Trouble with unions.
8:15 p.m.
Hubby and I went to see the caterer today regarding our anniversary party at the end of August. We talked about such things as appetizers served at the gazebo, whether to have a buffet or served dinner (we decided on the latter), the menu for said meal (butternut squash soup, mesclun salad with balsamic vinaigrette, chicken breasts stuffed with apricots or goat cheese terrine for the vegetarians, basmati rice, roasted vegetables, and cheesecake with fruit couli for dessert).
All this is for a celebration of 25 years of wedded bliss, and yet Hubby and I cannot get along in public. We’re like a couple of bickering children. Before we met with Stéphanie, he asked me if we could not argue in front of her. That’s fine with me. Except that he starts to take over the interview and categorically states what he wants without asking me first what I think. I feel like I may as well not be there, for pity’s sake.
I’m reminded of something that happened last summer when we were touring Nova Scotia. We were in Anapolis Royal and having a beer at a pub with some of the people who’d been to the concert (this was when we were following around the oboist and accordionist who were playing Hubby’s piece on their tour), and this woman who makes films started asking me questions about myself, which Hubby kept answering. She continued directing them at me, making them more and more pointed, until I finally turned to my husband and yelled at him, in front of all those people, none of whom I am ever likely to see again, “Will you be quiet? She’s asking me the questions, not you!” The film woman thanked me, saying that she was about to say the same thing.
Anyway, it’s often like that. We go out together, supposedly to do things as a couple, and he ends up taking over the situation, often saying things with which I disagree, so I have to disagree with him in front of the person we’re talking to. And he gets upset with me. Why do I have to disagree with him all the time? Well, if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t get any of my ideas in, and I have good ideas.
For instance, at first he wanted to have a buffet, but I nixed it because we’ll have a lot of old people at the party, and it’s hard to choose things at a buffet table if you have to carry your plate and support yourself on a cane. As well, my mom is almost blind. She shouldn’t have to go through that kind of ordeal. Anyway, I think in the end we got a nice menu.
Now, here’s the bad news. There was this email waiting for me this evening:
Sh’brooke, Quebec July 25, 2007 � The negotiation teams for Bushop’s University Corporation and the Association of Profs of Bushop’s University entered into round-the-clock negotiations Sunday, July 22. The union believed that considerable progress was being made at all tables, and had prepared a new proposal for the employer. The employer walked away from the bargaining table before even allowing the union to table this proposal, and announced the lock out of all unionized employees, non-academic and academic, at 12:01 July 26, 2007.
If this continues past the date for our party (August 25), I don’t know if we can even have our party on campus as we had planned. As members of the union, we won’t be allowed on campus, nor will several of our guests. Let us all hope for a speedy end to this labour dispute.
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