Oddfellows Local 151 is experiencing a shakeup.
There has been a Very Big Issue which I have avoided discussing because it's pretty hard to talk about without giving too much away. Suffice to say that an employee has been terminated for stealing, and there are differing views as to said employee's guilt or innocence, and it has caused quite a huge rift between members of the Local Grocery Staff.
I volunteered to be present for the entire arbitration process, serving as a note taker for the Union Rep who was representing the Terminated Employee. As such, I have access to more information than the rest of the members of the Oddfellows Local 151, and as far as I can tell I am not at liberty to share all of the details. Because of this, I have had to sit by and listen to other members of the OL151 blather on incoherently, misrepresenting facts and basically accusing Management and other employee/union members of everything from vindictive lying to outright fascism. So essentially, the Local Grocery has developed it's own Tea Party.
I have tried to remain fairly neutral, and in some cases I have attempted to point out errors and holes in the arguments brought forth by said Tea Partiers, to no avail. I have argued for civility, and for reason, and my arguments are mostly falling on deaf ears. In true TP fashion, they keep shouting louder and never listen to anything anyone else has to say, even people who know more than they do.

It has been ugly.

The holidays were an eternity.

And finally, after the meeting on my birthday, the President of Oddfellows Local 151 stepped down. I have not spoken to this person yet, but I understand that their exit was marked by a tirade against our Representative from the National Union. This is interesting to me because when I spoke to the Former President on many, many occasions previously, arguing for more neutrality and suggesting that our Rep was stoking the fires of discontent unnecessarily, the FP told me in no uncertain terms that I was wrong and that they fully backed both the Rep and the LG Tea Partiers. I have no idea what will happen now. I have been asked by both an officer of OL151 and a Store Manager to run for president. I will do no such thing, of course, having no idea how the union really works and no real sense of the history of relations between Management and the Union beyond the past year.
I will, however, do everything I can to make sure that the next President is not bi-polar.