So...I've been busy for a while now...I'm driving truck these days and rarely have time to even check my mail...but I've wanted relate this.
I met man this week and they were both very different people...confused? Keep reading. If you truly know me then you know that I'm a writer, and writers make observations regularly, especially of those people they meet from day to day. This man I met was a dock Forman (one man). The first one was Danny, The second Stephan.
I don't know what you imagine when I say dock foreman but these men were foremen on international shipping docks at which I picked up loads of freight. One worked in New Jersey and the other In Philadelphia. A river apart but two worlds away. These men could not be more dissimilar.
I met Danny first. He works in Philadelphia, about 6'2", 195 lbs and a slightly receding hairline. The moment you lay eyes on him you think... "Mobster!!!" He is a polite jovial man with a commanding presence. When you walk onto his dock you don't have to wonder for a minute who is the boss. His aura says "I'm the boss here and if you don't think so I'll break your fucking legs then you will know I am." And Speaking of leg-breaking Danny looks like he's spent his days in a crew breaking legs. As I stood there watching him communicate with the other Teamsters (union docks) on his dock, I got the sense that he grew up in the unions from the early days and worked his way up from the bottom. I imagine him saying to someone he meets..."Hi, I'm Daniel, my friends call me Danny, but like everyone else you can call me sir." Danny has a comfortable position and is used to having others do his bidding. Those around him, regardless of how jovial they seem, keep their space. no one touches him during their conversations they stand in a submissive stance while in his presence, even the toughest little punk forklift operator regarded him with due reverence. I imagined that this Dock job was only a cover for his mafia position and so that he has a job that the IRS wouldn't suspect. Danny has that chiseled look that says he's spent many years working his ass off but now has the position of privilege. His skin is polished from his weekly trips to the salon for ex-foliation but don't let that soft look fool you this guy would kill you before he'd let you fuck him over.
Stephan, everyone calls him Steve but he hates it, isn't union and would just as soon piss on a union membership than to sign one. He despises the union and the inherent lazy attitude that comes from belonging to a union. He does not understand why you wouldn't just pick up a piece of garbage as you walk by it, simply because you are a forklift operator and there is another union worker whose job it is to pick up the rubbish. He's a bit thick around the middle but not from lack of exercise but because his wife that he loves very much, makes him much too fattening dinners and he eats them beyond the point of being full because he is afraid of hurting her feelings. He cares about people and loves that anyone will talk to him. The union guys do not include him in their circle because he isn't union and there fore they despise him. They only give him any sort of reverence because he is their boss and fear that he will write them up. Stephan couldn't fire any of these guys because you can't just tell a "union guy" "you're fired" you have to endure a lengthy process of write-ups and hearing before you can get rid of one of them and they know it but they don't want too many write-ups in their record so they do what he says. Stephan despises the union workers as much as they do him, and he despises that he can't be himself at work because of the union. He's a boss that cares about his job and his work environment and if he does something that he feels strongly about but goes against union rules he's afraid of getting a grievance letter from a union worker because if he gets too many of those administration would remove him from his position, because unlike union guys, he can be "fired". To look at him you might think immediately that he is gay but after talking to him you find that he is just a soft caring person that is happy to be treated like a human cause he is not treated enough like one. (For union workers, administration members are nothing better than spit on the sidewalk)