My first huelga

Three days on the job.

That’s all it took for my office to go on strike.

Apparently there was some issue with getting paid for the month of April (I think the issue was not getting paid for the month of April), so my coworkers and the rest of the municipal staff decided to strike.

Word spread around the office Tuesday afternoon about a meeting early Wednesday morning. I heard that it was at 7:00 a.m. At this point, I wasn’t aware of the reason for the meeting. I just didn’t want to have to come into work so early. I asked if I was expected to be at the meeting, and my coworker said I didn’t.

So Wednesday morning comes around, and I stroll (sashay?) into municipality. But as I enter the building, the entire staff is on its way out (kind of the salmon swimming up stream, if you will). Apparently, things hadn’t gone as planned in the meeting, so the workers were striking.

The workers set up a circle of chairs outside of the office and hung out all morning. Some left to run errands. A couple went across the street to the Internet café. It was very calm.

There was no yelling, no pickets, no chants. Just a bare bones work stoppage.

I have experience breaking picket lines at the University of Michigan when the GSIs or the lecturers would complain about some detail in their contract, and I relished the feeling of breaking the circle. But in this case, walking into the office, through the circle of plastic chairs, didn’t carry the same thrill.

Because the strike only affected salaried employees, the contract workers in my office weren’t involved. So there was still some work to do, but it was also a good chance for me to integrate with the staff.

At about 11:00 a.m., one of my striking coworkers (that describes his labor status, not his looks) came in and said everybody would be back to work in the afternoon.

The afternoon rolled around, and nobody came back into the office.

Apparently, they resolved the dispute and didn’t want to go back to work.

Every one was back at work Thursday morning, like nothing happened.