Would you cross a picket line?

Never. You're in the union, you go with the union. Don't want to strike? Talk 'em out of it before the vote.
Scabbing sucks. Look at Shockey. He's still torn up about doing it for four days years ago, and rightly so.
There aren't many chances to be outright evil in the sportswriting racket. Scabbing is one.

 

I would never hire anybody who crossed a picket line.

It speaks to character.

 

it's funny. as i wrote in one of my pm exchanges with frank. walt michaels used to say, "suck just one cock and your a cocksucker for life."

don't know that i agree on the scab issue, obviously. for personal reasons, i'd like to believe crossing for the first four days of a 148-day strike, then coming to your senses, gets me off the hook.

but if not, jones, i can live with that. it sure must be swell to be blessed with unwavering convictions. but if that's how you and/or others feel, well, i've done all i can do to make 144-days-worth of amends.

life goes on....

 

shockey, just to be clear -- and pally, too, I guess, although I don't see anything modified in the quote, so I'm not sure what that's about -- the "You and I, we wouldn't have much to talk about," was in reference to scabs in general, not you specifically.

That being said, I get that a lot of the world is shades of gray. And I get that you might feel the need to take a shot at me, because I took one at you, or at least at your guilty conscience.

But for me, this really is a black and white issue, one of the few.

There's just no reason big enough for me even to think about crossing a picket line. My family has been a union family for generations. Matewan is one of those rare movies that puts a lump in my throat. And as for the usual argument -- mouths to feed, larger responsibilities than to the union -- well, I go back to my parents, walking the same line, with three of us to look after, in a new country, in the middle of winter.

I mean, what would you think of me, given all that, if I told you I thought crossing the line was okay? What kind of son would I be?

 

I just posted the quote because that's how I feel. I was 8 when my dad went on strike, and I have vivid memories of the fallout. I would never cross a picket line.

 

first off, jones, i couldn't be a bigger fan. secondly, my gut/brain came its senses largely because of the example i wanted to be for my son, so i get where you're coming from completely. had i experienced what you had as a child, i'd like to think it woyld've been a no-brainer for me from the get-go, too. i needed the four-day crossing experience to slap me out of it.

i guess my point is that not everyone comes from the same union/never-cross background. we learn as we go. or, in some cases, don't.

 

If you cross a picket line, you throw shit in the face of a lot of people who worked hard to afford us an opportunity at a fair wage, vacation days, a maximum hour work week, health benefits, etc.
Do what you wish, and live with it. Just as I have the right to do what I wish.
If you cross a picket line, in my estimation, you are a scab and deserve whatever it is hell-bent teamsters want to inflict on you.

 

If you think being a scab will get you in the door of a daily and they'll be so amazed with your work product they'll keep you on, don't kid yourself. They won't. Ask yourself what the actors who replaced Bo and Luke Duke are up to these days.

 

Or, for that matter, the replacement ballplayers of spring training 1995.

 

CJ, you know -- I hope -- that I think the world of you.

But don't you accept the possibility that your elders were wrong? That they could have made your transition a bit easier if they had taken a different route?

 

To answer the original question, no.