allison

Hey, isn't anyone going to mention how good-looking I am? Or how MODEST? PUGET!!!!!

Fence, please stay in school. When you teacher's contract gets settled, I'm sure he or she will gladly explain how this little thing called 'strategy', or as Shrub calls it, 'stategery', is formulated in the context of negotiating a labor agreement. Going on strike in the middle of the summer really doesn't give the union's bargaining team the leverage they need to get the CBA finished and back to the members for ratification. And now that you have demonstrated to us all how knowledgeable you are about Trade Unionism with your line of questioning, you really must shut your mouth and let the grown-ups talk. Some of them are making sense.

Er, that's SmiFFy tuff-tuff. I remember complaining about all of the silly terminology on this board when I joined up last winter. Now I say things like Plab and PowPow in the normal course of my life. Gawd, I must sound like a complete gaper!

No, actually I paid real money for it. I'm wondering if it needs cleaning or something?

I sent Off a buck, because apparently the fact that it's my BIRTHDAY this week was not enough to sway him to mail me one for free. It looks to be a swell disc. Hey BTW gang, my car CD player won't play these homemade discs. My other CD player plays them no problem, but that one doesn't like them. Any car stereo geniuses among us that can tell me with that? P.S. Last year they cancelled the "We Love Alli" birthday parade down Market Street, something about the nation being in mourning or whatever. I'm just trying to make up some lost ground. Heck, it could have been worse, my gramma's birthday is on the 11th! [ 09-10-2002, 04:15 PM: Message edited by: allison ]

I'd like to add that I skied the FRESHIEZ at Bachelor one morning, and pulled down the tuff that very afternoon at Smiffy. Just because the FRESHIEZ be making the pow-pow, does not mean that rock climbing activites need be cancelled until next August.

I'm all for the Ballroom. Don't forget to bring lots of gifts, y'all! Even though of course the place is a meat market!

I think this week everyone's heading to Marymoor for a gear swap, and then drinking in Redmond. My birthday is this week, and I was hoping to have it in good old Seattle for the convenience of my hordes of well-wishers, but this gear swap thing seems to have usurped our normal thing.

POOR PEOPLE ARE POOR BECAUSE THEY LACK AMBITION AND ARE LAZY? Fence, please stay in college long enough to learn why THAT is a truckload of BUNK.

Sorry to have missed the fun. I have an annoying tradition of going to Eastern Washington to buy vegetables around the second weekend in September. Processed 50+ pounds of tomatoes and other assorteds, and speculated in the chatroom as to what antics you clowns might be up to down in sunny Bend. Yes Tim is a real guy, and a fun too. Becky's a fine lass, and then there's Chinook, and that little beotch Sierra!

This is me not posting about my Subaru mechanic in Seattle.

Hey guys, thanks for making my arguments for me. One thing though..if someone is incompetent there is no reason for them to be retained, even if they work under a CBA. When I was working as a Rep, employers would call me, all afraid to fire someone for this, and I'd walk them through the contract and explain how to do it. I didn't want to get members' terminations overturned on technicalities, no Rep does! Now I see that the 'corrupt union' thing has come up again. as a 'union insider', so to speak, I've never seen it. How prevalent is it again? Please educate me.

Do NOT TR something easy. If you don't let the wing heal properly, you will suffer much, much longer, and as an added bonus your doctor might have to REbreak it for you. Sound like fun? DO NOT ignore doctor's orders!!

The D and D looks SCAARY!!! You guys should go to the Martini Bar and hang out with the old people. Have a Lemon Drop for me!

My birthday is on Thursday, so you should just mail me one!

Now isn't anyone going to congratulate me on becoming a Zen CHAT Master today? [ 09-09-2002, 06:54 PM: Message edited by: allison ]

I might add that it's a little, er, WRONG, for a bunch of middle-class white people (myself included) to speculate about how easy or hard it is to break the cycle of institutionalized poverty. I'm doubting that few of us have tried it.

Ah, but you got a nice little page top! Puget, your #$%&*!!! mailbox is full. Empty it NOW!

Chuck: yes. I think Greg was joking, it's just that people don't find that too funny. Thing is that Trade Unionism makes people hot under the collar, it's as controversial a topic as abortion or gun control. Somebody want to call me names for being a union member, well, have at it. The anti-union sentiment is generally due to ignorance, and it really has nothing to do with me. Matter of fact the only place I've ever been called worse names than what I've been called for being a union member has been here at cc.com. Seriously.

Thievery seems to be a common problem in our culture. Remember Enron? In my experience though, and I used to be a rep for my local, thievery and corruption are not really that common. I never really saw or heard about any, and certainly in my little local it's not a problem. We don't have the resources for it. As far as working non-union and making the same wages, well, that's one of the positive effects that unions have on society at large. Wages negotiated by collective bargaining affect everyone. If a company pays the going rate for labor, it makes union organizing nearly impossible, as the union is left in the position of trying to sell workers on an idea rather than money. The idea they are selling is a process to challenge unjust discipline or termination. You never think about that until something happens, but if it ever does, it sure can be handy to be represented by a union.

I don't think anyone would argue with that. Do you have a point?

I'm not sure that the everyday experience of being a union member is sexy enough that it's ever going to make the news. I can tell you that by far the vast majority of my experiences as a member have been positive ones. They are not perfect things, as they are run by people, but overall I can't think of anything really negative I can say about it beyond that. I am ignoreing Petey's awful pun, and I think you should all continue to follow my lead. I think it is better not to encourage him.

Union labor sets the wage standards for all workers. The fact is that the wage rates the union boys make directly affect what you make. Particularly when the evil 'prevailing wage' issue comes up. Essentially the fact the I pay my union dues makes your life better. Unions have been instrumental in creating safety laws that affect all workers. And of course, everyone's favorite: the 40 hour work week. Unions did that one too. Believe me, I'd rather be called a b*tch than a scab. Any day of the week.

Ah, Greg's a scab. Now it all makes sense. I've been accused of being a name-caller before, which I haven't. NOW you can call me a name-caller. Here's to scab construction labor: PS. Petey, you know I love you to pieces, but that's also a load of horsedukey. A lot of employers are requiring employees to work less than FT so that they don't get near overtime, and so that they don't qualify for other benefits such as vacation, health care, and retirement. [ 09-09-2002, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: allison ]

I recommend that anyone who thinks it's easy to rise above poverty read the book Nickel and Dimed. I think Barbara Eisenrath is the author. She goes 'undercover' as a poor person to see if she can support herself in a few different cities, and with a few different jobs. Pretty fascinating read, and a very easy way to understand how hard it can be to go from poor to not poor. And FWIW I am not a big TV watcher. Do they talk about rising from poverty on TV a lot?