Funny, the South is fucked again. Who knew?
Dunno. I find myself hating on IATSE a lot less lately.
My dad broke his neck in a water-skiing accident when he was 42. He was a middle school teacher. Because of his union, he had good healthcare, and perhaps equally important, was provided a teaching aide, which allowed him to teach for 20 years from a wheelchair without the use of his hands. I have had countless prior students impress upon me how much they valued my father as a teacher.
My Dad got laid off a few months ago and is still looking for a new position. We had a long visit a few weeks before he was let go, and one of the things we spoke about is how he grew up hearing his father and uncles hating unions, bashing them constantly. They're all from Nova Scotia and are all blue collar with a tinge of white for the schoolteachers. Naturally, Dad says he also grew up disliking unions (to a lesser degree them they), and never saw their benefit. Of course, until 2009 he was, for 25 years, a self-employed owner of a two-man carpentry business and unions never really affected him. This changed when the economy slumped and work dried up. He took a few different jobs as supervisor, surveyor, safety guy and so on, none of them unionized. As we spoke that day, he told me how his views on unions had changed now that he was an non-unionized employee with little rights or bargaining power. He felt that the attitude in the workplace would be more positive and supportive if people were invested in a union together, and they felt that someone had their backs. Instead, apathy, divisiveness, and mistrust coloured the business' operations, and sure enough people started getting the axe within weeks of our conversation. For his part, he walked in on a Friday, was cornered in a meeting room, and let go on the spot. This is to say nothing of the intense care requirements my disabled mother has at home, and his employer knew this. I don't know where I'm really going with this, but typing it out helped me to process my frustration and helplessness, watching my father by ground down by capitalism's shortcomings. We both live in Alberta, Canada, for information's sake.
I'm not unaware. My mother's side of the family considers Heinlein a saint. He was the author of note, the one to pay attention to, the inventor of waterbeds, the ubiquitous gift at every holiday. I'd read Space Cadet and Red Planet by 2nd grade. By the time I'd made it to Jr. High I knew ridiculous shit like Farnham's Freehold back to front. But then I started reading other authors and determined that Heinlein was basically a dirty old man with some interesting engineering ideas who fell for that exact same one-world-government libertarian bullshit that sci fi authors always fall for and by the time I'd gotten to the point where okay, let's read fuckin' Starship Troopers I just couldn't. I couldn't. I was so fucking sick of the man. I mean... he gets props for first using a space elevator in Friday, and more props for blowing it up within six pages of introducing it. But Heinlein's idea of what characters are for and my idea of what characters are for are so diametrically opposed that I really enjoy cheering on Verheuven's Starship Troopers BECAUSE it annoys the fuck out of my purist family. I owed flagamuffin Lord of the Rings. I gave it a go. I really did. But I know I don't give the first fuck about any more Heinlein ever so I'm gonna sit it out, thanks.
I'm wearing a shirt that says "Union until I die" right now. It's less sweet than those, but still rad. An equally interesting story is comparing the US and Canada. Similar economies, similar rates of unionization at the middle of the last century, but very different legal structures and outcomes.
