Raining Stones

(left) Last year's General Strike in Egypt

Every Friday afternoon a friend and I get together, each with our two kids, and have a beer while the young ones run around the back yard. A couple of weeks ago my buddy's friend called him and told him that his cousin had killed himself. My friend was one of the last ones he talked to. His cousin had kicked drugs some years ago, but had relapsed. Maybe he lost his job, maybe he was going to lose his home, something pushed this guy too far. We shared adversities and had a few laughs and I mentioned the phrase from back home, "it always rains stones for the working class."

Tomorrow is my brother's hearing at his job. He's been a maintenance worker at a care center for almost 3 years, with no complaints against him up until now from management. He has since been set up by management to be fired and replaced by someone who doesn't stand up for the other workers (primarily low-waged women workers). We chatted about tactics. My brother knows that management are going to fabricate and exaggerate to make their case. Andy knows if he loses his cool, they will win. He knows if they lie, he has to say "that's not how I remember it," or "I don't think that that is what happened," so as he doesn't fall into the trap of calling the lying bastard managers what they really are - that'd be grounds for them suspending him. All the balls are in the bosses' court here. In the end, its like being pulled over by a cop: they can say anything they want if they want to get you.

Andy, by law, is allowed a witness at the hearing and he picked the head cook whom he trusts. She mentioned that she's already had management breathing down her neck, threatening her at this non-union job.
Its been a rough year for Andy. Our mom died in April. And our other brother's daughters' 12-year battle with cancer is worsening. None of this is relevant to the bosses. In fact the adverse economy and other difficulties for workers are things they see working in their favor. They are all about getting workers to shut up and do what their told. They want robots who accept next to nothing wages.

Andrew doesn't take the whole thing personally. It's all a part of the wider picture of the labor movement retreating and retreating and the few worker's victories on the horizon. But when things turn around working people will remember people like my brother who are willing to stand up and fight and be fired if necessary for what is right.

Andy told me he will have a hard time sleeping tonight. Some time soon it will be the bosses and their suck-ass managers who will be having sleepless nights and who will feel the stones raining down from the clouds above us.