NEWS
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
"Those twenty people survived not only 53 days of bitter cold, gale force winds and pouring rain...long nights and short days...they survived 15 months of pounding by Borders since the start of the drive...the terror early on of losing their jobs or being discovered, the insecurity of not knowing how their vote would go, 12 months of fruitless negotiations and uncertainty, fighting despair, frustration...holding the drive together with sheer will while their co-workers dropped like flies. ...Never once did they fail a customer, hurt the store or ignore the needs of their brothers and sisters. They fought not just BINC, but the temptation to fight among themselves, abandon each other, seek an easier simpler path. They heard themselves characterized here and elsewhere as elitists, slackers, lazy "just retail workers" with a selfish sense of entitlement. They endured Shiffman baiting them, calling them too stupid to get better jobs. They endured the worst of union busting and stood together tall. ...
They set aside all of their "real" life..they ran on faith and courage and guts alone...and they won. They won.
They will have a contract. They and a handful of executives out of 32,000 will work under a binding contract that protects their benefits and pay, that protects them from being fired at will, that guarantees their fair treatment. And they will pay for that security...with dues, and with hard work. They have EARNED their security and their fair treatment. ..."
> From "What REALLY happend in Ann Arbor"
Posted by Rob at 11:27 AM
