# Crossing the Picket Line



## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

eutecticalloy said:


> So I work for a non-union shop in a food processing plant. There is one of our mechanics who works with us part time and full time at his his primary job, a union shop.
> 
> His company has been on strike for about two weeks because of a cut in health benefits. Well since he isn't making money he went around telling everyone that if it wasn't resolved by Monday he was going to cross the picket line. Well I came into work Thursday and apparently he couldn't wait and went ahead and crossed the line.
> 
> ...


In the hospital?


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

HARRY304E said:


> In the hospital?


that's what we think...


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## RGH (Sep 12, 2011)

This is what usually happens...he will have his card pulled at the hall, and he will tossed out of the union...this is serious stuff in a union shop...all for 1 and 1 for all...it's that simple...everyone has bills and such but men must stick together if they want the union to be strong...when you sign on this is what you agree to period....if you want to sit at the table you have to show up...99.999% of these things are solved in afew days..he made a choice that will have a lifetime of consequences..that is his choice but you can't have your cake and eat it too......right,wrong or indifferent the rules are the rules of membership...period.


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

RGH said:


> This is what usually happens...he will have his card pulled at the hall, and he will tossed out of the union...this is serious stuff in a union shop...all for 1 and 1 for all...it's that simple...everyone has bills and such but men must stick together if they want the union to be strong...when you sign on this is what you agree to period....if you want to sit at the table you have to show up...99.999% of these things are solved in afew days..he made a choice that will have a lifetime of consequences..that is his choice but you can't have your cake and eat it too......right,wrong or indifferent the rules are the rules of membership...period.


He is two years away from retirement and said his pension through the company is already his. I'm talking about why he won't be back to his second job for a few weeks all of a sudden.


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## mrmike (Dec 10, 2010)

Once he crossed that picket line he is stuck in there to keep working until the strike is over. The company will sneak him out when he isn;t working & put him up somewhere.


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## ohiosparky99 (Nov 12, 2009)

His annuity is his, not his local retirement, he may lose that


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## henderson14 (Oct 23, 2010)

YOu can't get kicked out unless your an apprentice and no, they can't take your annuity from you. How could that even be legal? I wish people would only post things they actually knew to be true and not what they wish or think should be true. The only thing they can do is make you pay what it cost to put your through apprenticeship school.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

henderson14 said:


> ...I wish people would only post things they actually knew to be true and not what they wish or think should be true....


If that happened, an awful lot of people would suddenly go mute. 

-John


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## RGH (Sep 12, 2011)

yo won't lose your pension unless you committed some form of crime and that is very unusual aswell....there are guys in prison collecting pensions..Ref: mayor Anello Niagara falls ny...still has his pension even though he embezzled thousands from IEBW


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

..may he burn in hell...


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

Crossed the picket line? Do people really do that, I mean, besides carpenters??
Geeesh. I've never heard of such a thing here.


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## ilikepez (Mar 24, 2011)

yeah seriously. don't join a union if you can't stand with them during a strike, and what happens later when the strike gets resolved? he is going to be out on his ass.


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

eutecticalloy said:


> that's what we think...


I hope the man is okay.


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## Amish Electrician (Jan 2, 2010)

I suppose it will liven the thread up to present a non-union perspective 

It's no secret; I'm living and working far from where I would like to be, doing work I'd rather not do, simply because these are truly remarkable times. 

I did see a listing for a seemingly suitable job, in the area I'd like to be. Naturally, there were a few details left out of the ad.

Details, such as the fact the advertised rate was less than what they had been paying their guys prior to the on-going labor dispute. Oddly enough, the ad failed to mention that dispute. The ad also presented the work as a permanent job.

Let's just assume, for the moment, that the ad was honest. Where would that leave me? All disputes end, eventually. I'd either have to step aside for a returning employee .... or have the opportunity to spend the rest of my career working among folks who really didn't appreciate my working there during the dispute. Gee, what could be the downside to that?

