Soul Strut

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I've never been laid off from anything, but in 2000 me and four other union heads set a record for the longest suspension as a result of strike-related activities, 60 business days (12 weeks). As soon as I got sent home, I went to my union office where they told me they'd pay me 800 a week for as long as I was suspended. Then they asked me if I wanted help finding a side job running phone wire in new buildings. I said no, I wanted to travel and booked a trip to Hawaii that night. After I think 53 business days, I got called back to work. They reduced my suspension to 10 days and paid me back the 43 days (8.5 weeks) differential. And my union said I didn't have to pay them back the total of 8800 that they wound up paying me on the side. I think the math works out to $15000 that I banked on that whole mess, and the best part of the whole thing is that I didn't do anything wrong to begin with. A manager made up a bullshit story against me, and they couldn't prove either side was right, so that's how it turned out.

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