From 'There' to 'Here'
A Journalist Turned Storyteller - Part 2: The Whitecourt Star
DEEP END-The Whitecourt Star
Whitecourt, Alberta 1978-1980
There was a decided ten-year gap between writing for The Static and my first paid column-feature published in a weekly Alberta newspaper called, The Whitecourt Star. After high school graduation the local newspaper [The Advocate] had zero openings for a [female] staff reporter with only amateur reporting experience.
So, off I went to the big city to Calgary. And with more nerve than brains into the building of The Calgary Herald. At the Herald, because I had no car and no professional experience I didn’t qualify as an entry level reporter. Worse yet, as my typing speed wasn’t fast enough, they didn’t even offer me a reception job.
Crushed – I was back home only a few weeks when a family friend recommended summer work for me as a geologist’s TA [technical assistant] at Chevron Canada. From left-field who knew that I’d get hooked on studying dirt and old rocks…
I found geology fascinating, but during the years away from writing my thoughts were never far from writing. However, being able to write seemed so out of reach, until I became a stay-at-home mom.
Two weeks before the maiden launch of my professional journalism debut, I’d gone into the newspaper office of the Whitecourt Star. Without an appointment, I arrived with my three-year-old daughter in a stroller and eight-week-old son in my arms.
Introducing myself I handed the publishers [husband and wife owners] copies of some of my high school editorials along with three column sample ideas. The next day they called to ask when I wanted to start.
***Life lesson: if we don’t ask, if we don’t risk, if we don’t try – then we don’t harvest…
Then as I gathered many of my columns and features for this book – while rereading the varied topics I tackled – I also realized that despite the passing decades, Canada, the U.S. and much of the planet is ‘still’ dealing with far too many of the same unresolved topics and issues.
That was an abrupt and disappointing shock - and as you read on, you’ll see what I mean…
Whitecourt Star REFLECTIONS_______October 25, 1978
Ahhh, our annual postal strike – every fall – as regular and predictable as any season or traditional event, like Thanksgiving or Halloween. Not as pleasant perhaps with much less pie or chocolate treats, but a reality just the same.
Why?
Is our federal government a poor employer? Is it the snow? Is it the rain? Is it the large heavy bag filled with thousands of envelopes? Is it my dog? It would appear each side expects the worst of the other so, in anticipation each side sharpens each point of their argument, ready for battle. Negotiation isn’t even a feature.
Historically this pattern of confrontation instead of negotiation is a style pattern in far too many management versus unionized labor settings. I think the third man-in rule applies here in that the mystery may not be with either employer or employee, but with the union.
At first – no argument here – the salary plight of the factory worker, the teacher, the trucker, the nurses etc…was miserable. By electing a leader among their ranks and sticking together the average employee realized they could improve their exploited situation. This setup functioned well among the members of staff born in this country, but with the new immigrants, exploitation ran unchecked. Enterprising opportunists seeing this dilemma organized the immigrant worker [for a fee] promising to speak on their behalf and force employers to pay a better standard of wage and generally clean up their act.
As the decades elapsed and the wages with working conditions improved all established and professional unions could see the writing on several factory walls. Were they no longer needed by a modern, better informed and savvier workforce?
To create sustained relevance union leaders excavated new [petty] issues and made revised callous demands. Trivial or not issues like a worker’s birth-day off with pay were designed so staff would feel they were getting value for those monthly dues and the unions could show they were earning those nice hefty dues.
It didn’t seem to matter that high priced people within several union executives were caught with their hands in the dues-cookie jar and even sent to prison. Or if it did matter steadily, it was the unions that had grown so powerful no member dared to defy them.
The worker now found the situation reversed. Before, workers were fired for merely talking about a union – now they were in trouble with the union for talking about wanting out.
Dues collection from each paycheck went to the union negotiators and for administration costs – and – to provide strike pay so workers on strike could meet certain financial needs [like eating] while not receiving a regular paycheck.
Unfortunately, the modern norm seems to be that contracts are allowed to run out invariably leading to a strike. Unions then claimed unable to provide much or any strike pay because their members had been on strike too often and for too long.
What?
So, as we slide toward the end of this year it appears unions and not necessarily its members benefit most from those regular dues.
Another union regulation often stipulates that advancement is according to seniority, not merit or even effort.
This soon left the employer unable to promote a more reliable, more efficient worker - the most deserving one. Only a worker with the most years [leaning against the machinery] could be considered.
In this day with the employee better educated and more aware of their rights and with good access to various forms of public communication – if an employer attempted to exploit employees, they couldn’t get away with that for long.
[Cartoon by Wayne John Todd]
Somehow, I can’t help feeling unions cause more disruption than progress and have outlived their purpose. Possibly money paid toward those ever-increasing union dues might be put to better use if workers opened their own [protest] savings account…?
[**Note from author: yikes! This is 2023 and so much of my original column is still relevant…]
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