Just as important are the little details they left out of the job posting. Such deceit doesn't bode well for any future relationship with that firm. They clearly hold me in contempt .... so it's no real surprise that they are having labor issues.

Which, of course, is probably why they got 'organized' in the first place. Management schools don't place nearly enough stress on the simple fact that the best deterrent to union organizing is to run the business well.


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

So what I found out yesterday, was that he is in hiding. Apparently the day he went and crossed the picket line, he came home to find his house trashed, windows smashed and graffiti all over his walls. So the company has him hidden in some hotel somewhere.


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## Wireman191 (Aug 28, 2011)

I'm sorry I call BS on the whole situation. You expect us to believe this nonsense?
Do you have a article out of the paper to prove such BS?
I don't see an employer going to this extent for an employee. Ive been on a huge job where an electrician I know crossed the painters union picket line. He made the outhouse walls, became a foremen and was striped of that very quickly because none respected him. His property was never damaged. Just his reputation.


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

Wireman, I have to ask. Why do you have Mainstreet under your avatar? You sound pro union which is th last thing mainstreet means.


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## Wireman191 (Aug 28, 2011)

sbrn33 said:


> Wireman, I have to ask. Why do you have Mainstreet under your avatar? You sound pro union which is th last thing mainstreet means.


 It was my nickname when I was an apprentice due to a very cool situation that happened to me on mainstreet one night at the bar.:thumbup:


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

Wireman191 said:


> I'm sorry I call BS on the whole situation. You expect us to believe this nonsense?
> Do you have a article out of the paper to prove such BS?
> I don't see an employer going to this extent for an employee. Ive been on a huge job where an electrician I know crossed the painters union picket line. He made the outhouse walls, became a foremen and was striped of that very quickly because none respected him. His property was never damaged. Just his reputation.


I'm just conveying what a fellow employee told me. We all know that this perfectly possible


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## mikeh32 (Feb 16, 2009)

unless you repay in 4-5 years of work. then you can withdraw, and they can not do anything.


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## lefleuron (May 22, 2010)

A little OT, but has anyone been following the little bit of news from the Kazachstan oil workers strike?

I heard at work today they estimate 90 dead, and the news media was locked out in a couple mile radius by the military.

I am glad our workers strikes are nothing like that.


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

I smell a troll... but anyways, since WA is a open carry state I'd just pack my .40 XDM and my 4 extra mags each holding 16 rounds of JHP(that's jacketed hollow points for some of you). If you and your pack of? 10? guys is feeling froggy I've got 80 rounds available, you do the math. Course if I was working union I wouldn't cross the picket line, I also probably wouldn't vote to strike either.


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

nitro71 said:


> I smell a troll... but anyways, since WA is a open carry state I'd just pack my .40 XDM and my 4 extra mags each holding 16 rounds of JHP(that's jacketed hollow points for some of you). If you and your pack of? 10? guys is feeling froggy I've got 80 rounds available, you do the math. Course if I was working union I wouldn't cross the picket line, I also probably wouldn't vote to strike either.


Me? Look at my post and then tell me I'm a troll. I don't nearly get on here enough to troll for amusement. I'm just conveying what I see and hear. Hell, I even beep at the strikers when I drive by.


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## Wireman191 (Aug 28, 2011)

Just seems very fishy, You think people can get away with trashing someones house? Or the person who had there house trashed would go into hiding? Its a Mexican drug cartel story dude.


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

Wireman191 said:


> Just seems very fishy, You think people can get away with trashing someones house? Or the person who had there house trashed would go into hiding? Its a Mexican drug cartel story dude.


then again I do live in california. 90 percent of the workers that works with me are mexican drug cartel.


