Would you cross a picket line?

Well, it's Detroit. I wouldn't cross a picket line in Detroit.

 

Remember, truck drivers and presspeople can be part of the strike. I couldn't find the photo online, but I remember seeing a picture in Ben Bradlee's book of a striker with a sign that says, "Phil killed the wrong Graham."

Strikes make people absolutely outrageous.

 

No, but you would tip a car or sucker-punch a cop in Detroit.

 

Well, duh.

This was my favorite part of the story - the last graf.

Chief Thomas Derocha of the Sterling Heights Police Department said demonstrators began throwing half-pound pieces of steel used to make automobile steering columns, apparently stolen from a nearby plant.

 

Early in my career, when pondering the what-ifs of this kind of situation and how it could benefit me, I believed I would cross.

Now, I agree with those who say to go find another job. Besides, my grandfather was a newspaper printer and a big-time union man who fought through a prolonged strike in the 1960s. If I ever crossed, he'd probably crawl out his grave and pour hot lead down my throat and engrave "scab" across my forehead.

 

Although in reality I probably wouldn't cross my newspaper's picket line, I wouldn't think twice about crossing the MLB picket line should the players ever strike again.

 

Negative leverage when newspapers can fire people who go on strike and quickly hire willing kids out of college.

Build a relationship with people on your beat? Not when we can hire someone who'll work for $18K and doesn't have a family to support AND who can take his own photos, design pages and edit copy.

 

Yup, it's kind of hard to hold quality over a newspaper's head when they don't give a shit about quality to begin with.

 

Not only would I cross THAT picket line and go watch "major league baseball" with scab players, but I'd probably start a "stay on strike!" chant.

Hell, 27,000-plus at RFK Stadium did just that during the 1987 NFL Strike. Of course, it helped the Skabskins was one of the best replacement teams assembled...

 

Holy shit.

 

I hope I wouldn't, but with two kids and a mortgage, I don't know. I know I wouldn't go somewhere else as a scab. The other problem is that in my job I might be considered "management" and thus be the guy who had to cross.

I have friends who went through the Detroit strike and didn't cross. I hope I would have their resolve. I've never worked at a union shop, and at this point I suspect I never will, so it's not likely I'll have to make the decision, thank goodness.