Would you cross a picket line?

cvincent has thick skin. he can handle it. he's been called worse by better. at any rate, charlie was a good man when i knew him, probably still is a good man and was a first-rate journalist. it's his cross to bear.

 

You know damn well I wasn't talking specifically about you, so stop playing the "hurt" card. It's pathetic.

And if you think that there aren't or shouldn't be hard feelings toward someone who has actively undermined the livelihoods of his co-workers, you're living in a dream world.

 

Just as I think there's too much air between Point A and Point B in Frank's argument, I think the same about that one.

I mean, you can make the strike-breaker the scapegoat for what goes down, and certainly with some justification. Most of it is still going to be what occurs between the union and the management. The guy walking through the picket signs is within reaching distance of one's foot, though.

 

Why would anyone think that working in any profession AND belonging to a union are mutually exclusive?

Actors and musicians belong to unions and they don't say to themselves, "Oh, I'm an artist I can't possibly be a union member"

 

Well, then I'm wrong on that. I'll be wrong again.

 

I think Shot's company treats people better than most.

The thing about strikebreaking is that it isn't like one day everything is hunky-dory and then -- surprise! -- you're out on strike. You vote on it. There are meetings in which you can voice a dissenting opinion and try to convince other people to take a more moderate approach. You can write letters to the Guild. You can ask management if they have any exemptions available -- they're allowed a certain amount -- and you can quit the union before the pickets go up. You can make an informed decision beforehand and explain yourself to your colleagues before things get crazy. As opposed to pretending you're on the same side, and then when the heat is on, you turn your back on them. It's the difference between breaking an engagement before the invites go out and jilting someone at the altar.

 

Do you mean ... if Joe Blow went to cran four days before the strike and explained to him why he felt the need to cross the picket line, cran would break bread with him after the strike?

 

I was once offered the chance to cross a picket line for big money. I passed for a variety of reasons, including the fact that in a dispute between labor and management, my sympathies are always going to be with the little guy.

That said, I'm no big fan of unions.

And the behavior of guys like Cranberry and Notepad on this thread is a big, big part of my reasoning. Every union has a certain percentage of guys like this who treat the union like some sort of religious calling.

I'm sorry, dudes, it's not.

It's just not.

And I'm not going to judge human beings simply on the basis of whether they respect your little club enough for you.

 

God, I wish I'd said that.

And, being the dumbass I am, I'll try to add to it.

Cran, this comes back to something you said and I didn't reply to a little while ago.

A lot of the union hardcores don't get this. Never have.

Here's what I want in my workplace. I want to be able to walk past any desk in the newsroom, crack a joke, have an easy experience.

Anything which brings tension into it is counterproductive to me. It's counterproductive to a lot of people.

And unions, being the hot-button issue they are, are tension-makers.

I even know why it's a near-religious calling to some of you. It's family. Your dad or your uncle might have been a hardcore union man.

But it's not to a great many people. And when you infuse anger into it ... that's the point where the whole union thing just isn't worth it to me.

It may be a higher priority to you than that. I understand that.

 

I can't speak for Cranberry. What I'm saying is there is ample opportunity for that moment of truth before the strike is called.

I've seen heated disagreement between colleagues over a union's proposal. I once wrote to union officials saying their contract demands were absurd (about a year ahead of a strike vote) and received a written reply saying "If you want to get fucked up the ass, it's all right with us."

But the time to explain yourself is before, not after. And if you stick with 'em to that point, you really got to stick with 'em all the way.

 

Yeah ... but it never is all right with them. If you disagree with a union official, it's generally because you don't understand the issues as well as them, or you're just too dense to realize that they're saving your LIFE.

 

What you can't seem to grasp, Shot, is that when you join a union the whole point is sticking together to collectively bargain that which can't be accomplished individually. It all falls apart if people act selfishly.

If a member of the bargaining unit came up to me as a strike deadline approached and told me he planned to cross the picket line, and I couldn't change his mind, I would seek to have him removed from the union.

If he quits his job, I'd have no problem. If he crosses a picket line, we'd never be on friendly terms again.