Charlie frowned and looked away briefly. "Yeah. And when anyone asked why, they started pointing at me, like I was responsible for this sudden uprising." His voice rose, as did his pulse. "But I'm not. I mean, none of the folks in the discussion forum even suggested that people working at other companies do anything. It was never about that. Never."
Margot flipped off her recorder. "Look, we're off the record now. Are you all right? Do you want to go through with this? It's okay if you want to stop."
He shook his head, annoyed with himself. "No. It's okay. Really. Turn it back on. I want to get this over with."
"So," she said a few seconds later, "that was the night your little contractor revolt made the national news."
"It's not my revolt. Look, you said you would let me tell my story. Are you going to do that, or are you going to do a hit piece on me?"
"The former," she said quietly, but I'd like to get you emotionally involved, so you don't hold back or consciously edit what you have to say. I want it all, and I want it honestly."
He took a deep breath and gave in to the anger that had begun seething in his gut. "All right. I don't know if this is going to give my identity away to someone who was there at the time, but a dozen years ago, when I was a full-time employee there, I discovered that the work I really wanted to do in support of the project I was on wasn't allowed to be done by direct hires. Only outside contract people could do it, and only off-site. So I decided to follow my gut and quit, just so I could do the kind of work that really interested me. Later on, I worked with a different part of the company as a vendor, which meant that I was on contract for the duration of a particular project. But it also meant that there wasn't a blood-sucking temp agency raking off a cut of the bill rate just for processing some occasional paperwork. I saw how much profit the contract agencies were taking, and it disgusted me. So when some folks on the forum discovered that the rate cuts were instituted to feed yet another layer of economic vampire, that was the last straw. That was why I was so angry that day, why I suggested we pick a target and show them that they didn't hold all of the cards in their little game of bluff."
Margot's mike hand was shaking. She was silent for a few seconds, while she caught her breath. "I think people must have picked up on that anger, or at least attributed some to you on the basis of your having signed your posts as 'Contractor Slime'."
"Yeah, well. I know some people who have worked as contractors since I left, and that's how they refer to themselves in private. It's a kind of gallows humor."
"I understand. Now, the following week, as a result of the national coverage, people seeking jobs as contract help in dozens of industries started to follow suit. In each case, they picked one of the houses that were vying for the rake-off on the billings, and boycotted. It spread like wildfire, and the only person anyone ever pointed at when asked why they did it, was you."
"Right. Like I'm some sort of labor leader or something. All I did was make a suggestion. Other people figured out how to implement it. Hell, I'm still not even employed, and I sure as hell don't want anyone pestering me about what to do next. In the bigger scheme of things, I'm nothing but a goddamn observer! And now there's this national hue and cry among the business interests about how unfair it is that the workers finally have gotten the upper hand about something. Well, all I've got to say about that is that it's about time. The big corporations need us to make their products just as much as they need us to buy them. But what they don't seem to understand is that the people they think are their enemies don't need a leader. All they need is a sense of autonomy; that they are in control of their own destiny. 'Cause that's all there is, really: people. We're everywhere. Without us, nothing happens. Not business. Not government. Not war. Nothing."
She smiled. "Spoken like a true leader."
Charlie crossed his arms unhappily and glared at her. "Is that what you wanted?"
"Part of it, yes. But I'm also interested in what you think about the dynamic that you triggered."
"The dynamic?"
"Sure. It's unusual to have so much concerted action without anyone directing it. It seemed almost like the workforce was a supersaturated solution, and all it needed to start making rock candy was an impurity to condense around."
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