Locked Out
Here's the story about this:
This paper mill was bought by foreign interests years ago. It gives bread on the table of thousands of families in my 700k people city. Recently, they told the employees that they wouldn't honor their retirement plans and offered lower income and conditions to the existing workers or else they will be forced to either move or close the mill because it wasn't viable enough. They refused and tried to negotiate. The new owners then locked out the facility and took the workers hostage; stating that they will close the mill if their offer is not accepted; which they did recently.
Many stated that this lock out was illegal, but supreme court stated otherwise. Many violent protests occurred; and this was my first drive-by with just the security on the site. This was my perfect shot for this contest.
I am not directly affected, nor my family, but I feel for them. I drive by every day.
This is a very sad picture that I will be sending for the city's archives. All the pictures I saw in the papers were either crappy or with the plant still rolling.
I also almost got into trouble with this. They rushed 3 security guards as soon as I got on site to know for who I was working for and what use i'll make of these pictures. Of course they didn't want to let me in and they were double checking everything I was shooting. They were higly disturbed by my simple presence.
If I haven't stated my rights and that I wasn't on their property, I don't know what they would have done lol. I was even sure to see the cops at one point, but I knew I had every right to be there. This add to the pride of the picture I guess
