So, I’m on strike.

After spending all that time writing that last post, I realized that I meant to list several reasons as to why my life is chaotic, and I ignored all but one of them. I didn’t intend to write so much on the one subject.

Last Thursday, workers at the telephone company I work for (Telus) set up picket lines and declared themselves locked out. It’s a long and boring story, but Telus says we’re on strike, the union says we’re locked out.

Managment at Telus has slowly and increasingly treated us like pieces of garbage. Two years ago, Telus was an amazing company to work for, but now, it is a hell hole. An absolutely sickening company. I won’t go into examples because I don’t have a thousand hours, but just take my word for it.

The union is declaring that they want stronger protection for our jobs, no out sourcing, wage equity, yadda yadda yadda.

What it comes down to me is simply that Telus is mean to us, and I now have the chance to protest them. I am protesting against them in general, not just for detailed contracting issues. I am standing up against them because I don’t believe in the way they run their company.

What makes me sad are the people that are crossing picket lines. We are fighting for a better, more respectful work environment, and all they can think of is “Telus is offering me lots of money to cross the line–so I’m going to.”

I trust to easily.

During a union rally, Telus decided to parade about 200 managers and workers who crossed the line in front of us. They chanted about how much they love Telus, they shouted slurs at us, they laughed at us. The stand off became quite intense and felt close to errupting in violence.

And amongst these people standing against us were those I called friends, peers, and team members. They were people I trusted. They have aligned themselves against me for a few dollars. They couldn’t care less if what they think they are doing is right or wrong–they’re just excited about being financially rewarded for switching sides.

Ironically, many of the people I saw chanting about how much they love Telus, were those that complained the most about their jobs and managers.

It didn’t make me mad, it just saddened me…that the human spirit can be so easily influenced by money–by simple bribes. But that’s life.

I could go on forever. I don’t think I could even justly describe my feelings on the matter. I’m not a good enough poet or writer.