Mr Pellish, Superintendent MacMillan Yard

Mr Pellish, and I don't know his first name, or if that is how his last name was spelled because he didn't seem to stay around for a long time, called me into his office one day for a chat while I was the Local Chairman, or in other parlance the Grievance Officer, of Local 216 CBRT&GW. I had worked out a deal with the Office Assistant at the yard whereby Jessie H. would be trained for another job after her job was cancelled. The guy who I worked out the deal with Ted N, reneged on the deal. As the Company was always in violation of the Collective Agreement 5.1 in one way or another, because the violations were relatively minor we tended to turn a blind eye to them, until that is we considered ourselves screwed by the Company in some way or another. Then I felt it was time to put voice to these violations in the form of a grievance. I had been thinking of one grievance, and whether to put it in or not, and that was that I f a person was promoted to a non scheduled position but remained on the same job they would lose their seniority in the group they had been. The reason was as far as I was concerned that they took their job with them and no other member of the bargaining unit would be eligible to get that job. The action of the company made my mind up for me, so I put in a grievance for that violation as well as about ten others. Mr. Pellish Superintendent calls me into his office and tells me he feels sorry for me, having to spend a lot of time writing out these grievances. I told him he should not worry about that. He goes on to say that my writing these grievances must take time, that I would be able to devote to my family. I told him that my members were my family, but over and above that, many of the people I worked with went out and enjoyed themselves by bowling, playing hockey, playing cards, and going to the show. I told him I enjoyed writing out grievances and the challenges they provided. Mr. Pellish's jaw sort of drops, and he says that I was the most cynical person that he had ever met. I then told him I considered that a complement, and he says it wasn't meant that way. I told him I knew that, and it didn't matter. I walked out of the office and the main grievance went on to be thrashed out for many years. The Union lost the grievance eventually because of tardiness on their part, but the Company and Union spent much more time and money on it than was really necessary. I never spoke with Mr. Pellish again