Would you cross a picket line?

[hornedfrog]

I am an AT&T manager (low-level)...and we are REQUIRED to cross. We are the 'subs' and if we do not report to work (my strike assignment is in a different city doing a completely different job than I normally do), we could be fired. So, here I sit...awaiting an update (right now the union has not called a strike and they are saying they will work without a contract).

So yes, I WILL cross. I need my job! Did it for the last strike 4 years ago and it was horrible...I really wish those that picket could understand that WE (the lower-level managers that they are taunting and trying to pick fights with) are NOT the 'enemy'. Our healthcare is horrible, our hours are long and we get NO overtime for working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, if there is a strike.

 

[Lib E]

To answer op's question, no! I would not cross a picket line.


To those posters above hatin' on the union workers, why not focus your disgust to the CEO's of AT&T that make billions?

I'm disgusted by that too. Unions were necessary in the day of no or limited employment laws, now they do more harm than good.

 

[DawnM]

Well, it just depends.

When our school district went on strike I DID NOT cross the line to work, but other school employees were told they HAD to come in or be fired.

I crossed a pickett line at the hospital where I gave birth. I was in labor and my doctor was inside that hospital and there was no way I was going to try to find another hospital at that point!

Dawn

 

[Pakey]

I would definitely cross.

 

[Lintasare]

You said you pay $400/month for premiums and had $12,000+ out of pocket, which is it?? The employees have free insurance and then have to pay extra for family coverage? Again, even with our plan you still pay thousands LESS. The company can still pay the employee portion and you pick up the family tab and it still costs less. Even if you have to pay the entire premium, no union match, no company match, etc it STILL costs you LESS then you are paying now.

I may be wrong but I believe she said they WERE NOT union. Since the Union does not pay any premiums they are essentially paying for them.

 

[LisaB]

Most of the people who are anti union don't realize that you benefit from unions. If it wasn't for unions we would have child labour and 12 hour days with no ot whether you like it or not. I suggest that everyone read Upton Sinclair The Jungle to realize the benefit of unions.

 

[Judy from Boise]

I love crossing picket lines. The west is so little unionised I don't get to do it very often though.

 

[bicker]

... now they do more harm than good.

To be fair, would you say the same thing with regard to farm workers?

By the same token, the difference between the recent and current employment conditions of farm workers as compared to the recent and current employment conditions of actors, auto workers, teachers, nurses, etc., really highlights the difference between where protections are more defensible versus where they are less defensible.

 

[waltsgirl]

I am an AT&T manager (low-level)...and we are REQUIRED to cross. We are the 'subs' and if we do not report to work (my strike assignment is in a different city doing a completely different job than I normally do), we could be fired. So, here I sit...awaiting an update (right now the union has not called a strike and they are saying they will work without a contract).

So yes, I WILL cross. I need my job! Did it for the last strike 4 years ago and it was horrible...I really wish those that picket could understand that WE (the lower-level managers that they are taunting and trying to pick fights with) are NOT the 'enemy'. Our healthcare is horrible, our hours are long and we get NO overtime for working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, if there is a strike.

Good luck!

I say if people vote to strike that is fine but don't get violent. Unions need to control the lines!

 

[Lib E]

Most of the people who are anti union don't realize that you benefit from unions. If it wasn't for unions we would have child labour and 12 hour days with no ot whether you like it or not. I suggest that everyone read Upton Sinclair The Jungle to realize the benefit of unions.

We would? All those employers are just going to ignore the federal and state employment laws in place? Long ago unions helped to show the abuse and that employment laws were needed. Today though, not getting the pay and benefits you think you're entitled to is not what I'd consider abuse.

 

[crz4mm2]

Yes, I would.

 

[npmommie]

I can tell you that in the case of the nurse's union here, and the strike we had , it had nothing to do with money, we are payed well, it had to do with mandatory overtime and nurse patient ratios, which both have everything to do with safety.

 

[Lib E]

To be fair, would you say the same thing with regard to farm workers?

By the same token, the difference between the recent and current employment conditions of farm workers as compared to the recent and current employment conditions of actors, auto workers, teachers, nurses, etc., really highlights the difference between where protections are more defensible versus where they are less defensible.

