Its been a little over a week now since my husbands work has been on lockout. We've been keeping busy around the house here cleaning and doing some yardwork ( hubby is doing that). I've been enjoying having his company alot while he's been here. We've been communicating really well. Laughing and telling jokes, I make his favorite foods, he's doing dishes( YAY! LOL ... I hate doing dishes lol)Been alot of really good teamwork.

But things are not looking too great for him to get back to work with decent pay. I was making up a new resume for him yesterday. But our printer was broke. So we made a quick trip to Walmart to get a new printer. We ran into one of his co-workers there. We got some discouraging news. Since the union employees are on a lockout, by law they are supposed to be eligible for unemployment benefits. The company is disputing this now, based on what they are saying the union workers slowed down production. In no way can they prove this because up till the weekend before, they were working 12 hr shifts. So this means that there will be a meeting between the state, the company and union representative. This doesnt happen till April 28th. So till then, there will be no money coming in. It just disgusts me how this company is treating everyone. Expecting them to take a $5 an hour paycut. There is no way anyone can live on what that brings the hourly wage down to! And then to boot, the union representative has been doing some investigating in the company's running habits. Well to find out that they are a union busting company. And the old company that sold out, knew this ahead of time! They also found out that this company which is based in Norway,pays their MINIMUM wage earners as much as my husband is making NOW! But they want to pay $5 less here? What the heck? Everyone is pretty much figuring that the company will wait it all out till it becomes a hardship for the workers. And then most will either find other jobs, or break out of the union and go to work for the wage the company wants to pay them. The company will not even talk to the union rep at all now for any negotiations. The community is supporting the union all the way. Its really great to see people just stopping by where the picketers are and offering support thru words, food and beverages etc. The company has also brought in scabs out of 2 different states to work. There is a 3 week bank of products from what we understand. So this is not good for the company either because GM , Ford and Chrysler have alreayd been threatening to pull their accounts. If that happens, there wont be a company basically. So this needs to be worked out soon.

My husband, I can see is becoming more depressed because of missing the people he works with and just not being able to work period. He is used to bringing in a paycheck. He is not a freeloader. He enjoys working. I am supporting him as much as I can... trying to make sure we do fun things as we can .. to help keep his mind off whats going on as much as possible. But I can only do so much. I am feeling at a loss here as to how to help him thru this, and keep myself feeling well to.

I want you guys to know also that I am online most of the day, but I am not always at the computer. I read when Iam, but just dont reply much. But I do want you to know your in my thoughts. I've not forgotten about you guys. And I love you. Please be patient with me till we get thru this rough time. Take care!!

Love,
Beth