“You’d better believe I’m in the mood to play a game of hookey, just to put them in their place,” chuckles forever-at-the-coalface Checkered Delivery Service (CDS) employee, Pesto Ravioli.
Ravioli, a man whose years in service would make Methuselah feel like a spring chicken, wears the guise of a typical CDS employee- someone who would rather watch paint dry than go on strike. Yet, behind those sharp, twinkling eyes lays a fierceness that would startle a werewolf. Ravioli has a bone to pick, and pick he shall.
High on his list of grievances is the company’s apparent disregard for basic mathematics. “If we drop the boxes like they do the ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, maybe then they’d understand the gravity,” shares Ravioli, his tone rocky as the road less travelled by.
Just like Hamlet contemplating existence, Ravioli finds himself ruminating on the role of CDS staff members who are, in essence, the meatballs in a heaving bowl of spaghetti that is this parcel delivery company. They are, arguably, the very parmesan that makes this pasta palatable. Yet, they are sometimes treated as mere afterthoughts, and this buttery injustice churns in his stomach more than overcooked noodles at a poorly catered dinner party.
Taking into consideration the depth of bitterness in this robustly-bodied, full-flavoured, and fully matured employee, one thing remains abundantly clear. There is a war brewing- no, not between the Montagues and Capulets- but between the hardworking, diligent worker bees and the executive honey snatchers.
Ravioli goes out on a limb to point out that striking at its core, is a noble act of rebellion. An act that places emphasis on the ‘us’ in the Checkered Delivery Services. “Tell ’em, the boxes won’t deliver themselves,” he chimes, a mischievous smile playing on his lips as an air of anticipation wafts across the room.
However, to strike or not to strike, remains the million-dollar question. As Pesto Ravioli, man of many boxes and a truckload of moxie, stands on the brink of a decision that may not only ratify his professional future but well define the fate of many CDS employees worldwide, all eyes, as they say, are on the prize.
In the ebbing tide of the battle between ‘sausage factory’ treatment of workers and their right for a slice of the mince pie, it’s fair to say that perhaps, the alarm bells toll not for the company, but for the undervalued, underappreciated, indispensable foot soldiers in this larger war. After all, as several pasta dishes go, the sauce may be king, but it’s the spaghetti that holds it all together.
