The Strike

Whew...what a month it has been. Kevin has just finished his 4th week of striking against Budweiser/In-Bev. Just to break it down, the short story is, In-Bev is trying to put the drivers on an $150 a day salary. (Plus a little commission) They are refusing to pay them overtime, but are also refusing to cap them at 40 hours a week then. Which basically means that they will be working them longer hours (they are planning to let go all 30 temporary drivers and spred their load with the rest of the drivers) and not pay them for the overtime worked. This company is NOT struggling in this economy. In fact, the first week the Riverside branch was on strike, In-Bev bought Corona/Modelo for 26 BILLION dollars CASH. They are greedy investors, and do not care one bit about the beer or the employees. The first week they were on strike, they took away medical benefits, and froze the employees 401k accounts so that they would not be able to take out loans from their accounts. Its this kind of below-the-belt attacks that are really showing the companies true colors. They have only given that one offer the entire 4 weeks of the strike and refuse to negotiate with the union at all. This contract that they are proposing is completely illegal.

Now with all that being said, this is a very hard time for our family. We were barely making ends meet when Kevin was getting a full pay check, so there was no money to save for this kind of thing. He gets paid $216 a week from the union for picketing 40+ hours a week. Talk about a scary situation. And what scares me even more than the lack of money is the no health benefits. With Toby being the most accident prone child on the planet, paired with his asthma...we have never gone over 2 months without having to go to the doctors.

The first week was the hardest. I cried...a lot. I was scared, mad, frustrated, sad, and anxious all at the same time. I had a talk with my mom trying to process it all. I was telling her that I know God would take care of us (He ALWAYS does and has been SO faithful to take care of my family's needs) but that I still was having a hard time finding peace because this really didn't feel like a "God situation". It was more of a corporate greed situation. God has given me a supernatural sense of peace in my life. Always. So this felt strange and foreign to not feel that peace. I felt anxious and stressed about the every aspect of the situation. I didn't really know how to handle it. I was stressed about how we would be able to pay our bills, eat, deal with the stress and each other etc. I remember my words exactly when I said "I know He will provide for our needs, but it's not like He's just going to hand us money". I have ate those words over and over by the way. I have had, and continue to have people hand me money on a weekly basis...and I think back to this sentence and smile, knowing that God is looking down at me and having a good little chuckle. What I am realizing more and more is that EVERY situation is a "God-situation" if you are a child of God. And that He can and will use every situation for His glory. I can't wait to tell you the ways he has come through for us. I have goose bumps just thinking about it.