I think our current problems with farm workers has more to do with the residency of many of the workers, and that there are no protections under those circumstances. I don't think unions can/will fix that though.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Why should he be loyal to the company? The company is going to do what's in its best interest. Why shouldn't/wouldn't employees do the same?

Uh, maybe because the COMPANY is paying his salary so he can survive and feed his family?

Are the unionized employees worried about the company or other employees or only about themselves? ESPECIALLY in this economy?

I started my career working for Western Electric and was forced to join their union (I later moved into management). I know all about unions and in my opinion they have done more harm than good. The worst thing they do is protect bad workers.

All you have to do is look at the automotive industry to see the harm unions do in the long run.

 

[SAHDad]

Most of the people who are anti union don't realize that you benefit from unions. If it wasn't for unions we would have child labour and 12 hour days with no ot whether you like it or not. I suggest that everyone read Upton Sinclair The Jungle to realize the benefit of unions.

Yes, unions did a lot of good, but that was decades ago. In the early 80s, the UAW helped me by putting our family below the poverty line, and wrecking the local economy. (UAW striked, so the local plumbers and electricians went on a sympathy strike, which propogated to others, etc. And, if you read my previous post, my dad saw some shenanigans where the bosses, not the workers, forced one of the strikes.) More recently, the UAW is driving people out of Michigan - a couple years back, one of the auto companies wanted to put in a parts distribution warehouse. But, because the starting wage was "only" $15 or $17.50 an hour, plus some bennies, there were protests and picket lines. It never got built (so no local construction jobs, nor the 200-300 positions at the warehouse) - well, I think they built it in Kentucky or Tennessee, but not in Michigan.

 

[arminnie]

I would cross... if I felt safe.

I'd cross in a minute - but I will not risk my personal safety to do so.

I was confronted with a bunch of thuggish strikers when I went to the grocery store alone at night. These were not orderly picketers. It would have been stupid to put myself in a position to be assaulted.

 

[clgwli]

Yes and I would do it again. Being non-union in a place that had union workers strike we just went in. And being a worker there we though the union was insane for what they were asking for. Production actually went up during the strike too when non-union was doing union jobs. Not saying this is true of everywhere if that happens just saying what we saw. I do admit though I am not a fan of unions. They tried to force us to be a part of it and fortunately it was found to be illegal how they were trying to do it so we remained non-union. I think unions have really begun to be a thing of the past in general. They really were a PITA to deal with at my job.

 

[bicker]

Lib E: Perhaps, but the frustration that you're hearing in this thread with regard to the abuse of the union construct by certain groups is a reflection of how those groups have used their power of collusion to manipulate things to their personal financial gain, often to the detriment of the public, taxpayers, and/or consumers, over the last twenty-five to thirty years. Over the past twenty-five to thirty years, especially towards the earlier part of that period, you can see how farm workers have been helped specifically to gain the dignity all human beings deserve as contributors to society, rather than to gain the advantages of Job Banks and other well-known excesses that other unions have garnered. The contrast between what farm workers have gained and what other unions have been pursuing (and often gaining) over that period of time is shocking. I'm sure there are abuses within the farm workers' unions as well, but the point is that they've started, within most of our lifetimes, from a position where they truly needed protections, as a matter of economic justice. We can argue about whether or not their unions are needed any longer, based on where they are now, but I think we all can agree that where they were back then was unacceptable.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

To answer op's question, no! I would not cross a picket line.


To those posters above hatin' on the union workers, why not focus your disgust to the CEO's of AT&T that make billions?

The CEO of AT&T does not make billions per year.

 

[chobie]

Uh, maybe because the COMPANY is paying his salary so he can survive and feed his family?

Are the unionized employees worried about the company or other employees or only about themselves? ESPECIALLY in this economy?

I started my career working for Western Electric and was forced to join their union (I later moved into management). I know all about unions and in my opinion they have done more harm than good. The worst thing they do is protect bad workers.

All you have to do is look at the automotive industry to see the harm unions do in the long run.

Umm if he wasn't earning money for the company he wouldn't be with them. Companies don't pay salaries out of a sense of charity. People earn them.