I feel like Norma Rae

I am essentially a Libertarian. Politically. I've said this before.

Recently, in my capacity as an aerobics instructor with no real power or no union, I have been forced to think about the power, or lack thereof, of the "little guy" who gets screwed when the "big guy" here represented by government contractors bidding "the lowest bid" gets involved.

My aerobics contract is expired. There's a new boss. They MAY be offering less money than we used to be paid. It's not a lot less dollar wise. But what I've heard is as much as more than a 20% reduction in pay. And because we feel obligated to our students, who ROCK, we teach.

And no one really knows what the other is doing. So we say "oh, well, maybe I should take this. 5o cents a class less is not that much different.

But it's the principle at stake. If someone is screwing everyone over, think of how much say 30 instructors making 50 cents a class LESS than they used to make could earn. If there are, say, hundreds of classes.

So I just held up a sign with the word "Union" written on it, metaphorically speaking. In an email. I am the most dangerous sort, I reckon, the sort that doesn't NEED the job. I do it for my health-- but that I can do anywhere. I feel some sense of obligation to the cool students-- like, say, crazy old Rose who talks a mile a minute but loves my triceps workout.

But getting screwed, is getting screwed.

There's a song, called Everybody Knows by Leonard CohenPerformed by Concrete Blonde on the "Pump up the Volume" soundtrack that says; "Everybody wants a box of chocolates and a long-stemmed rose and everybody knows."

I never got that lyric for a long time. It means everybody has been screwed, and wants the trappings of romance so that they don't think the "screwing" was a "fuck." So maybe, just maybe, he/she loved me. If they give me chocolates, doesn't that mean it was more than physical?

It's important to get that long-stemmed rose. It may be fifty cents an hour. But damnit. I am worth that shizzat.