I got a star-shaped paperweight with my name on it together with 100 dollars worth of gift cards.
This for two years in a row, because everyone really needs two star-shaped paperweights with their name on them.
The truth of the above statement is borne out by its sheer pedestrian banality in the sense that it's not something anyone would ever bother to lie about.
The sad part about it is that I am a dues-paying union member. One can only imagine how much worse it is for the non-union blokes.
At least the union gives me a way to fight back and to have a little dignity and self-respect.
I may join our union but I feel like they're a captive organization. They negotiated 1.5% cost of living raises for us 2022-2024. We had a lot of old-timers who are retiring with pensions now and they can't find anybody to hire at the starting wages they have on offer.
That's totally fair. My union threatened to strike and ran pickets in 2019 and basically got what we asked for, little though it was.
We authorized a strike in 2022 and the signatory contractors basically gave us most of what we wanted because they didn't want to lose out on the "CHIPS" act money.
Now here we are with billions on the table, and I think it's time to strike again.
There are also regional dynamics at play, but fortunately my union is on top of all that and we are planning accordingly.