Re: walking the picket lines..MS issues and some OT

In article <4vX1f.110648$1i.37026@pd7tw2no>,
"Jennifer" <Jnospam@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> well, it was supposed to be and then the BCTF decided they would do another
> member vote to see when we wanted to go back. They then told us we'd
> probably miss Tues and maybe Wed.
>
> According to Keith Baldry of global tv (i love that guy..he's such a good
> political correspondant) it looks like it might be longer than that. I tend
> to agree now that I've talked to other teachers as well. They are really
> really angry.
>
> I think we'll continue to be out as long as we have public support. Someone
> will have to give and there is only so many fines the BCTF can afford. WEll,
> I suspect that our union dues will increase by at least 5 dollars next year
> to help pay for the fines.
>
> Jen (who can't afford to miss an entire week of pay)

Feel for you. Most folks are and have been living mostly
payday-to-payday and a strike can really hurt. Seems like the strikers
never earn back what they lose through a prolonged strike.
It's especially tough for folks in so-called critical employment: Not
only do they lose wages, but their union often pays stiff fines as you
say.

But striking is expensive at best: Civil disobedience makes it even more
so.

Weirton Steel, one of the smaller mills in the Ohio Valley, did it best
I always thought. Their employees had an independent union and the deal
was: The union and management agreed to keep working through the USW
strike and the company would match whatever the USW won in its strike --
retroactive to the start of the strike. I guess they figured to let the
big boys fight it out while they kept on keeping on. It might have been
a little parasitical in a way, but Weirton Steel employees never had to
play catch-up after a long strike. Since the employees were often also
stockholders, they probably figured they'd only hurt themselves by
striking.

Generally speaking, and only of the USA, the big trade unions suffered a
lot from internal corruption, priced themselves out of many markets, and
actually caused the passage of some of the right-to-work laws because
they limited their membership to keep wages high.

Limiting the number of union-member workers kept so many people out of
those markets that non-union companies gained enough strength to
challenge the unions in the legislatures and win -- or at least hurt
them enough that they lost a lot of their bargaining power. Then Reagan
did some things that almost destroyed big labor. He set a tough
precedent with his actions during the Air Traffic Controller strike,
allowing and protecting "replacement workers."

But any way you slice it, no few of the big national unions' wounds were
self-inflicted.
.

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