Once in a while something in life just goes differently and you wonder "Is reality on the blink again?". This happened to me yesterday when I called to take my aging Honda in for service. Since I purchased the car I've been taking it to one dealership in Berkeley called Jim Doten. They weren't the place I actually bought it at but I've always serviced my car there, although admittedly being 11 years old it more often goes to an oil-changer type place these days.

So I pick up the phone to ask for an appointment and instead of saying "How about two weeks from now?" they ask, "How soon would you like to come in?". "Well what's the earliest you can fit me in?", I ask. "How about tomorrow at 10am... no, make that 9:30am" they say. At this point the word "Blimey!" springs to my mind. You see Jim Doten is a very popular garage, has been around for years and before they made appointments you'd sit in a long line at 7am to get your car in there. But I wasn't going to complain, and assuming myself the beneficiary of a cancellation I took the appointment.

So I drive to Jim Doten Honda and approach it from the back so I'm on the same side of the street as the shop entrance. Doing so I completely miss seeing the front of the dealership. As I get near the entrance I see a bunch of people sitting by the entrance with some chairs and think "Oh, they must have some people working out their to take your car details" (instead of doing inside). Then I get closer and I see they are actually picketers holding signs saying "On Strike". They start waving at me and I look in the garage - its empty except for a single car. So I slow down, open the window smiling and a woman says "You're smiling like you're going to cross the picket line, please don't", and so I get the scoop.

It turns out that Jim Doten isn't Jim Doten anymore. The business, owned by the Doten family for 30 years was sold back in June to Stephen Beinke who renamed it Berkeley Honda and then proceeded to lay off all the staff and interview them all for their jobs again. For employees with an average of 15 years of seniority it was quite a slap in the face. It turns out that 50% of the 30 union staff at Jim Doten were not offered jobs, including the local IAM shop steward. Along with wage cuts, cancellation of defined benefits pension plan, changes to the health care plan, and an influx of new non-Honda certified employees the place became a very unhappy work place - the remaining union workers went on strike and picketing started. Even the Berkeley City council passed a resolution urging Berkeley residents to boycott the dealership until the new owner negotiated with the union. It even offered to mediate between the two sides but so far the new owners have not stepped up to the table.

Needless to say, although I really wanted to get my car serviced today I wasn't going to cross the picket line, and the only reason I made the schlep to Berkeley in the first place was because Jim Doten had always been such a nice and friendly place. As I left I pointed out to the picketer that she was wrong about me, I didn't cross the line. In fact I was smiling because I'd just realized why I had been able to get my car in for service the very next day and that reality wasn't on the blink. There are some people who are really perceptive about that kind of thing, and might have asked while still on the phone what the blazes was wrong - next time reality seems to be going off the rails I think I'll pause a bit longer before carrying on assuming all is well.

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