Still on strike - BRIC
So it's late September. It's actually 4 days until the first day of fall and summer is sliding quickly into it since we had nothing but rain and cooler weather since my last post. It's only been the last couple of weeks that it's been sunny but still much cooler. Tonight it will hit 2 degrees C which means the leaves will already start turning.
UPDATE
Just to continue on my last update, I haven't found work yet. The last 4 opportunities fell through for whatever reasons but then I just stopped trying. I spent a little more time at camp and almost a whole week without my car because it was in the shop. I've been in "night shift mode" on and off which entails not being able to sleep all night until about 6-8am.
Let me quickly explain. I've spent the last 9 years on rotating 12 hour shifts, which goes as follows;
D - days, N - nights, O - off, from Mon-Sun.
OOOONNN
NOOODDD
ONNNOOO
DDDDOOO
Because I often have to stay up after a night shift for the rest of the following day, my sleeping patterns have been greatly disrupted. This clearly doesn't correct itself too quickly. Questioning the passed week's "nightshift mode phase" I checked my schedule and low and behold, if I was working, today I should be just getting off nights and off the weekend, in which I typically stay up to get banking and groceries done and prepare for the weekend. Odd how the body just remembers what time it usually gets up.
STRIKE
In 2003, I was still not quite used to the many days off in my work schedule. I used to do a lot of visiting and a lot of mini road trips. I managed to do the same while on strike 6 years ago as well as took off to Alberta for 3 weeks. I also found some work with the connections I had at old jobs I worked at 3 years prior. That's not the case this time. I've expanded my traveling horizons to further places and larger cities. This led to spending more time at home because my bigger trips brought bigger bills obviously, meaning less trips.
Finding work has been less successful as I've mentioned and I've put off any travels since we're all expecting this to be a long strike... long strikes and layoffs historically happen every 10-15 years at my company, or every 4-5 contracts. It's the nature of the beast in the nickel market.
I'm going on my 70th day not working. This has become a little much. Many things were hinting that price of nickel would go right back up once we were on the picket lines but it's doing the opposite. Norilsk Nickel just announced their new fleet of icebreaker ships which ships their nickel through the arctic sea and are now flooding the LME. Vale's been too busy with other acquisitions, with their mounting stock price and with their booming iron ore side in Chinese market to bother with the contract.
HOW I'M DEALING SO FAR - RESEARCH
When I don't understand something, I have to research it until I understand at least in general WTF is going on. This is what I've been doing in my night shift modes all hours of the night, as well as commenting on our two local paper's blogs. I'm starting to clearly see that the situation with the markets DO NOT LOOK GOOD. It's a catch 22 because I feel better to research the web to understand why things are going the way they are but it stresses me out more and more to know that the markets are becoming more and more unpredictable and volitle. It turns out that Norilsk have a much bigger window to flood the market with their new fleet of ships and the melting ice fields in the Arctic with the stronger price of nickel. Weird factors such as China's pig farmers stock piling copper and nickel in their barns as their own personal investments are at play too.
I eventually planned to compile a paper based on the research I've done but there are too many what ifs. I need to wait a couple weeks. I need to see "Capitalism: A Love Story". I need to do more research about how the mining giants are buying what and why. Vale, for example was diversifying by getting into nickel and more recently potash is has been booming because of strong Asian demands. What's most overwhelming about all of this is that none of is looking good for us. I also figure that Vale is unsure of the nickel market so much to the point that they would rather loose out while waiting out the storm that risk jumping into it. They're making way too much money on their iron ore, logistics and potash right now to care about a minor 10% of their potential income. I think an EBITDA of 1.7 BILLION in their second quarter is enough of a cushion to hold off settling our contract, right? It sickens me... Anyways...
In my research, I learnt what BRIC is - Brazil, Russia, India, China. These countries formed an economic alliance to throw down the US capitalist regime in order to replace it with their own. With their combined 42% total of the world's population, 25% of the world's land coverage, the majority of the world's manufacturing, a ton of unexplored resources and cheap-cheap labour, it's clear that's what's happening right now. It explains why N. American's manufacturing and natural resources are either being gobbled up by foreigners or just going bankrupt.
This helped me understand the battling point of the strike. The union is playing the card that "Brazil is trying to pay our workers 3rd world wages." It's not far from true if we're to eventually compete with Russia and Brazil's cheap labour. Though most people can't understand it, Michael Moore does and supports our stike. His next film "Capitalism: A Love Story" depicts perfectly why Vale is holding the steelworkers hostage.
