I don't get to post often anymore. Mostly, it's the darn Master's Degree, just months away now for my fingers to grasp. Today, I can't help but take my lunch time to point out something pretty freaking disturbing. In The Hill today, there's a post up on a letter from the AFL-CIO to Congress on the possible Colombian Free Trade Agreement. The crux of the letter is this:

Included with the letter was a list of names of the 22 union leaders who have been killed in Colombia, 15 of those after the United States agreed to a labor action plan with the South American country in April to improve its labor rights record, according to the AFL-CIO. Labor has long vehemently opposed a trade deal with Colombia because of its record of violence against union activists.

Colombia kills union activists. And this, is somehow, reason to celebrate in the comments section on The Hill

Could we get them to do it here? There are more than enough union thug bosses already. BY David on 09/27/2011 at 10:52

yeah, I believe this guy is a CEO, right:

I serve as President of a major corporation in the U.S. All these people want to do is create trouble for us. I look forward to the day we have a government that is sympathetic to the job creators and allow us to handle the unions like Columbia has done.BY RG Brewer on 09/27/2011 at 11:08

I wonder if those killing the labor slugs in Colombia can outsource that work here.BY canuck on 09/26/2011 at 19:00

There are worse comments. They are mostly a jumble of thinly veiled threats against union activists from folks who use pithy comment names like: hateslibs, Holyman, imam obama, Justice For All and Tea Party Patriot and of course the thinly veiled racist comments like the one referring to the President as a "pimp" and the person who thinks "imam obama" was a pithy by line, an out right reference to Obama being Muslim. As of now, the most vile and offensive of the posts have finally been moderated by the hill, but the stench from reading the vile comments can't be removed. If you feel you need to see how horrible and violent and offensive, head over to Dave's post today. He has some of the worst, even ones I would not reprint here. In a world that is increasingly inter-connected and complex, the only salvation we really have is to see each other as human beings. When people degrade and "joke" about violence or cheer the death of others, it makes me sick and it horrifies me to think of the kind of world my daughter is going to inherit. I had really hoped we'd found a way to turn down the violent rhetoric, but apparently, I'm wrong, dead wrong.

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Well, not in the US of course, just in Colombia. Apparently, it's okay if unionists die:

It is true that Colombia has a history of violence. But since President Álvaro Uribe took office in 2002, that violence has been substantially reduced. The homicide rate through the end of 2007 was down by 40.4% and the rate among union members was down almost 87%. There is nothing "consistent" about a drop to 26 union member murders in 2007 from 155 in 2000.

As for prosecutions: In union-member killings, there were zero convictions from 1991-2000 and one in 2001. But from 2002-2007, there were 80. According to the Colombian attorney general's office, 29% of those murders were "found to have been results of theft, petty crime and random violence unrelated to union activity." Mr. Uribe has nonetheless created a special investigative unit for crimes against union members, and he expanded a special government protection program for unions.

Goodness knows, that according to the Wall Street Journal, we should just TRUST Colombia when they say that murders are due to petty crime or theft. Colombia's such a bastion of truth, no wait, I meant the Wall Street Journal, no wait, I think I mean both of them.

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I’ve been having a tough time at work lately. The issues stem from communication and lack thereof in the office. It amazes me how we function as a society, as families, as workplaces when we are so hell bent on not communicating, and yes, I’m guilty of this myself.

It’s the idea of good communication, or rather a voice for workers, that really has made the union movement so important to me. Having the ability to voice your concerns, to talk to those who support you and your co-workers, well, it’s a voice I don’t have in my current job and one of the fundamental things I miss most about being represented by a union (BTW, I have no choice on unions, I am an exempted employee). For those not happy with their “voice” I also hear you, but sometimes the voice we get that isn’t quite right is still better than screaming into a pillow, isn’t it?

That’s why when I saw the news about the shooting in Kentucky , I thought about communication and how something can go horribly wrong when you don’t communicate well. And yeah, anger or arguments, those are examples of poor communication. Very poor communication. From MSNBC

HENDERSON, Ky. - An employee shot and killed a supervisor and four others after an argument at a western Kentucky plastics plant in a rampage that ended in the gunman's suicide, police and a company official said Wednesday.
>snip<
The employee, a press operator, began arguing with a supervisor and was escorted from the building, company CEO Bud Philbrook told The Associated Press.

Cellphone usage and goggles set off a 25 year old. Goggles and a cell phone? Again, from MSNBC:

Police said Wesley N. Higdon, 25, had an argument with his supervisor about wearing safety goggles and using his cell phone while he was at his press machine Tuesday.

Later that night, as the supervisor escorted him from the building, Higdon shot him, apparently using a .45-caliber pistol he kept in his car. Then, he charged into a break room and the plant floor and kept shooting before killing himself, police said.

Maybe, if the supervisor had been able to communicate policies and safety to Higdon over the time he’d been at the plant maybe he’d been able to save himself and all the others. Or maybe, if someone in Higdon’s life had been able to get him help then the shootings might not have happened. Someone like his girlfriend who didn’t believe him. From Kansascity.com:

he called his girlfriend late Tuesday and told her that he wanted to kill his boss, according to police. The girlfriend didn't warn anyone, police said, and Higdon returned to the plant and began shooting.

Teresa Solano Ventura, 20, said Higdon threatened to kill himself Tuesday while they were on the phone, but he had made such threats before and she didn't believe him.

In the end, it seems as if this troubled 25 year old was trying to tell someone that something was wrong. Working a press while on a cell phone and not wearing goggles is like asking for trouble, asking for an injury…maybe if his girlfriend had understood he really wanted to kill himself and take everyone else out, maybe if she’d understood she could have gotten him help.

I just can’t even begin to understand how it’s possible to make the leap from stress to murder and suicide. But what’s worse is knowing that there were signs all along the way; signs that the troubled Higdon was asking for help, but clearly not communicating it very well to his family, friends, co-workers or managers.

Shootings are a tragedy. But shootings in the workplace, I just don’t even have words for what this is.

My deepest sympathies go out to all the family members.

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