**Law
and Order **
From
the Captain’s Private Log, September 14th 2065
Appendix A of the Charter for the Solar Harvesters Union
(SHU) was agreed on by all members (H. Antolosky, M. Cotman, W. Jackson Jr., P.
Jones, D. Lechnar, M. Lechnar, T. Lopez, H. Mudd, R. Nixon, M. Pirrone, P.
Richman, C. Rose, D. Rubin, S. Sanchez, J. Smith, D. Styer, H. Suzuki, A.
Teasel, S. Trunzo, L. W. Wojohowitz) today.
Wages:
Minimum wage of crew members will be such that, after seven years of employment
on one of the member ships, the member will have earned enough to purchase one
sixth of the supplies and equipment necessary to build a 12 person solar
airship. (The underlying assumption is that a crew member would only save half
of their wages towards a ship, so that after seven years they could buy one
together with eleven other like-minded people and have a full crew.)
The undersigned commit that, should wages fluctuate based
on an individual’s experience or skills, no crew member—up to and including the
captain of the ship—shall earn more than ten times the pay of the lowest paid
member of the crew. (Some discussion about other means of pay—bartering, etc.
They even talked about dental benefits. Do I laugh and point out there is only one
ship and we are its crew? Or do I encourage them to dream? They make me feel
old. So grateful for Josie and Hansuke and their wrinkles.)
For reasons of mutual aid and to foster a sense of
community, if any one ship should earn a profit above wages and maintenance of
the ship, one tenth of this profit will go towards a communal pool for
emergencies. Profit can be defined by each ship’s crew monthly, but all budgets
will be made available for all members of the SHU to examine at an annual
meeting. Ships that fail to share reasonable profits—“reasonable” defined by
75% or more of the other ships’ crew members, through individual yes/no polling—will
be put on six month suspension wherein the other crews will help define
“profit” at mandatory monthly meetings. After that time period, if the
questionable ship still wishes to be part of the SHU, it will be reinstated as
a full member if 75% of the other ships’ individual crew members agree. (This
seems like an awful thing to be thinking about, but I’m glad that they are
talking about ways to solve problems before they appear. Even if this
particular one never happens—they talk of making a profit! Oh, the dear lambs!—it
does suggest a way of handling disputes that doesn’t make me—or any future
captain—the bad guy. I can support that.)
Recruitment: If there is room for another member on a
ship, any crew member can suggest a candidate, but all the other crew members
must agree and the potential member will have a 6 month trial period where they
will get wages but not be entitled to access the emergency funds. (I am never
going to live down Roger. He seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh well. I
still claimed that I got grandfathered in, and can appoint crew members to my
own ship since I’m paying for The Judy’s upkeep and all their wages at the
moment. But they are welcome to have this rule apply to any future ships that
want to join us. Poor lost kittens. Josie laughed at them, which I think may
have made it worse. I <3 Josie.)
(Then they talked about food, and I agreed that we could
make a rule that peanut butter could not be served more than three times a
week. But they would have to come up with alternatives that were as cheap,
tasty, long lasting and vegetarian or I couldn’t agree. And since we had most
solemnly agreed at the very beginning that this was a consensus or it didn’t
happen… we get to have peanut butter whenever the duty cook likes. Sometimes
winning feels like losing.)
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