Red Cedar

you know it’s bad when you schedule union hearings during vacation leave – but increasingly i can not balance the work/union/life schedule without driving myself crazy with no sleep.

i have, however, managed to shake the apathy that almost saw me give advice to two members facing termination to just resign instead. i realized that in my really-scary-courtcase-induced stupor i bought into the employer’s argument rather than doing what every fibre of me says instead.

something in me twigged today when i got to work and looked at the cases on my desk – thought about my favourite case which i started three years ago and am still fighting. how can i give up on people just because my life is a bit shredded at the moment? how can we discount the work we do as union reps by selling ourselves and our members short?

fuck that, we will grieve the employer,

and

fuck the fbi because we are fighting.

when i start to swallow their lies about us, wow, is it all ever lost then 😉

yes, i password protected the last post. if you are a friend and want to read it, please feel free to email – i just don’t want it out there in googleland down the road.

in case you are wondering why the silence – i am away this week at harrison hot springs resort for a week of union training in conjunction with the canadian labour congress winter school. i could go on and on about the excesses of the union movement but i won’t, precisely because i am enjoying the fact that besides getting some learning in (this is the 2nd part of a 3 part leadership course i am taking), it’s nice to spend time around other trade unionists in a social environment.

i’m watching the drinking of course, and making sure to get as much sleep as possible and get exercise every day (swimming, walking, yoga). too many sweets though – bad, bad. the course is quite intensive and there’s lots of homework every night, plus issues forums in the evening we are expected to attend. tonight instead of a forum is the choir competition between classes. i am the choirmaster for my class and i’m bent on winning (we are singing a song a sister and i wrote to the tune of gilligan’s island about the conservative party’s recent win). yes, labour is super geeky in some ways 😉

i should return to regular posting by the weekend or early next week. i’ll let you know if we win or not.

yes, still tired, but hoping the remedy from the naturopath will kick in this weekend and give me some respite. besides that, i got into work this morning and found a $135 phone bill on my desk from the first days after darren was arrested (he called me about 8 times on my work phone) – which brings my total in phone bills over 2 months up to about $800. it feels a bit oppressive, this private us phone system we are forced to use which charges me $20 per 15 minutes of conversation. what is this – a radiophone or sattelite uplink?

*sigh*

but here it is friday and four days in a row of sun. spent last night with friends who gave me two beautiful books of their own making, drank wine and ate chocolate. when i finally did go to sleep, it was a good one, just not long enough. had i not had to come to work this morning i think i might have even slept in! although jon and alison from the ffa are coming tonight to stay, i am plotting an early bedtime to take advantage of this state of near-lunatic exhaustion.

have booked spartacus books for the evening of march 10th to give a presentation on darren and the green scare trial. i have no idea quite what that will look like, but i have a month to put something together and make it interesting. mostly people want to know what is going on, or have observations to make – it feels like a good time to bring people into one place to process and get up to date. david and i are making plans to possibly do some more presentations early this summer. i also posted a new support update at freedarren.org today though there is little new to say.

i leave sunday for 6 days at harrison for union training, which i’m not looking forward to all that much except having access to hotsprings and not having to come into the office every day. my schedule right now is making me a little heady between work, union, darren and social life – there is a lot going on. i do prefer busy to blank however, particularly during times of acute stress.

looking foward to four o’clock today – time to get out of the city!