I thought while B was out on strike (hopefully not for long) I would talk about what is going on and how we have been affected by it in the past week.
Week 3
The strike is still going on strong. At the end of this week, B will be eligible to collect money from strike funds. It is not much, only $200/week, but it will help. There are many catches to be able to get any money (if there even really is any money). You can’t technically get money from a strike fund, but the union can help pay some of your bills in the amount of $200/week. So we can get about $800 paid towards our mortgage monthly.
Here’s the big whopper of a catch…..they have said they would distribute this money based on need. So if you didn’t plan ahead, save money, not live paycheck to paycheck you are more likely to qualify for the money. Why does it really matter whether you live paycheck to paycheck or save money? Shouldn’t each person get the same amount of money regardless? I mean everyone pays the same amount of union dues.
I guess we will have to see how it pans out. It really doesn’t look like this strike is going to end anytime soon. From one of the meetings B attended it sounds like the company is in no rush to end this strike because they basically don’t break even until they have been on strike for 3 months. What does that mean? The company had to invest so much money to prepare in the event there was actually a strike, that they won’t recoup their money unless the strike last 3 months.