Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Heh.
Some of you may have noticed that while I was away in Ottawa (still am) dealing with union, my blog got “owned” by some l337 kidz outta England (or at least bounced out from there). Thanks to EastVanHalen for pointing it out to the collective and to Firetrap for the WordPress upgrade and dealing since I was in the middle of writing a speech when I discovered it and didn’t have the head to change passwords and fiddle. The post is now down, but I must record this comment Haymarketeer made on the post itself since it made me laugh when I found it today: “oh, uncle sam… how behind the times. you should really consider upgrading to 1337sp34k v 2.0”. Heh.
Anyhow. Hopefully we’re fixed.
I am just inside recovering from the cold that is Ottawa at the moment (was at a demo earlier and nearly killed my poor little toes which were not shod properly for the weather) – but I wanted to let you all know that I won my election this morning and am now a proud member of my collective bargaining team which will negotiate the contract for 75,000 people across Canada starting pretty damned soon. The commitment is for about 18 months, so expect to hear lots more about Ottawa until it’s done.
I won’t bore you with too many details, but in case you care – the race was tight and there were two factions that formed inside the candidates that got quite nasty. I ended up running head to head against the other person who was out from BC, who I’m not overly fond of for a host of reasons (mostly cause she’s been both smug and cold to me). She was pretty sure she had the election sown up, but I managed to swing an extra vote my way – on the merit of being a much stronger candidate. Although I hate to gloat, the look on her face was priceless when the results were announced – unbelievably mad. She wouldn’t shake my hand later when I offered her a congrats on the race. Meh.
The worst thing about the factionalizing was that neither side had the best set of candidates overall – but alliances were drawn for purely strategic reasons – which doesn’t really benefit anyone in the end. The race ended up breaking down the two camps and both sides got people on the team – which was my best case scenario. I think I’ll be able to deal with these people, but I don’t see any immediately obvious friendships. I guess I have to approach this a lot more like work, and hopefully I can build on my limited social network in Ottawa to get me by. Will definitely have to get a lover out here or something to pass the time – since bargaining involves a lot of waiting around.
So I’m pleased, and a bit nervous about the amount of work and stress I’ve just taken on. If I ultimately want a career in the union, this is the best step I can take – and of course, I complain, but I like to be in the thick of things too.
One Comment on “Heh.”
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Red Cedar 
WOOT!
Hey congrats on getting elected to the barganing unit, I’m sure it will be an
exciting experience, and another stepping stone to getting to where you
want to go in your career. Fight for those benefits yo!