Unionism

Many years ago I worked with a young guy named Kevin in a factory where we made printed circuit boards. Kevin had just joined the union and considered himself quite the activist. He was constantly checking the 'industrial award' (which listed our pay and conditions entitlements) to make sure our employer wasn't cheating us.

One day he discovered that whenever we worked more than two hours overtime, we were entitled to receive $1.50 "tea money" to help defray the cost of any snack we might decide to buy on the way home after such a long work-day.

The company hadn't been paying us the tea money so young Kevin confronted the bosses and demanded that everyone should receive the appropriate back-pay.

When he started boasting to me about it, I pointed out that it was a relatively small amount of cash and the company (like us workers) hadn't even realised that tea money should be paid. It might be better, I told him, not to kick up too much of a fuss over such a piddling detail. Maybe work out some compromise agreement that would be less troublesome for the company. Kevin told me I was 'piss weak' for not having the courage to stand up for myself.

So he persisted with his claim and now the company was legally required to go back through the wages books for the last seven years; check out who had worked overtime and calculate how much tea money they should be paid. It was a huge job and most of the office staff were involved in it. The records were stored up in the rafters under the roof and the office girls had to clamber up a ladder to get at them. Then they had to go through each file, page by page, entry by entry, checking to see if overtime had been worked. The whole job took about six weeks! [This was in the days before offices were computerised.]

Eventually we all got our back-pay (mine was about $30.00) and Kevin positively glowed as he strutted about the factory enjoying the accolades of the other workers who praised him for his brave stand against the bosses.

A few weeks later he dropped a tray full of printed circuit boards on the floor. It wasn't an unusual occurrence. Accidents like that would happen from time to time but we would carefully check each board for scratches and usually most of them could be saved. This time however, the foreman lamented that the boards were probably ruined and they would have to be thrown into the garbage. The foreman also declared that he was unable to put up with such ineptitude and sacked the young man on the spot.

Kevin felt he was being unfairly dismissed and demanded that a union representative should be called in to negotiate on his behalf. The bosses were only too happy to comply. They took him into the board room; allowed him to call up the union office, and gave him a cup of coffee while they waited for the rep to arrive. Kevin was utterly convinced that he was in the box seat and that he was in control of the situation.

The union rep was of the opinion that perhaps the company had been a little too hasty in sacking young Kevin and maybe they should re-hire him with no loss of entitlements - and that's when management pounced: 

Oh no, you misunderstand. Management hasn't sacked the young man for that single incident. Management has sacked him because he is one of the most useless workers in the factory.

What Kevin didn't know was that a foreman had been assigned to keep him under surreptitious surveillance and maintain a diary of everything he had done (and not done) since the tea-money incident.

Every time he snuck outside for a cigarette. Every time he stopped working his machine to talk to the guy next to him. Every time he forgot to wear his safety glasses. Every time he scratched his arse. Every time he did anything at all; the details were recorded in the diary.

The union rep read through the diary and finally told young Kevin, "It looks like they've got you by the balls, son. I don't think I can help you on this one."

Kevin was immediately escorted off the premises.

We never saw him again.