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## Bulldog1 (Oct 21, 2011)

nitro71 said:


> I smell a troll... but anyways, since WA is a open carry state I'd just pack my .40 XDM and my 4 extra mags each holding 16 rounds of JHP(that's jacketed hollow points for some of you). If you and your pack of? 10? guys is feeling froggy I've got 80 rounds available, you do the math. Course if I was working union I wouldn't cross the picket line, I also probably wouldn't vote to strike either.





Lightweight.......I can get 34 of them without a reload.....


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## Amish Electrician (Jan 2, 2010)

A bit off topic, but you guys ought to like the story I'm going to tell .....

I had a certain city bus company as a regular customer. I did work for them over an eight year period. You know, it's amazing the things you hear while you're in the ceiling, pulling wires.

For a good year prior to the labor agreement with the drivers expiring, it was clear that management was determined to have a strike - though the union was quite tame. Ultimately, the union became unhappy working under an expired contract, and the strike/lockout happened. 

Well, in came the bussloads of 'scab' drivers, and management took to driving busses. It was rather amusing .... drivers taking the 'West" bus "East" by mistake, getting lost, etc. It was also most enlightening, as management got to experience firsthand how some of their fellow managers were Grade-A jerks and incompetents 

I knew that managements' plan had failed, the day the company PR guy got in front of the TV cameras and attributed the sharp drop in ridership on 9-11. THAT was too much BS for anyone to swallow. The transit authority replaced the management firm, and life resumed.

The moral to this story is that COMPETENCE is the way for a union to win a strike .... not by violence. Management simply cannot do the job - especially in these days of 'professional' managers who have never used a set of tools.

Likewise, unions have an opportunity recruit members by accenting the positive. Training, certification, work search, and benefit administration are 'positives' that come to mind. One does catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

For those on the picket line .... please have a flier prepared to give to folks when they ask what the picket line is all about. Folks want to be sympathetic- and are put off when all you say is 'labor dispute' or the line is there simply because the target is non-union. The public will support you if you can say "We believe the company has been unfair in selecting people for layoff, and are asking for concessions while they give management huge bonuses." Be specific!


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

RGH said:


> This is what usually happens...


Where? I have never heard or witnessed any of these so called truths.



eutecticalloy said:


> So what I found out yesterday, was that he is in hiding. Apparently the day he went and crossed the picket line, he came home to find his house trashed, windows smashed and graffiti all over his walls. So the company has him hidden in some hotel somewhere.


Do you really think anyone believes that? 



eutecticalloy said:


> I'm just conveying what a fellow employee told me. We all know that this perfectly possible


Possible? Yes. And the world will end on Dec 21, 2012 and the only one that will survive is hackwork.



nitro71 said:


> I smell a troll... but anyways, since WA is a open carry state I'd just pack my .40 XDM and my 4 extra mags each holding 16 rounds of JHP(that's jacketed hollow points for some of you). If you and your pack of? 10? guys is feeling froggy I've got 80 rounds available, you do the math. Course if I was working union I wouldn't cross the picket line, I also probably wouldn't vote to strike either.


Guys like you are the reason I wish handguns were outlawed in this country.



eutecticalloy said:


> then again I do live in california. 90 percent of the workers that works with me are mexican drug cartel.


I know several people that live and work in California and this is the first I heard of this. Don't drug cartels deal in drugs. Or do they do electrical work on the side.


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## eutecticalloy (Dec 12, 2010)

John Valdes said:


> Where? I have never heard or witnessed any of these so called truths.
> 
> Do you really think anyone believes that?
> 
> ...


John it was a joke, don't be so uptight. for christ sake I'm part mexican and I live in california. and yes they do deal drugs, money laundering and medal in politics.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

eutecticalloy said:


> John it was a joke, don't be so uptight. for christ sake I'm part mexican and I live in california. and yes they do deal drugs, money laundering and medal in politics.


Sounds like a fun crew. :laughing: Did not mean any disrespect. :thumbsup:


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## bobelectric (Feb 24, 2007)

IHOPS has an excellent breakfast special.


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