It is odd, isn’t it, how some events will conjure up associations from long ago, things we haven’t thought of for years? Take the recent earthquake in Chile, for example. You don’t hear about Chile too much (except perhaps when someone makes a comparison between the flag of Texas and the flag of Chile – the Chileans were first, by the way), but whenever it comes up, I automatically think of Chilean table grapes. They are excellent grapes, but that is not important to this story. What is important to this story is that, having automatically thought of Chilean table grapes, my mind turns next to trade unions.
Why, you may ask, does my mind hop from Chile, to table grapes, to trade unions? A long time ago, in another life, I had the misfortune to practice a craft which carried with it compulsory membership in a powerful trade union. Now, before we go too far down the road and discover just how much I loathe the trade union movement as a “movement”, let me just say that I do believe there is a useful purpose to be served by trade unions in bettering the conditions of workers throughout the land. There. Just to be clear, by “bettering the conditions of workers” I mean things like not having to go down the coal pit without safety equipment, not having to handle radioactive material with your bare hands, a decent minimum wage, and so forth. I do not mean things like getting an extended lunch break or mandatory smoke breaks every fifteen minutes or the right to “down tools” and stage a walk-out if the delivery driver is from another, different union that wears different colored shirts or something.
We have lost track of our excellent Chilean table grapes. Back in the day, there was a notice board in the lunchroom where union notices were posted. There would be notices about meetings and rallies and which politician to support. There was also something called a “Hot Sheet”. The “Hot Sheet” was a list of goods and services that, in the less than humble opinion of the union executive action group, were made or delivered in ways that exploited workers, and that we, as dutiful union members were to avoid at all costs as a show of support. One of the items on the “Hot Sheet” was Chilean table grapes. We were not to buy them, nor were we to frequent any establishment that sold them.
To give you some idea of what a mischievous bastard I was even back then, it was always a great joy for me to bring some grapes to work early, put them on the table for all to enjoy, watch my union brothers and sisters eat up all those delicious grapes and then turn the basket over (in passing) to display the “Product of Chile” label. It was always a delight. They never did figure out who was bringing in those grapes…
Posted via web from get @baffled
