Fight the power!

I don't think I've ever been a part of any protests or strikes but quite a few of them have affected me.

The closest I've have been involved in any kind of protest or strike, is when I was in grade 10 every high school in Newfoundland walked out because the provincial government was going to cut funds to extracurricular activities. It only lasted for a day, but it actually worked. Extracurricular activities were not cut, there were even some students that wanted to walk out for the entire week which they did obviously because they didn't want to go to school. After first day I think we got our point across.

I have been greatly affected by quite a few protests or strikes. It seems like I can never avoid them.

In Junior High, my teachers went on strike for about 2 to 3 weeks close to the end of final exams. They managed to go back to work about 10 days before the last day of school. I remember it was quite hectic to cram the rest of the school and final exams in those last 10 days.

My first year of University, we had the security guards go on strike during the Month of September, so it was amusing to see people you ran the student housing office do security for the university. Now granted the university I went to was really small.

Third year of University, during the fall semester all the university professors went on strike. For about 2 1/2 weeks, now that was a hectic semester when they got back to work.

When I was working up in Alberta, with all the unions concerning iron-workers, journeyman, pipe-fitters, scaffolders, labourers, it was only a matter of time when one of them would go on strike. One of them did at the Suncor Oil Sands Plant. It was actually pretty intense, we had some drivers from other companies actually bust through the strike line almost hitting some workers.

One of things that was mentioned to me, was never to talk negatively about unions while I was working up there especially at the camp sites, because the job I worked at was non-union. Union people did not get along with non-union people. I just avoided the issue altogether. I vividly remember one worker getting stabbed because he got into a union argument with another person.

Jam it back in, in the dark.