Arnold walked in and got right down to the business of doing our work for us. He chomped on gum with his mouth wide open. The workers made bets about how many pieces he had in his mouth at once—at least enough to make him nearly unintelligible. Health-care workers tend not to like behavior that needlessly promotes the spread of germs, and no one in the room could understand what he was saying. If we asked for clarification, he would look up, say, “I said it already,” and just proceed. I responded each time by interrupting him mid-sentence and exercising my right to call a private caucus, informing him that when he was ready to stop yelling at the workers he could knock on the door and we might let him back in. With every break, Arnold’s behavior got increasingly out of control; meanwhile our caucuses became more lighthearted. The nurses loved it; they were on a high. Hey, you could actually do this. In fact, it was fun.

When you have a union, you don’t have to take bullshit from the boss. You can just send him to his room and tell him he can come out when he’s ready to behave. The negotiations wrapped up early that day; it was obvious they were going nowhere.