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Topic: Scabbing
September 26, 2008 - 1:56pm
I hate to acknowledge it but sometimes, there is no substitute for a swift kick in the cojones.
But if that fails, union guy should tell his fiend to kindly fuck himself and make sure his life after the strike is not worth living.
What will be left for him to do when his friend murders someone?
Blackleg Miner by Steeleye Span
When the scab returned to Rupert, he was "sent to Coventry" and no fellow worker spoke to him for more then a decade. The silence broke while working in the ship yards and only when others needed to tell him to end certain dangerous practices (I doubt the words were particulary kind or uplifting).
Class traitors have no place in civil society.
Yeah, I suppose! [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
If this friend is not going to actively support the strike, for a grocery store worker he can probably come pretty close to replacing his wages (not benefits or job security) by forgoing his strike pay tied to picketing, and going to work somewhere else for the interim, ie as a temp. Maybe he can swing by the line on his time off and support his colleagues at least that much.
In fact I've known a few guys, strong union supporters, who have read the writing on the wall prior to a long strike, and made their way to Alberta for a couple months rather than destroy their working future for that employer by crossing the line.
If they're starving or facing eviction, and can't survive on strike pay until the strike is over, they should picket until they find another job. Preferably a non-union job. That way, they'll only starve and freeze when the boss kicks them out.
Here in Quйbec, we've solved the problem by banning scabs from working during a legal strike or lockout.
Funny... haven't heard about workers starving or freezing in the past 30 years...
[ 02 October 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]
They ruin workplace relations for a few hundred dollars - and some are rewarded for it with fat management jobs which they really don't deserve and have no aptitude for.
If you want to have better management and better relations in the workplace then scabbing must be banned.
Correct. Although, in fact, it is the Bloc which has been introducing the measure for over a decade in the House.
The NDP would be far more credible on this issue if they had actually enacted anti-scab legislation at any time during their decades in power in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. By doing so only in B.C. and (briefly) Ontario, it leaves the impression that this is an optional policy for the NDP, doesn't it?
In our situation, our employer (Mike Harris), encouraged our own members to cross the picket line and come to work (as opposed to outside replacement workers). It was the nastiest thing I have experienced in my work life. More than 10 years later, there's still poisoned work environments.
Having said that, beginning bargaining with a divided workplace is not optimal. We have made efforts to "rehabilitate" former scabs by offering them "amnesty" if they actively picketed in the next strike. That was effective for a number of former members (we kicked most of them out of the union after the first strike).
So I would agree that in some circumstances, it doesn't help to totally demonize people.
We had this issue in my bargaining unit when it was brand new, during the 1997 ('illegal') walkout. Because the new unit was so new, and the action not for collective bargaining, at my insistence, we cut some slack for the single Moms with low incomes, but hassled those we knew were not hurting financially (ie, with employed spouses). It turned into a learning experience for the other bargaining units too, since they had no idea how low those women's wages were, and it helped with support and respect among units, over time.
In your situation, though, I think I'd be tempted to say: "So ... you're not planning to come back here to work after the strike, eh?"
There may still be people who don't quite understand the seriousness of what they're doing, and maybe they need some education, but if that's not the case and he's just a spit-in-your-face kinda guy ... well, I wouldn't do anything 'illegal' that the cops might feel they had to attend to but ... something creative maybe? Leave a 'surprise' for him at his work station before you go out maybe? Spray paint a big S on his workcoat?
Hell, people who choose to be scabs are social morons with no sense of community values. Karma will get them!