IN UNITY THERE IS RECOGNITION
I find it almost incomprehensible that unions appear to be fighting for their very existence to say nothing about a Republican conspiracy to vilify and constrain their already diminished powers of collective bargaining. How vastly different from 48 years ago when I first became aware of the importance of a union as it intimately applied to my very survival as a novice worker in the American work force.
After graduating Columbia College I took and passed a test as a provisional vocational counselor in the New York State Employment Service. I was not surprised when I got my acceptance letter quite sure I had aced it.
I was assigned to an office in Brooklyn. My immediate supervisor was an elderly beady eyed long chinned severe woman of Scottish descent.
Undeterred I was determined to be an outstanding worker.
My job consisted of interviewing 70 plus year old men who were looking for part time work. At that time - in the early 60s - finding work for retired men was a bit fanciful. Never the less I plunged into every interview with an unparalleled enthusiasm to do the impossible with each candidate.
Problem #1.
My supervisor was a stickler for fine details. So when I interviewed an elderly man of 80 she was quite taken aback when I didn't focus on getting the dates for his elementary education. In fact she made it quite clear that I was not following protocol dressing me down as if she was a cliche general in the German army of WWII. I was taken aback - said nothing of my shocked feelings - offered an apology and tried to extract the dates of my applicant's elementary schooling to no avail - convinced he was as embarrassed about forgetting them as I was in being forced to ask him. Welcome to the adult world of work.
The careful reader will note that I had a slight "authority" problem. I think I was born with this quirky attitude that when around hostile authority I would bristle and defy them in any way I could manage to do so. But I suffered from my allergy to hostile authorities, as I would get feel intensely tense and anxious.
Meanwhile my supervisor would nit pick about overlooked additional details apparently delighted when she could find a justification to nail me failing to once again pay sufficient attention to an obscure and totally irrelevant (my perverted judgment) detail.
My actual name is Gibbs. When addressing me she would call me Briggs emphasizing her Scottish accent looking down her beaked long nose at me. Correcting her - "my name is Gibbs" resulted only in more emphatic BRIGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is the reader getting the idea that my supervisor and me were not exactly a match made in heaven - rather hell would be a more apt location?
Thus it probably was no coincidence that the next day I got a notice that I would be terminated as of that day the reason being that I had failed the provisional test. Not shocked I was fired but quite shocked that the stated reason was because I had failed their stupid test I asked to see the Senior Supervisor. Wish granted!
Ms...... was even older than my supervisor not that I have a prejudice against older workers. But this lady seemed as if she was preserved with scotch tape, glue, thread, and cob webs. As we exchanged words she seemed as if she was nodding off to sleep literally disintegrating in front of my eyes.
I told her about my being incredulous about my failing the test insisting that there had to be a mistake and would she please inquire. She paused, opened her desk drawer, pulled out a new testament, opened it up, read a passage and ended saying "It's Gods' Will." Little did she know that her words would deeply affect me.
(1) She reinforced my attitude about a personal God. That if there is a God then at times like this his ways are simply to complex for me to take seriously and more importantly (2) I associated to the term UNION - instantly realizing why if unions didn't exist they should.
Discouraged I went to the counselor's lounge. Standing in the middle of the floor I loudly asserted the fact that it is too bad this place was not unionized. VOILA! Some kind soul said "You're lucky. We are unionized."
I called the President of the Union who after telling him about my absurd story invited me to come to the union headquarters that night. After hearing the details of my misadventure he said "No need for concern. I can practically guarantee that you will not be fired adding "thanks for calling us" apparently thrilled with the details of my story.
The next day not only was I not fired, but I was told there had been an administrative mistake resulting in an apology from both supervisors, and an assigned to a much better office in Manhattan with a prince of a supervisor.
I became an active member of the Union - Local 1099 - which at the time was engaged in a major reallocation fight for justified better terms for everyone in the employment service. I loved attending. The officers were an impressive lot of discharged military service men quite articulate, fair minded, intensely pragmatic, and idealistic. What a great combination: a group of dedicated political idealists who strove to be objective and fair minded.
In 7years I rose in the ranks of the union and was promoted to becoming President which lasted about 6 months before I quit having been accepted into a Ph.D. program which officially ended my career in the employment service.
I do not believe my experience pre union is all that unique. As a 75 year old my take on most bosses is not exactly that they are paragons of virtue. In the face of what I believe is a realistic fact, there has to be unity among workers or the individual is quite likely to be unrecognized.
That there are union excesses is true. What else is new, but there has to be a way to insure that everyone be given a fair hearing. Work and the money and the meaning that go along with it is quite serious business. Few other activities in life are as important as working in an atmosphere of fairness and decency. If the individual worker does not unite with like minded souls who will protect those non caring individuals who wield their unchallenged power over the disunited and thereby tyrannize ineffectual powerless singletons?
Worker's of the world UNITE! or perhaps I should say WORKERS of the WORLD REUNITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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