Three strikes- we're out.

I woke up on the late train yesterday morning, as is my habit. I panicked a bit more than normal, however, as I was supposed to be meeting up with the Jeanie Wylie community to hitch a ride to a delegation. But Bill, Lydia, Anna, Hannah, and I made it to the Bob Evans in Livonia in time to order a cup of coffee as we listened to Elena and Julio explain how the delegation would happen.

I felt excited and confident as we left Bob Evans for the TRW headquarters. Two TRW workers, flown up from Mexico, were with us, as were some pretty experienced rabble rousers. 15 people walked into the headquarters holding signs and followed by Channel 7 news. The woman at the front desk was not happy to see us. She called TRW security to escort the “protestors” out. Strike one- we should not have brought our posters with us. Bill took offense to being called a protestor, and repeatedly told the woman that we were with TRW employees and simply asking for a meeting. TRW security couldn’t kick us out, so the woman called the police.

By this point Julio, Elena, and Bill had managed to speak to a few different employees who had accidentally walked into the situation. We discovered that our timing was bad. Strike two- the Executive Director was in Germany at an auto show, and no one seemed to know who the next in charge was. It was becoming disappointing. At breakfast we had agreed that no one would be arrested, so we knew that as soon as the police showed up, that was it.

The Livonia police arrived less than 15 minutes after we had. Elena and Julio pressed the TRW workers’ request letter into the hands of the police officers, trying to convince them that employees have the right to request a meeting and cannot be accused of trespassing. The officers wouldn’t take it. Lydia handed me her car key just in case she decided not to leave, and Bill seemed to be leaning that way as well. In then end, however, we were all escorted out. The third strike- we had not discussed potential outcomes well enough. Though at the restaurant it had seemed as though arrest wouldn't happen no one seemed to know what to do should anyone change their mind. We stood on the street outside the headquarters for a while holding our signs, and being interviewed by Channel 7, Oakland Press, and a community newspaper.

Eventually we left. I ended up back at the Jeanie Wylie community with Anna, Hannah, Lydia, and Bill. To maintain some semblence of a work day, he and I met on his upstairs balcony with reheated coffee. We talked a bit about the possibility of going back to the TRW headquarters. After all, the workers had come all the way from Mexico! They really couldn’t leave without actually sitting down with someone to negotiate. The same sequence of events, when tried with a different corporation had turned out favorably. Perhaps we could try again?

I think this will be perhaps one of the more difficult parts of this kind of work: feeling as though our request is entirely reasonable, but being ignored completely. I would like to think that if we had presented ourselves in a slightly more professional and less agenda-heavy stereotypical manner things may have gone differently. But I'm not sure that's true. And it's impossible not to have hope heading into a situation like that- it seems so clear that better wages and safe conditions are, in the long run, in the best interest of everyone involved. Yet such a suggestion is ridiculous enough to ignore, and threatening enough to call the police.

Bill and I sat on his balcony for an hour or so overlooking the beautiful garden, the apple tree, and Hannah’s clothes drying on the clothesline. We discussed a few retreats that I may help organize and hopefully attend, as well as what will happen in the beginning of October when Bill is recuperating from shoulder surgery. Bill made us quesadillas for lunch, and then left for a 2:00 meeting.

I’ve spent the rest of my afternoon “working” out of the Jeanie Wylie community. I’ve also eaten a lot of ice cream and Hannah made me ginger tea. This part of work I certainly won't struggle with!