Would you cross a picket line?

Again, you do what you gotta do, I'll do what I gotta do.
You believe in what you believe in, and I'll believe in what I believe in.
At the end of the day, when we each lay our respective heads on our pillows, we only truly need to answer to ourselves.

 

Yeah, but my point is you're going to lose support rather than gain it if you throw around "threatening" rhetoric.

Pretty much the same reason the presence of Teamsters on someone else's picket line turns me off.

 

cvincent did not deserve that. cripes, he came on here and explained his situation. hitting him with the "s" word was uncalled for.

 

Unions undeniably have been necessary in the past. Are they still? With all the labor laws in this country (no doubt, thanks in large part to unions changing the public mindset) do they still have a place? It sucks but it's true that unions create fair wages and working conditions, thus leading employers to look elsewhere to save the bottom line — outsourcing. You can argue that unions have been the single highest factor (maybe second behind taxes) when it comes to corporate America looking to other countries to save profit margins.

 

Why? He was the absolute definition of a scab. Just because he comes up with some weak-ass excuse (I'm a journalist, not a unionist, as if the two were somehow mutually exclusive) doesn't make him any less a scab.

Sure it's a derogatory term but that's only because it gives name to the practitioner of a heinous act. No matter how much newspaper publishers have tried to eliminate or sanitize it (replacement worker), the word survives.

 

Don't care, cran. It's a word that I can live without hearing ever again. It's a hate word. And a word applied to people about whom there's some general doubt about whether they're even right or wrong.

And yes, being a journalist and being a unionist is mutually exclusive. Being a unionist in no way advances your craft.

 

I'd argue it does advance the craft in some ways in some places because they can't totally dick good journalists just because they don't like them or they make too much money. The product benefits from these experienced workers. And if they really mess with your story in a way that violates your conscience, the contract may give you the right to withhold your byline.

Unions aren't perfect, they protect some lazy people. But the idea that they don't advance the craft isn't true, either.

 

m

it was uncalled, imo, because of the time and place. the man came on here to discuss his specific situation. excuse or rationalization, whatever you'd like to call it, he came on the board to discuss it and some of us immediately hurl the "s" word his way?

i just contend that is all kinds of wrong.

 

wfw.

And Frank, I'm just going to have to disagree with you. Too esoteric a leap for me. Thirty-five years in this business, and I can't recall a good, deserving journalist getting tossed out on his chin at my shops at the virtual whim of management. I've seen some combative, undeserving journalists get it; that's different.

 

Do you even understand what "mutually exclusive" means? Go tell Heywood Broun that someone can't be a unionist and journalist at the same time.

There's no "general doubt" about whether scabs are right or wrong, just rationalizations. If you don't want to be called a liar, tell the truth. If you don't want to be called a thief, don't steal. If you don't want to be called a scab then don't be a scab.

But, whatever you do, don't expect me to treat you with respect after you've actively undermined your co-workers.

 

By that logic, being a unionist is mutually exclusive with any form of skilled or semi-skilled labor.

 

Yeah, I guess that's the logic I'm using.

First off, lose the "you." Stop personalizing it. I've never crossed a picket line, and seriously doubt I would.

But if I saw anyone actively dismissing some other co-worker after it was over, I'd have diminished respect for them.