Saputo Foods in Edmonton. As a high school drop out who had only made minimum wage before, the prospect of earning $24 an hour was very attractive. I actually don't think they were going to hire me until I did a few follow up calls.
When I got there I was building milk orders which was extremely tough work. We had two people to a line. When you get hired you are not in the union. You are in the labour pool. You still pay union dues, but you have none of the perks, which I later found amounted to being bloody lazy.
On day #6 in a row of a 10 hour shifts, where my body ached incredibly, I remember the guy I was working with just laughing as I worked hard and I asked him what was so funny and told him to get helping me. His response was "you have to work hard, I'm already in the union". Screw that place. I walked.
It was the best thing I could have done as it lead me to my current career, which I have been in for 13 years now.
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