“And where is Bill Pitts now?” I ask.
“In your office,” Demsey replies.
“Okay, go and tell him, please, that I will go talk to him in a minute.”
Demsey willingly and hastily heads towards the office doors. I turn to Martinez and the hourly worker, who I now discover is the chief mechanic. I tell them that on my part no one will be fired or even put on leave – that the whole matter is a misunderstanding. At first, Martinez is not completely satisfied with this and the mechanic seems to want Pitts to apologize to him. I’m not going to get involved. I also happen to know that Martinez does not have the power to call the workers on strike. So I say that if the workers’ union wants to submit their complaints in writing, they can; I would be happy to speak with the local president, Mike O’Donnell, later today and settle everything in due course. Realizing that, anyway, he can’t do anything else before talking to O’Donnell, Martinez finally accepts it and together with the mechanic they start walking towards the factory.
