America would be better off with more strikes!

[Bleyseng]

Good article and I think its about time the "sheep" rise up.
cnn.com/2012/09/10/opinion/rhomberg-unions-strikes/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Hippie]

I figured a national strike was overdue as far back as the '80s.
Meh, civil disobedience is dead. Strikes are dead. Boycotts are dead. Just give us a big screen TV and Survivor and Big Brother. We suck.

[Bleyseng]

Time to break out and sing-"Bread and Roses" so the workers rise up and level the playing field.

[Spezialist]

Strikes don't work when you've got an army of scab labor waiting to fill in.

[Bleyseng]

That's what picket lines are for!

[whc03grady]

That's what picket lines are for!

Lemme get this straight:

You and your coworkers are mad at your employer, BigCompanyCorp, so you go on strike.

I'm hurting for money to keep my family afloat and see that I could earn some with some temporary work (possibly turning into permanent work, depending on how the strike goes) at BigCompanyCorp. I see BigCompanyCorp's terms for my employment and am happy with them.

But, to show up to work I have to endure verbal threats and possibly violence? All I'm doing is trying to feed my family. I'm sorry if you and your striking co-workers at BigCompanyCorp don't like that.

Ridiculous. F*cking ridiculous, I'd go so far to say.

I live in a town (Anaconda, Montana) that is--that is to say, was--a very, very strong union town. People around here used to get their houses burned down for voting the 'wrong' way in union elections, and for other similar offenses.

Unions--the cure is as bad as the disease. Good riddance to them.

[Sylvester]

But, to show up to work I have to endure verbal threats and possibly violence? All I'm doing is trying to feed my family. I'm sorry if you and your striking co-workers at BigCompanyCorp don't like that.

I am in management and have been trained in jobs Union employees hold as critical fill slots. I have also been trained in how to cross picket lines when I go to and from the job. I have never done so yet and certainly don't look forward to it. And I would not appreciate the violence if the protest escalated to that.

I did have the plan on crossing the lines in a Domino's Pizza outfit with the box, uniform and light on the car. However, once they found out I bet they would not only take my pizza, they would also resort to violence then.

Sylvester, former member, Local UAW 1073.

[TrollFromDownBelow]

As a manager myself working in an industry that (used to be) well represented by unions (Teamsters), I've always believed that companies get (or don't get) the unions they deserve. Treat your employees with respect, pay a fair wage, have an open door policy and there won't be a desire to form a union. Do the opposite, or be apathetic, and prepare for the consequences.

[Bleyseng]

That's what picket lines are for!

Lemme get this straight:



Unions--the cure is as bad as the disease. Good riddance to them.

Ahh, in the 1800's to 1920's there really were terrible working conditions and employers paid little wages and no benefits. Unions were formed because of folks like Mitt Romney who cheated the workers. It goes both ways but folks need a living wage and benefits. It went way too far in Greece where you could retire at 55 and have a great pension.
I read today the average wage is the same as in 1978 and I feel its because Reagen was a union buster. This is killing the middle class (buying power) and they are the engine that sparks the economy buying all that crap at Walmart and Costco. Corporate and the 5% folks have been increasing their take every year so yes, its time for the unions to strike and get a fair share of the pie. I look at Boeing and how that worked out for both. Of course it helped that the previous CEO said on tape that the new plant in SC was to bust the unions.

[Westy78]

That's what picket lines are for!

Lemme get this straight:

You and your coworkers are mad at your employer, BigCompanyCorp, so you go on strike.

I'm hurting for money to keep my family afloat and see that I could earn some with some temporary work (possibly turning into permanent work, depending on how the strike goes) at BigCompanyCorp. I see BigCompanyCorp's terms for my employment and am happy with them.

But, to show up to work I have to endure verbal threats and possibly violence? All I'm doing is trying to feed my family. I'm sorry if you and your striking co-workers at BigCompanyCorp don't like that.

Ridiculous. F*cking ridiculous, I'd go so far to say.

