Re:Ask HN: What to do about a strike?
by anamax on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @04:57PM
(#393534)
> Crossing a picket line is not the right way to take a principled stand against unions.
He's under no obligation to take a "principled stand". In fact, he didn't ask about that. He asked what to do.
I do like how you insist that he can't disagree with your position without taking a huge personal hit. Why is your position so privileged?
> If you don't like unions, then don't take a job in a union shop.
In other words, he shouldn't have gone to grad school.
> If you cross the picket line you are a 'scab' and some of your colleagues, especially if they come from a working class background, will consider you to be a traitor.
Some folks will consider you a traitor for voting "wrong", for having the wrong color skin, for liking the wrong football team, for driving the wrong car, for drinking the wrong beer. Such things are commonly recognized as "their problem".
> The TA-like employees you work with probably do not resemble the stereotypical angry union truck driver or dock worker but some of them may come from countries where trade union organizers are routinely arrested, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.
So? His response to his union has absolutely no relationship to what happens to union folk in other countries. More to the point, what happens in other countries doesn't justify union thuggery in the US.
He's under no obligation to take a "principled stand". In fact, he didn't ask about that. He asked what to do.
I do like how you insist that he can't disagree with your position without taking a huge personal hit. Why is your position so privileged?
> If you don't like unions, then don't take a job in a union shop.
In other words, he shouldn't have gone to grad school.
> If you cross the picket line you are a 'scab' and some of your colleagues, especially if they come from a working class background, will consider you to be a traitor.
Some folks will consider you a traitor for voting "wrong", for having the wrong color skin, for liking the wrong football team, for driving the wrong car, for drinking the wrong beer. Such things are commonly recognized as "their problem".
> The TA-like employees you work with probably do not resemble the stereotypical angry union truck driver or dock worker but some of them may come from countries where trade union organizers are routinely arrested, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.
So? His response to his union has absolutely no relationship to what happens to union folk in other countries. More to the point, what happens in other countries doesn't justify union thuggery in the US.