So, here I am again, wasting precious work hours by blogging. What can I say, its become a part of my morning "jump start my brain" ritual, and this morning I'm even more sleepy than usual, so its a necessary evil.
Yesterday was... many things. Work was extremely hectic, because I've become a defacto union rep, and was busy taking care of a meeting for all the union members in my department so that we could fill in our elected officials on the train wreck that this re-organization has become.
Honestly, I don't have a lot of faith in my union as a whole (as mentioned in past posts like union, we dont need no stinking union...), but I do believe in unions... as long as they work for their members, and not for their own political agendas. I had originally bowed out of union management because I felt that the union didn't have its priorities straight, and was caught up in petty shit that didn't matter much in the scheme of things... also because I'm relatively conservative politically, and the union is ultra liberal -- I ended up feeling very out of place, and as if my input was automatically discounted just because I wasn't a socialist.
I think that unions have a tendency to misuse their influence now, and some are "good" unions, and others are "bad" unions, and then theres just the ineffective ones... mine is a relatively ineffective one, but thats not entirely their fault. UC is a hard organization to battle, and my union is slightly disorganized... which makes it just that much harder to make any headway. Currently, we are working without a contract... which works to our advantage actually, because then UC has to bargain any and every change they make right now, and the union can summarily dismiss them by saying "nope sorry, we won't agree to that," and UC can't do anythying about it. Well, aside from punish the actual employees, but we're getting better about not giving in to those kinds of threats and scare tactics. I do wish my union would take a more logical approach to dealing with my employer... they'd make a lot more headway than they do currently, with their emotionally empassioned pleas... its like they refuse to understand that UC is a coldhearted conglomerate, and that all they care about are numbers -- hard and fast numbers. Ah well...
In this case though, I think the union is actually on the same page as I am. They recognize that there are huge problems here, and gross mistreatment of employees, and they want to do something about it. If them doing something about it takes me helping out by taking on the brunt of organization within my department, so be it. I'm skilled enough to pull it off, quite well, as yesterday's meeting proved. Thanks to my steering, everyone left the meeting feeling that things were accomplished, and that there was a game plan to get things going in the right direction. I also plan on manuvering myself into a position to attend the meeting between the union, and the department management so that I can make sure our concerns are addressed. More work for me, but I think in the long run, it will be worth my effort. Who knows, maybe I'll become some union big wig eventually... that would be kinda fun actually... being in charge like that... unfortunately, in order to do that, I'd have to stay a clerical, and really the money isn't that great. Its better than a fair amount make, but... its also worse than a fair amount make too.
Last night was MUCH more pleasant... went to see a movie -- The Skeleton Key -- which I highly recommend. It really is a psychological thriller, and while it didn't scare me, per se', I did really really like it. It was very well done, and not your typical hollywood gore-fest. I didn't end up getting home til after 1:30am, not because of the movie, but because of the company -- which was soooooo worth missing out on a little bit of sleep for *big grin*
So yeah... I'm tired as hell, but in a great mood anyway *flashes a winning smile* a REALLY great mood -- to the point that people are asking why I'm so happy as I walk down the hall... hmmm gee... I dunno... *wink wink*
Oh yeah... more changes to my blog format... yes, I'm bored. All my links are gone, but they will be back eventually... patience people, patience.
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