Chapter 55
Chapter
“Feels like a funeral in here,” Al mumbles, coming back to his desk with a coffee from the kitchen. Everyone is staring stone-faced at their screens. It’s so quiet, you can hear the buzzing of the overhead lights. I can practically feel Erica’s aesthetic plants drooping from the harsh vibe.
Everyone who was involved in the union effort has received a calendar event with an ominous, generic title.
Morgan:
they’re definitely laying us off
god, my husband’s been out of work—what are we going to do?
Sarah:
i’ll probably have to move back in with my mom
Al:
no, you’re going to have a new job in two seconds
you’ll be just fine
Morgan:
Ruby, what’s taking so long with your big plan?
My leg is jiggling under my desk, because I’m wondering the same thing.
Ruby:
Anna needed to verify some things
Steve:
ugh, we’re fucked
Carol:
we filed for the election
Steve:
do we even have enough support?
we’ll lose
Greg:
it’s a hail mary for sure
but if we wait, who knows who’ll be left to start over
A few hours later, Sarah gets called into the conference room with Erica and someone from HR for her mysterious meeting, and fifteen minutes later she comes out crying.
But then a message appears in all of our inboxes.
From: TKCORP Union
To: All staff
Subject: Announcing the TKCORP Union
As some of you may know, we’re forming a union at TKCORP, and we’ll need everyone’s help.
We’ve submitted the paperwork to hold a union election, and we have reason to believe that today’s layoffs are illegal retaliation.
We’re demanding they be halted immediately, or we will file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB.
A lot of you have worked here for a long time and care about this company and what happens to it—and, importantly, what happens to the people in it.
If you’re concerned about the way things are going around here lately, please come talk to us.
We look forward to speaking with everyone about how unionizing can protect all of us and change TKCORP for the better.
Sincerely,
Greg, Sarah, Carol, and the rest of the union organizing committee
Sarah sniffs, sitting at her cubicle. “We went back and forth over the text of that email for like five hours.”
Morgan gasps. “You guys, look!”
We get up from our desks and gather around her screen, which is opened to the front page of The New York Times. The top headline slot reads:
At TKCORP, a Trail of Questionable Transactions Leads Back to New CEO
Just a few years after taking the helm of the ailing megacorporation amid much fanfare, CEO Winfield Erickson and his underlings have been implicated in a brazen fraud scheme.
9 MIN READ
The lead image is of Erickson emerging from TKCORP headquarters, and Mark Winterson standing in front of him—arms spread wide as if to protect him, mouth open like he’s shouting at the person behind the camera. Eyes wild like he hasn’t slept in days.