From the desk of your
Employee Rights and Responsibilities, Chair Person
Volume 1, Issue 4
May 5, 2014
May Topic of Discussion:
Exigency
Today’s word wall word is the term exigency. What do you think the word means? In a very limited
poll of 5 people I discovered that none of the 5 people knew what the word meant but with a little more time
and some cheating through the use of cell phones and dictionaries were able to determine the word means
something along the lines of an emergency. However, language in a contract is very important, especially when
language is missing or unexplained, as is the case of our contract. The term exigency is not defined in our
contract and as such it opens the term up for debate and discussion on its meaning.
To sidetrack just a little bit. Many years ago my husband got me a truly wonderful birthday present – he
bought me Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. The dictionary weighs 30 pounds and is simply a
stunning volume filled with new and old words as well as some fantastic definitions. I cracked the binding of
this tome and looked up the meaning of the exigency. According to the above mentioned dictionary, the word
exigency means: 1 “the quality or state of being exigent: pressure, urgency. 2. Such need or necessity as
belongs to the occasion: demands, requirements. It then went on to provide sample sentences and related
words; it really is a great book.
Anyhoo, the point here is that while the assumption may be that a home exigency day is specifically for
the use of home emergencies, as of this writing there is no language in the contract that defines the word. This
means that item 1 – “the quality or state of being exigent” is very important because the argument may then be
made that it does not have to be a flat tire or a broken water heater but perhaps the state of mind of feeling as
though you are in an emergency situation. The famous song by Queen & David Bowie, Under Pressure, comes
to mind.
You will please look in your past documents and will locate a document labeled 2013 – the following is
a list of tentative agreements to date (or you can go to the WEA site and click on New Contract Unit A) and
look at item #3 regarding changes to Sick Leave language. The discussion of the specific language of this
section is the topic is at the forefront of a grievance being filed this week. I will keep you informed as to the
progress of this newest debate.
Word Wall Words collected so far:
Exigency - May
Class Action and Resolution– April
Grievance and Arbitration – March
Bylaws – February
Closing notes:
“Once you choose hope, anything is possible”
Christopher Reeves
http://twentytwowords.com/kids-climbing-across-a-collapsed-bridge-to-get-to-school/
Children hold on to the side bars of a collapsed bridge as they cross a river to get to school at Sanghiang Tanjung
village in Indonesia. The flooded Ciberang river broke a pillar supporting the suspension bridge, which was built in
2001, on Monday….