For their next series of forced two-hour meetings, the Yessin team produced a scary video about SEIU Nevada. We dispatched organizers to buy hundreds of microwave popcorn packets and distribute them to all the workers as fast as they could. The break rooms at the hospital were all equipped with microwaves, and for the entire week workers walked into the screenings ready for the horror flick with popcorn in hand. In organizer shoptalk this is called cutting the tension.

By the end of April the average worker in that hospital had been through ten hours of mandatory captive audience meetings. Then management replaced the meetings with mandatory one-on-ones, working every intimidation angle they could. Evidently it had dawned on them that when you put workers who are organized and united together in the same room, even as a captive audience, the result is not exactly union-busting. Maybe their message would be more convincing in an isolation cell, er, a private office.

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.