According to my British friends Yorkshire Gold is legit. I don’t know if it’s as strong though. Not much of a tea drinker myself, just reporting what I’ve been told.

I named my truck, but “Old Clunky” doesn’t exactly jump out as the kind of name you’d want to advertise.

You are seriously confused. OP specifically said that you’re fucked if there is no visual cue.

The cat’s for scale.

“Most of the world”? Really? Maybe in the developed world I guess, but definitely not in “most of the world.” In most of the world law enforcement is very much a pay for service business like any other. Well, in a lot of the world anyway.

Well that’s awkward.

That’s totally fair. My union threatened to strike and ran pickets in 2019 and basically got what we asked for, little though it was.

We authorized a strike in 2022 and the signatory contractors basically gave us most of what we wanted because they didn’t want to lose out on the “CHIPS” act money.

Now here we are with billions on the table, and I think it’s time to strike again.

There are also regional dynamics at play, but fortunately my union is on top of all that and we are planning accordingly.

I got a star-shaped paperweight with my name on it together with 100 dollars worth of gift cards.

This for two years in a row, because everyone really needs two star-shaped paperweights with their name on them.

The truth of the above statement is borne out by its sheer pedestrian banality in the sense that it’s not something anyone would ever bother to lie about.

The sad part about it is that I am a dues-paying union member. One can only imagine how much worse it is for the non-union blokes.

At least the union gives me a way to fight back and to have a little dignity and self-respect.

My local went on strike once in 2019, it lasted one day and everyone who picketed got $200.

Last year we threatened to strike, had an authorization vote, but our signatory contractors association wanted nothing to do with it and we basically got everything we asked for with no work stoppage.

The deal in my part of the country is that what with the CHIPS Act, there’s literally billions of dollars on the table and our signatory contractors can’t afford to get bogged down in labor disputes.

The upshot is that it leaves the unions sitting pretty since they can’t access these incredibly lucrative contracts without using highly-trained union labor.

There’s more to do with EMRs and the like, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Interesting.

It sounds like you have a completely different system from that which exists in the Anglophone countries.

Here in the US and Canada we would never dream of having our union reps on the payroll of ownership.

That makes zero sense since it would mean that they would be relying on our signatory contractors for their paycheck when what we want is precisely the opposite; an independent union that can bargain on behalf of the membership

Having our unions funded and paid for by the membership is precisely the point since it means that it’s our union, not the company’s.

Yes. Union staff needs to make a living too. It’s also how we pay members when we strike.
My union is also in Canada. How do you do it in your country?

100 percent true. Going to the union is the last thing I want any of my people to do. It just complicates things.

Fortunately, I and my fellow supervisors are all union members too and we all know and are on good terms with the union officers down at the hall, so even if someone does go straight to them, it’s usually worked out with a phone call. The key is to be fair and not be a dick.

Gross.

That’s something to worry about in every arena that involves money, not just unions. It’s just a fact of life that there are crooks and liars in the world.

The downside is that you won’t get paid as much as you would working. My union pays $200 a day to anyone on a picket line, but as a strike goes on, the money starts to run out.

Fortunately it hasn’t come to that for us.

As I said in another comment, my dues are automatically paid through my PTO account which in turn is paid into by my employer. So yeah, it’s still my money, but it’s not coming out of my paycheck at all and I honestly don’t even notice it.

At least in my area, most of your big trade unions have this as an option for members through the IBEW credit union.

My dues are automatically paid out of my PTO account and are basically an hour’s worth of wages per month.

I don’t even notice it.