Scissors

I work in an eccentric building. We still have elevator operators, because the elevators are still manual (and not likely to be converted anytime soon because of the ferocious cost). And all of the tenants are somehow connected to the theater/dance world, like the costume shop downstairs.

This afternoon, I had to go downstairs to see someone, and parked in the middle of the hallway outside the costume shop was a scissors sharpener. He had a big pile of scissors, all different, and was just going at it one by one.

And it gets weirder. I ran into someone from the shop on the elevator, one thing led to another, and I learned that the ladies own their own scissors. It's a union thing. Technically, they're also supposed to supply their own hand sewing needles and their own thimbles. But the shop provides the sewing machines. In reality, this shop does provide needles and thimbles, but the ladies still own their own scissors. So that scissors sharpener? The ladies have to pay to get their scissors sharpened.

For all of my lefty-commie-pinko leanings, I just don't understand unions sometimes. I see why the ladies own their own scissors - it's a kind of personal tool. But you'd think the union would have gotten something into the contract like: "All personally owned scissors shall be sharpened by the Employer no less than once every two months."