I live in a town (Anaconda, Montana) that is--that is to say, was--a very, very strong union town. People around here used to get their houses burned down for voting the 'wrong' way in union elections, and for other similar offenses.

Unions--the cure is as bad as the disease. Good riddance to them.

I suspect you may have a different attitude towards unions if you really knew the history and reasons they were formed in the first place. And if you had ever been part of a union in a company that couldn't give a shit less about their employees beyond what they could do for their bottom line. I will agree that some unions have gone above and beyond and gotten greedy but for the most part they are what keeps the middle class hanging on by the ever deteriorating economic thread that our government has created for us. Another thing to consider is that unions not only bargain for a decent wage but even more important, bargain for fair and equal protection/treatment language that is more important than the wages they get for the members.

[Amskeptic]

unions not only bargain for a decent wage but even more important, bargain for fair and equal protection/treatment.

Like the 40 hour workweek.
Like weekends.
Like healthcare.
Like workplace safety.

The propaganda against unions has been largely extremely unfair and distorted, and the dupes who parrot the Faux News/Corporate Oligarchy line against unions are painfully undermining of the American way of life . . . precisely because they are actually ignorant of the history of unions.
Colin

[Westy78]

unions not only bargain for a decent wage but even more important, bargain for fair and equal protection/treatment.

Like the 40 hour workweek.
Like weekends.
Like healthcare.
Like workplace safety.

The propaganda against unions has been largely extremely unfair and distorted, and the dupes who parrot the Faux News/Corporate Oligarchy line against unions are painfully undermining of the American way of life . . . precisely because they are actually ignorant of the history of unions.
Colin

Exactly.

Proud 20 year Teamster who can lead a fairly comfortable middle class life without a college degree thanks to unions.

[Bleyseng]

unions not only bargain for a decent wage but even more important, bargain for fair and equal protection/treatment.

Like the 40 hour workweek.
Like weekends.
Like healthcare.
Like workplace safety.

The propoganda against unions has been largely extremely unfair and distorted, and the dupes who parrot the Faux News/Corporate Oligarchy line against unions are painfully undermining of the American way of life . . . precisely because they are actually ignorant of the history of unions.
Colin

Exactly.

Proud 20 year Teamster who can lead a fairly comfortable middle class life without a college degree thanks to unions.

What! You didn't go into debt $200k for a college degree just so you could have a middle class life! That's unAmerican!

[Westy78]

unions not only bargain for a decent wage but even more important, bargain for fair and equal protection/treatment.

Like the 40 hour workweek.
Like weekends.
Like healthcare.
Like workplace safety.

The propoganda against unions has been largely extremely unfair and distorted, and the dupes who parrot the Faux News/Corporate Oligarchy line against unions are painfully undermining of the American way of life . . . precisely because they are actually ignorant of the history of unions.
Colin

Exactly.

Proud 20 year Teamster who can lead a fairly comfortable middle class life without a college degree thanks to unions.

What! You didn't go into debt $200k for a college degree just so you could have a middle class life! That's unAmerican!

I know crazy right?!

[whc03grady]

It's interesting to me how quick people are to evoke the history of unions when someone is questioning the nature of modern unions (it's also interesting how these same defenders are so willing to turn a blind eye to all the very bad things unions did, and, I suspect, continue to do). Yes, unions did good things. And ether was a good thing in the operating rooms of the 19th century. How is something's past importance necessarily relevant to the present, again? No one, I hope, sincerely believes that if unions were to disappear today, tomorrow we'd all be working alongside little kids in The Jungle for fifty cents a day.

I fully oppose any efforts to ban unions, let me get that straight. People have a right to get together with other people (free association) and make their views heard (same goes for corporations too, I'm sorry to say; good for the goose, etc.).

Incidentally, I can't help but notice no one has answered my original question (and frankly I don't expect anyone to, not in a forthright way anyway): What right do you, the striking worker, have to verbally harass me and threaten me with violence as I'm walking through your picket line in order to earn money for my family?