Striking

``Down with The Man! Down with corporations!'' The mob chanted as they took over the central parade square in front of the parliament house. It was the third day of a general strike that the unions had called given the outrage of the release of the latest budget of the parliament, where the corporate tax was further decreased while simultaneously increasing the personal and service tax. The finance minister had made the impassioned plea for understanding the need to increase the competitiveness while still maintaining the ability of the government to provide for the common goods.

From the vantage point of his make-shift office at the nearby hotel, Kim Keat stared out of the window through the blinds, watching as the strikers chanted their slogans while assembled as a coherent block of people. He sighed. Being the union boss was not the easiest thing to do, not when the unions themselves had their teeth and claws removed some thirty years ago in the bid to curb the communist tide, where the government had decided that most of the communists were coming from the unions. Now the unions were just unions in name; they were wholly under the control of the government. There were no other legal unions allowed in the country. The union leaders had been complaisant with the policies that the government had put forth.

Except for now.

Kim Keat sighed once more. The strike was planned under great security. He knew that the ruling party had their share of moles in the unions to look out for insurgents who intend to misbehave. To everyone, he was the perfect union boss, seemingly agreeing with the policies, putting up a pro-government facade.

But he had his shadow union leaders, almost like the Cosa Nostra, where they really looked out for the welfare of the workers in the union. It was a crazy tight-rope walk---they could be discovered at any time, but they had been lucky. The strike had been planned for a long time already, and it was the finance minister's callous statements the other day that became the straw that broke the camel's back and cause Kim Keat to authorise a strike.

Three sharp raps came from the room's door. Kim Keat looked away from the window and glanced at his security staff, three auxiliary policemen who were once a part of the riot police. One of them nodded at Kim Keat and moved towards the door while the other radioed to his compatriot on the outside to verify who was it that was paying the union boss a visit.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 23-Feb-2014 22:03:13)