that if my supervisor does get transferred out, they will move Devil Woman in his place and she’ll end up becoming my new supervisor after all.
I’ll know for sure tomorrow, at which point I’ll be calling in ahead of time to make sure she’s really gone. If she’s not, it’s war.
You know, finding justice is a noble calling, but the road to it is not a pleasant one, and there are no guarantees either. I’m in this alone, without the support of my coworkers, my union, or anybody else. All I have is God and a clear conscience in knowing I’m doing the right thing. The line has been drawn. This madness has to end now. People are getting hurt, and the integrity of our workforce is being compromised. And yet nobody wants to take a stand here because they’re all afraid for their jobs?
To hell with that. I’d rather stand in line at the unemployment office than take this kind of abuse. I want to go to bed at night knowing I stood up against evil and that I refused to be cowed by their intimidation and threats. I will not be their @#$% rug for them to walk all over.
And if they don’t know that already, then they surely will soon. 
Tags: corruption, debacle, devil woman, fight, God, guarantees, hell, integrity, intimidation, job, jobs, justice, madness, office politics, small victory, stunts, supervisor, union, workforce
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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A Battle Won
Lincoln Adams | November 15, 2007 @ 10:09 pmThis post is part of the series titled, "Waging War At Work." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Fighting The Devil Woman
- Forced to Fight
- A Battle Won
- Countdown to Showdown
- The Last Mile
- Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
- You are the MAN!
I called up the Director’s office, but apparently the Director is such an important guy that I have to write a letter formally requesting a meeting with him first, then outline the reasons why. Good grief. 
So I wrote a nice long letter explaining everything: naming names, describing Devil Woman’s long and sordid history, and my request to be immediately transferred either to another division altogether, or somewhere outside of headquarters.
Then I drove down to HQ and parked next to the building entrance. I grabbed my MP3 player in case the Director decided to see me then so I could record the conversation, and braced myself. In 7 years I had never done anything like this, and now my job and future was on the line. Once I turned in that letter there would be no going back. All of hell was about to be unleashed. I let out a long breath, and opened the door…
*RING*
My cell phone lit up, but I let it go to voicemail. I hesitated long enough to check my message just to see who it was, and it turned out to be my union rep, letting me know she had good news and to call her back as soon as possible.
Hmmmmmm… I looked at the entrance again for a moment, then decided to call her back.
“Hello?”
“Hi Del, it’s Linc. You had news for me?”
“Yep, she’s gone.”
“…………..what??“
“She’s gone, back to her old section.”
“What happened??”
“Apparently she wasn’t authorized to be in that section to begin with, so she’s been ordered back to her division.”
“……….well I’ll be a son of a b….”
I spoke for a few more minutes, and from what I could garner, my union rep had finally talked to one of the chiefs, who upon learning that Devil Woman had been moved, immediately called to have her put back. The move had been unauthorized and never should have occurred.
It was a victory, but I was peeved. My union rep had given me the runaround for days, telling me she couldn’t couldn’t be transferred, there was nothing she could do, I had no case, blah blah blah, and one conversation with the chief finally took care of that stupidity. Really, how about you actually find out for sure first what can’t be done before you start making broad assumptions and making me out to be the bad guy here? Damned stupid woman.
But… a victory is a victory, and I do need to thank God for it. If I hadn’t stood my ground, who knows how long she would have remained there. The powers that be in my section were trying to pull a fast one, but now they’re on notice. Next time they push me, I WILL bring the noise.
Tags: battle, cell phone, chiefs, corruption, devil woman, fight, good grief, hq, job, mp3 player, runaround, union, union rep, victory
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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Forced to Fight
Lincoln Adams | November 14, 2007 @ 9:57 pmThis post is part of the series titled, "Waging War At Work." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Fighting The Devil Woman
- Forced to Fight
- A Battle Won
- Countdown to Showdown
- The Last Mile
- Line in The Sand – Taking a Stand
- You are the MAN!
Well I didn’t ask for it, but I’m now in the middle of a poop storm, and I’m gonna have to fight my way out of it.
I’ll tell you something though: I hate unions. @#% hate ‘em. They steal my money by calling it dues, then use it to fund political candidates I can’t stand, or organize picnics I’ll never go to. But when it comes down to them actually doing something constructive, like defending my civil rights, they can’t be bothered.
I have been blown off, ridiculed, and talked down to now not by my supervisors, but by my own damned union reps. Hey guys, how about you take those dues you expect me to pay and shove ‘em up your fat a…
But anyway, this concluded day three of being jerked around by my overrated “advocates,” so now I’m gonna play hardball. I’m setting up an appointment with the head honcho of our agency, and hopefully I’ll be able to resolve it then. I’m not asking for much now, just a transfer out so I can be removed from this situation, but these union guys act like I’m asking for a boatload of cash and a tropical island.
And they don’t think I have a case. My ass. If the ACLU thinks I have a case, I have a case, and I have the documents, recordings and the pictures to back it up too. If they force me to go “scorched earth” on them I will, and I will BURN this place. Scumbags.
Y’all messed with the wrong Italian this time.
Tags: aclu, advocates, agency, appointment, battle, civil rights, corruption, dues, ead honcho, fight, hardball, job, labor, money, picnics, scorched earth, tropical island, union, unions, war
Categories: In The Coal Mine
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