UPDATE
Just to continue on my last update, I haven't found work yet. The last 4 opportunities fell through for whatever reasons but then I just stopped trying. I spent a little more time at camp and almost a whole week without my car because it was in the shop. I've been in "night shift mode" on and off which entails not being able to sleep all night until about 6-8am.
Let me quickly explain. I've spent the last 9 years on rotating 12 hour shifts, which goes as follows;
D - days, N - nights, O - off, from Mon-Sun.
OOOONNN
NOOODDD
ONNNOOO
DDDDOOO
Because I often have to stay up after a night shift for the rest of the following day, my sleeping patterns have been greatly disrupted. This clearly doesn't correct itself too quickly. Questioning the passed week's "nightshift mode phase" I checked my schedule and low and behold, if I was working, today I should be just getting off nights and off the weekend, in which I typically stay up to get banking and groceries done and prepare for the weekend. Odd how the body just remembers what time it usually gets up.
STRIKE
In 2003, I was still not quite used to the many days off in my work schedule. I used to do a lot of visiting and a lot of mini road trips. I managed to do the same while on strike 6 years ago as well as took off to Alberta for 3 weeks. I also found some work with the connections I had at old jobs I worked at 3 years prior. That's not the case this time. I've expanded my traveling horizons to further places and larger cities. This led to spending more time at home because my bigger trips brought bigger bills obviously, meaning less trips.
Finding work has been less successful as I've mentioned and I've put off any travels since we're all expecting this to be a long strike... long strikes and layoffs historically happen every 10-15 years at my company, or every 4-5 contracts. It's the nature of the beast in the nickel market.
I'm going on my 70th day not working. This has become a little much. Many things were hinting that price of nickel would go right back up once we were on the picket lines but it's doing the opposite. Norilsk Nickel just announced their new fleet of icebreaker ships which ships their nickel through the arctic sea and are now flooding the LME. Vale's been too busy with other acquisitions, with their mounting stock price and with their booming iron ore side in Chinese market to bother with the contract.
HOW I'M DEALING SO FAR - RESEARCH
When I don't understand something, I have to research it until I understand at least in general WTF is going on. This is what I've been doing in my night shift modes all hours of the night, as well as commenting on our two local paper's blogs. I'm starting to clearly see that the situation with the markets DO NOT LOOK GOOD. It's a catch 22 because I feel better to research the web to understand why things are going the way they are but it stresses me out more and more to know that the markets are becoming more and more unpredictable and volitle. It turns out that Norilsk have a much bigger window to flood the market with their new fleet of ships and the melting ice fields in the Arctic with the stronger price of nickel. Weird factors such as China's pig farmers stock piling copper and nickel in their barns as their own personal investments are at play too.
I eventually planned to compile a paper based on the research I've done but there are too many what ifs. I need to wait a couple weeks. I need to see "Capitalism: A Love Story". I need to do more research about how the mining giants are buying what and why. Vale, for example was diversifying by getting into nickel and more recently potash is has been booming because of strong Asian demands. What's most overwhelming about all of this is that none of is looking good for us. I also figure that Vale is unsure of the nickel market so much to the point that they would rather loose out while waiting out the storm that risk jumping into it. They're making way too much money on their iron ore, logistics and potash right now to care about a minor 10% of their potential income. I think an EBITDA of 1.7 BILLION in their second quarter is enough of a cushion to hold off settling our contract, right? It sickens me... Anyways...
In my research, I learnt what BRIC is - Brazil, Russia, India, China. These countries formed an economic alliance to throw down the US capitalist regime in order to replace it with their own. With their combined 42% total of the world's population, 25% of the world's land coverage, the majority of the world's manufacturing, a ton of unexplored resources and cheap-cheap labour, it's clear that's what's happening right now. It explains why N. American's manufacturing and natural resources are either being gobbled up by foreigners or just going bankrupt.
This helped me understand the battling point of the strike. The union is playing the card that "Brazil is trying to pay our workers 3rd world wages." It's not far from true if we're to eventually compete with Russia and Brazil's cheap labour. Though most people can't understand it, Michael Moore does and supports our stike. His next film "Capitalism: A Love Story" depicts perfectly why Vale is holding the steelworkers hostage.