Anyone up for breaking a strike?

I remember working at Friendly's as a dishwasher and fountain (ice cream scooper) worker in high school. This new hire, an older lady about 52 or so, came in for her first check and found out union dues came out of the check. She said she wanted no part of a union and quit on the spot. Her words to all of us on the way out the door: "UNIONS ARE FOR LAZY PEOPLE!"
Maybe that's where I first got my Republican leanings? Hmmm?

 

That was an assinine post, Junkie.

My father went on strike primarily because he and his peers were working under extremely unsafe conditions. Those conditions could have caused my father or any of his peers with families (and those without) to get seriously injured or killed. Now how responsible would that have been to ignore the situation and leave your kids without a father?

In my father's situation and I'm sure for many of the strikers in Philly, there putting pretty much everything on the line for what they believe is the right and necessary thing to do, for themselves AND FOR THEIR LOVED ONES.

 

You know, the thing that strikes me now is this:

These people walking the picket line, those who have the scabs walk past them and into their chairs in the newsroom -- are these people never going to work again? Are they going to be on the picket line until they reach Social Security?

Unless your answer is "yes," perhaps there should be some rethinking about the vitriol toward "scabs." Because to some, it's unmatched by just about anything else another person can do. Like Junkie said, they're trying to put food on the table, too.

And also remember this -- the decision to walk out was a conscious decision.

 

You can find ways to put food on the table without taking another person's job. That's what those of us who say we'd never cross are saying.

 

I certainly can understand your point. My problem mainly lies on these people becoming pariahs for decades.

Something Jones said earlier stuck with me. He said if he were ever an SE, and had a "scab" on his staff, he would be giving them crap beats until they gave some thought to their career decision.

I look at that, and I think two things:

1. I don't know how long Jones would be an SE, because it would take just one person with management's ear to let them know he was making a move like that. And frankly, I would be that person much, much quicker than I would ever cross a picket line myself, if I saw that somebody else was being discriminated against for union-related activities.

2. Jones did not have his department's best interests at heart if he was assigning beats with that as a guideline.

 

I'm trying damn hard to make each point a good one. It's not a good area in which to go over the line of good sense.

 

Well, if you believe strongly in a certain principle and someone else does something completely contrary, wouldn't you expect there to be some serious acrimony for an extended period of time?

I know people who crossed picket lines who were basically ignored by their best friends who did go on strike for years afterward (although not forever). To go back to the family angle, the strikers see the scabs as people who are trying to take their livelihoods, with which they support their families.

 

Understood, pall. I'm just questioning where the line is drawn between protecting your turf and humanity toward a co-worker, whether you agree with them or not.

 

Well, if you're talking about a co-worker who crosses the picket line while you're on strike, I have no sympathy for the strike breaker in relation to his peers who walked.

If you're talking about a co-worker who you know to have crossed previously and others' reaction to him, I would say, for me, I would not have much respect for that person. But if they did their job I wouldn't go out of my way to make life miserable for them.

 

Agreed. And I really appreciate that this debate has stayed civil for three pages now. I know it's a volatile topic. But it's also intriguing.

 

My father grew up in the Depression, and when he went on strike 26 years ago, we sure as hell didn't have six months to a year of savings. In fact, near the end of the strike my mother had to get food stamps to go shopping. My father hated that, but again, he was doing what he thought was important for his families' future. And as it turned out, he was right.

 

That's not a fucking anecdote. It's real life. I'm relating my personal experience to explain why I feel so strongly about not crossing a picket line. Of course not every situation is the same. But you develop life's beliefs and principles based on your experiences. My experience is that crossing a picket line is never acceptable. Never. I would be ashamed to do such a thing, and that is why I feel so strongly saying I wouldn't do it.