Al Sterling: Union Boss

So I'm making a concerted effort to blog more often this month, and we're starting with a Monday morning special.

I mentioned last time that we were having some insurance issues. Well, turns out it's a little bigger than I thought. Korea has nationalized health care, and it works pretty well when your whole country is roughly the size of Indiana. But that's not the point.

The point is we haven't had insurance since September. Turns out several of our teachers were lied to about it being fixed, and everything came to a head today when two of the teachers here (not us) refused to work until the insurance issue was resolved. PLUS had it fixed pretty quick after that. But they also took money from us for September insurance, which we didn't have. Now have insurance, and they are basically telling us that they can't give back the September money because it has been used to buy September insurance retroactively, which I almost follow since PLUS was bought another bigger company, and that went into effect on September 1st. Also, we had teachers who visited the hospital for a few minor things, all were reimbursed. The whole thing smells fishy, obviously, but I'm not thinking we'll see the money they took last month...

The thing is, another teacher (not at PLUS) about a year ago was told he had insurance. His apartment caught fire, and he was very badly burned. It was then revealed his school had lied, and he didn't have any insurance. The hospitals went looking for their money, while his family was trying to fly him home. Foreign teachers across the country raised tons of money to try to fly him home (it requires quite a lot to get a medical transport that far), but in the end he died. It was a tragic case, and one that made a lot of teachers out here very jumpy about this kinda thing. But fear not, loved ones, we're fine. PLUS is a big school, and can't afford to be violating federal laws like that. And even though I went to the hospital and had to pay the entire thing out of pocket, I've been told that I can go back to the hospital and all of my $35 back tomorrow. I'm not sure if the $17 worth of meds is covered yet...

We're feeling much better, by the way. The doc gave me some good stuff for the stomach cramps, and said I just had to wait it out. No worries. Of course, Jen came down with a cold this morning. Which means I should have it by tomorrow. I'm not sure how we'll survive the winter- it hasn't even hit the 50's yet and Jen and I have been sick all of October.

But the Union Boss part- well, obviously that's a bit of an overstatement. But Jen and I were trying to get the other teachers here to see the necessity of collective bargaining a while ago, and we were ignored. Now PLUS has done away with the Head Teacher position, and our coworkers are having issues left and right- everything from a lack of furniture, door locks being broken, cell phones not being replaced, and now insurance. And for the most part they're left twisting in the wind. Now folks are making noise about working together.

People ask me (Ok, us...) all the time 'Al, is it hard to always be right?' and I say, 'No, not really. You just start being right over and over again, and eventually..."

Personally, I'm still not worried about any of this. I'm double checking to make sure the insurance thing is settled, though I'm sure it is at this point. But these guys can't hold a candle to some of my previous employers. Jen and I will get everything we're suppose to (though, thankfully, not what we deserve). And if they get difficult, so will I...

Much love,
Al