book packing: on being cancelled and the PLC

book packing: on being cancelled and the PLC: Shift cancelled today, 10am tomorrow please reads the test message on Monday morning. It’s a mixed reaction. I think I want to...

on being cancelled and the PSC

Shift cancelled today, 10am tomorrow please reads the test message on Monday morning.

It’s a mixed reaction. I think I want to go back to sleep but don’t. I see the day ahead as a glorious opportunity … well that’s the notion I console myself with to get over the sense of rejection, and the rejection is real, I'm not needed today.  That raises some self evaluation questions …

Maybe I've been taking too many days off and now I'm marked as unavailable? 

Was I caught on CCTV checking phone messages in my locker – not at break time?

Maybe a team leader saw me chatting with Ditsy Blond and Boy Racer ... we were laughing ...

I did some good yoga stretches on the shelves in B loop last week, are there cameras there that I don't know about?

Did I spend too long in the toilet?

Of course I do understand that the real cause for being told that I've been cancelled that day is that book orders were less than estimated, and as I am part of a flexible work force, I'm not needed, so I get cancelled and the company increases it's efficiency (all looks good on  graphs for the shareholders) but us packers on the line we need to recover a sense of self worth after being cancelled.

So when the Union invited members to go to Palestine in support of the Palestine  Solidarity Campaign, I didn't hesitate to nominate myself, motivated by having an opportunity to be useful.

When a worker's shift is cancelled it makes a person redundant for the day, even when the sun is shining that rejection is a bad start, there's much talk among workers that goes like this;
"How many shifts did you get this week?", 
"Didn't see you yesterday, were you cancelled?"  
"Have you been cancelled?" 
"Yes I got cancelled, I was cancelled 2 days last week, and I've done 2 shifts so far this week, so I expect I'll be cancelled tomorrow"
 ... these are the terms people use to discuss our precarious and unstable work. We are available for work every day, but on days we are not needed, when orders for books are lower than predicted then we get cancelled; annulled, made void, invalidated, abolished, neutralized.

Of course I can empathize with Palestinians, they have experienced decades of systematic cancellation on a national level under Israeli occupation.