Union Activities v. Send in the Rat! (Chicago, Clinton: bankrupt, luxury)

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Dis99

That's an unusual picture. They usually bring lawn chairs.

I have seen the rat dozens of times over the last several years.

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

I've stood on many a picket line and met and saw only union tradespeople. Including one this summer that was manned by union boilermakers, pipefitters, operators, laborers and carpenters.

Maybe you lie.

No, that was another feature of the article. The Teamster exec they interviewed admitted to outsourcing. It included the company that provided the rats and the people who stood in lines.

I have to ask, as a professional with extreme sensitivity to competitive prices, when did the whole picket thing seem like a good idea? Was it when companies fired everyone, outsourced everything and moved to right-to-work states? Or was it simply meant to inspire ill will toward the business in question?

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

I've stood on many a picket line and met and saw only union tradespeople. Including one this summer that was manned by union boilermakers, pipefitters, operators, laborers and carpenters.

Maybe you lie.

The last time they appeared in front of a local business, I stopped and asked the two guys which local they belonged to. The answer was "of course we are local, we live in McHenry."

When they were doing the full assault on WalMart a few years back, they were hiring through the local temp agencies and offering a whopping $8 per hour WITH NO BENEFITS.

Maybe you are ignorant.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by vaughnwilliams

See, Irishtom29- he's got an anecdotal story so it has to be true.

Indeed; he says he talked to somebody once so he's gonna tell me, who walked many line, all about it.

In any event it's easy enough to lie online.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by coldwine

I have to ask, as a professional with extreme sensitivity to competitive prices, when did the whole picket thing seem like a good idea? Was it when companies fired everyone, outsourced everything and moved to right-to-work states? Or was it simply meant to inspire ill will toward the business in question?

Picket lines have been used since the beginning of organized labor and the notion probably goes back to the rural boycotts tenant farmers in 19th Century Ireland used to put pressure on landlords and to shame them. Once the American working class stuck together more than it does now and many people refused to do business with businesses that were picketed.

By working class I also mean white collar workers who weren't business owners; my father was an engineer and never belonged to a union in his life and would never cross a picket line. But he came up during the Great Depression, a time when people helped each other out.

[grapico]

is there a current rat? I'd like to go take a photo of it actually...
It would be nice if there were more labor unions...

I am done with IT... but how do do you protest something when they just outsource your job to somebody in India?

I preached that stuff forever, I guess all the finance/accountants/etc will have to deal with it, as they will also be outsourced eventually, no doubt, as the government has done absolutely nothing to deal with that or H1B visas. There is a reason CS majors trended downward...

[Dis99]

Too bad the picket "Line" doesn't involve actual standing anymore. Just a few weeks ago one union or another was "picketing" outside my office. 2 men and a woman. The woman stood proudly with her sign, while the men sat their fat

Spoiler

asses

in lawn chairs. Right in the loop.

[linicx]

Amen. You are absolutely correct -- when people helped each other. Rats cross picket lines. And if the job requires skill and experience, most of the Rats can't do the job.CAT learned that lesson a while back. It cost them a lot of money to pay non-skilled labor to make a mess out of production.

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Picket lines have been used since the beginning of organized labor and the notion probably goes back to the rural boycotts tenant farmers in 19th Century Ireland used to put pressure on landlords and to shame them. Once the American working class stuck together more than it does now and many people refused to do business with businesses that were picketed.

By working class I also mean white collar workers who weren't business owners; my father was an engineer and never belonged to a union in his life and would never cross a picket line. But he came up during the Great Depression, a time when people helped each other out.

[MannheimMadman]

Originally Posted by linicx

Amen. You are absolutely correct -- when people helped each other. Rats cross picket lines. And if the job requires skill and experience, most of the Rats can't do the job.CAT learned that lesson a while back. It cost them a lot of money to pay non-skilled labor to make a mess out of production.

What about those times when temps were hired to work in warehouses doing menial tasks during strikes? The same jobs that the local union workers had? Or, the union workers in the grocery stores? You know, the same grocery stores that hire mentally retarded people to bag groceries (bless their heart, though.)

The 'rats'/'scabs' can easily do some of those jobs. Yes, some are highly skilled or specialized. But the truth remains that in other parts of the country, some union jobs paying crazy money over here are getting paid half that. It's because someone realized that close to the same quality of work can be done for less cost.

To be fair, I hate NAFTA as much as the next guy. However, the unions of today that I know are nothing like the unions that my grandparents were proud members of.

[coldwine]

NAFTA is the single most important doctrine in our nation right now. Mexico's problems will become our own, as surely as those of Cuba, Colombia and Brasil are already costing us. Our continent is in dire need of unification in the face of a rapidly militarizing China.

I had to cross continents to keep my job, and there are perhaps twelve other people alive right now who are positioned to do what I do. No one is safe, least of all we lawyers, but I cannot stress enough the need for an economic zone that spans everything from Canada to Argentina. It is of critical importance to our survival; so much so that it overrides the needs of those who have the luxury to picket.