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Hoffa my Hero
Jul. 19th, 2007 04:36 pmSo, I seem to have become my office's de facto union rep. As I've mentioned here before, I'm supposed to go to this training in GA in Sept for 7 weeks. Well, I went back and looked at the job description I was hired under and it says 4-5 weeks in GA. That got bumped to 6 and then canceled and rescheduled to 7. Now, there are solid rumors going around, but I haven't been told officially, that the course will be 10 weeks and in at least two, possibly three geographic locations. I can't do that - I would have never taken the job if that had been the deal and I certainly would not have given up my previous position, even for more pay. So, I contacted the union, sent them all my paperwork on the training and they are looking into it. I have no idea if the job description can be treated like a contract. We will see, I guess.
Then, last week, all of us worked 1-2 hours of overtime for a big ceremony we were having. We were told in advance that we would get OT for it. Now that our time sheets are due, my section is being told that any extra time worked was voluntary. Such bullshit because even though we did a lot of sitting around, we weren't free to leave. And, other supervisors have approved the OT for their people. It should come to a head tomorrow when we all submit our sheets. I contacted the union and they said to go ahead and submit our time sheets, make them deny them, and then they will take action. One person was already denied so I'm totally looking forward to this. It's probably like an extra $20, but the principle bugs me. We aren't mice or sheep.
The nicest part of all this was that I wrote up a little statement about why I thought OT was authorized and showed it to my coworkers. They were all, "wow, you wrote that just now? It's so good; to the point; clear; persuasive; and so on." It made me feel really good even though I think I should be able to do that sort of thing pretty easily having spent $70K on a law school education and all.
It's funny - I've never been in a job that required a union, but I'm tired of feeling run over and pushed around. Just be upfront and honest with me - it's all I ask.
Then, last week, all of us worked 1-2 hours of overtime for a big ceremony we were having. We were told in advance that we would get OT for it. Now that our time sheets are due, my section is being told that any extra time worked was voluntary. Such bullshit because even though we did a lot of sitting around, we weren't free to leave. And, other supervisors have approved the OT for their people. It should come to a head tomorrow when we all submit our sheets. I contacted the union and they said to go ahead and submit our time sheets, make them deny them, and then they will take action. One person was already denied so I'm totally looking forward to this. It's probably like an extra $20, but the principle bugs me. We aren't mice or sheep.
The nicest part of all this was that I wrote up a little statement about why I thought OT was authorized and showed it to my coworkers. They were all, "wow, you wrote that just now? It's so good; to the point; clear; persuasive; and so on." It made me feel really good even though I think I should be able to do that sort of thing pretty easily having spent $70K on a law school education and all.
It's funny - I've never been in a job that required a union, but I'm tired of feeling run over and pushed around. Just be upfront and honest with me - it's all I ask.
