There’s No Place Like Work for the Holidays
Negaunee, Michigan
On Dec. 31, while most of us party-in the new millennium with family and friends, Charlie Niemi will probably be clearing the roads with only his trusty 1982 Oshkosh snowplow as a companion.
Last year was an easy one for the road workers here, according to Niemi, a steward with Local 1415 (Council 25). “We only got 170 inches of snow.” For the past 10 years, he has operated a snowplow through winters that generally bring about 250 inches.
The unpredictability of weather makes planning holiday events difficult. “We don’t have mandatory overtime,” says Niemi. But he and his co-workers do keep tuned to the Weather Channel and cancel all plans when a storm is due.
At those times when he and his wife want to visit their parents over Christmas, he makes sure he’s back to work over the New Year. And he always checks that the crew will not be short-staffed if there is an emergency.
“It makes you feel good when you’re out there and you know you’re performing a service,” he says. The work is constant. “If we’re not plowing, we’re loading the snow in tandems and hauling it away” because high snow banks at street corners create a visibility problem for drivers.
The workers know they are appreciated. “Some residents send a ham and cheese tray to the shop every Christmas to thank the drivers,” says Niemi. The city had a dinner and dance in the workers’ honor one year after a hard freeze. “For over 30 days, it never got above zero,” he recalls. The crew had to make sure to cover up all exposed skin and work in pairs because of the severe cold. “In one six-day period, I worked 96 hours. That’s where the public employees shine the most. When there’s an emergency, we’re always there.”
It’s not always easy for their families. Niemi’s wife was particularly disappointed when their special Christmas plans were canceled one year. The local recognizes these sacrifices at an annual dinner “to thank our families for bearing with us on the holidays when we get called away to do our job.” They make sure the dinner is held in early fall or late spring so it won’t be snowed out.
Newark, Delaware
One job that doesn’t take a break for the holidays is toll collection. For Deborah Cooper, who works as a toll collector on I-95, the East Coast’s north-south corridor, the job is beyond busy.
“It’s a crazy job, especially on the holidays because there are people who want to get from one destination to another; they don’t care how they get there,” she says. And it’s busy. “The lines sometimes get so long you can’t see the end of them. So you do it one person at a time.”
On the job 15 years, the Local 2362 (Council 81) member says the public’s attitude has gotten worse and traffic has multiplied. “It’s kind of hard when someone has their left hand out the window and they’re looking straight ahead and treating you like a machine,” she says.
So it’s the little kindnesses that make it worthwhile. “At Christmas, people bring you cookies, and sometimes they make up little giftie bags with holiday ornaments.”
Cooper is very proud of contract language the union negotiated allowing workers to select from a choice of schedules each year by seniority. Although she works many holidays each year, she has been able to spend the last couple of Thanksgivings with her family. One was the last Thanksgiving her father was alive; the other was her mother’s first Thanksgiving as a widow. Because of the union, she was able to spend that precious time with her
parents.
Like others who work with the public, Cooper has some favorite customers. Hers is a woman who frequently drives through. “She always gives you a Sacred Heart of Jesus picture, and she always pays the toll for the person behind her — even if it’s a truck.”
Sometimes the impulse spreads. Cooper has had up to 15 cars pay the toll for the person behind them.
These positive experiences make a real difference, especially on a difficult day.
“People that have a smile for you,” says Cooper. “These are the people I value more than anything else in the world.”
Northfield, Minnesota
For Anita Campbell, the work/family juggling act is not an “either/or”; it’s a “both.” The mother of four (with a millennium baby on the way) works in one of Minnesota’s group homes for the developmentally disabled.
Hers is the state’s first retirement group home — only a year old. It’s home to three women and one man ranging in age from 72 to 79. Three have spent most of their lives in an institutional setting. The home is staffed round the clock.
Last Thanksgiving, Campbell’s family had a special Thanksgiving dinner; she brought two residents with her to join in the festivities.
Group home staff are encouraged to build one-on-one relationships with individual residents. On the 4th of July, Campbell took her “one-on-one” to a community celebration, where they joined her husband, a Local 607 member who works at another group home, plus their 2-year-old daughter, Teddy.
“My one-on-one loves my little girl,” notes Campbell. “He lets her sit on his knee. I think there’s a special bond between the old and the young.” The Local 607 (Council 6) executive board member often brings her own family to spend time with her group home family.
The experience is good for her children, she says. They learn to be more accepting of other people’s differences.
The holidays are a real family time for everyone in the group home. “We do what normal families do. We have cookie bakes before Christmas. We decorate the house for the holidays.
“We try to plan special get-togethers with their own families. We take them on shopping trips, and they get presents for each other and for their families,” she explains.
“On New Year’s we play games, and the guy likes to watch football and take a long nap in the afternoon.”
As with any other family, it’s not an easy juggling act — especially at the holidays. But for now, Campbell has found a way to blend her job and family responsibilities, and it seems to be working for everyone.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
