# Amazon, Walmart, Target strike **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 1, 2020, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954 "2020-05-01T10:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/41 "2020-05-02T03:21:30Z")
> [@Manwich](#): > > Good luck comrades. You can fuck off with the terms related to some of the bloodiest dictatorships in history. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/42 "2020-05-02T03:27:39Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > IME, **in practice** in modern union lingo, “scab” and “crossing the picket line” have grown to include patronizing a business under strike. People are, by and large, perfectly aware of the traditional/technical/dictionary meaning and if the distinction becomes very important to a discussion they’ll make it clear, but especially in calls to action for solidarity people use “scab” and “cross the picket line” in a looser sense for two reasons: > > 1. They’re provocative and punchy, which is useful in mobilization and organizing > 2. Patronizing a business whose workers are under strike enables and rewards scabs, and is seen as **tantamount** to scabbing, in that even if you’re not directly crossing the line to work at the business under strike, you are endorsing and enabling the scabs, and directly working to undermine the union by rewarding the business for operating without its core employees. > > But “tantamount to being a scab” or “tantamount to crossing the picket line” is a mouthful so it just gets shortened to “scab” and “crossing the picket line.” > > Also seriously how hard is it to not buy shit online for one day. This is the first time I’m hearing “scab” with a negative connotation. I wasn’t aware people actually thought other people shouldn’t take available jobs. And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. That’s definitely a baffling assertion. I can’t fathom how it’s any of my business or any of my concern as a customer how well compensated the employees are. It seems to me you’re implying I’m supposed to side with the striking employees because…because…because they’re striking and that’s supposed to be a good thing? Because they say they deserve better pay so therefore they must? It’s like saying I need to support the home team in the championship game of a sport I don’t watch between two teams I’ve never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/43 "2020-05-02T03:40:40Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > This is the first time I’m hearing “scab” with a negative connotation. I wasn’t aware people actually thought other people shouldn’t take available jobs. And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. Really? If you’re not just being disingenuous, I gotta color myself more than a little shocked. I thought everyone knew( generally )what a “scab” was and why it was considered negative. Even the people who thoroughly disagree with the concept. But then I have no idea how old you are or how/where you were brought up. Anyone of my generation( Gen X )who lived in the Rust Belt and wasn’t from a fairly upper-class background _should_ have been exposed to the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/44 "2020-05-02T04:02:32Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. That’s definitely a baffling assertion. I can’t fathom how it’s any of my business or any of my concern as a customer how well compensated the employees are. How far do you take that lack of understanding? If you found out that your seafood supplier was selling fish [caught by slaves](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/21/such-brutality-tricked-into-slavery-in-the-thai-fishing-industry), would you be baffled at customers who stopped buying that fish? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/45 "2020-05-02T05:19:52Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > This is why we can never have a nice revolution. Is that like a “civil war?” ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/46 "2020-05-02T06:03:56Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/47 "2020-05-02T06:20:46Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > This is the first time I’m hearing “scab” with a negative connotation. I wasn’t aware people actually thought other people shouldn’t take available jobs. And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. That’s definitely a baffling assertion. I can’t fathom how it’s any of my business or any of my concern as a customer how well compensated the employees are. I’m one of those who holds these views you find so new, baffling, and unfathomable, but I find myself compelled to not apply them to you. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/48 "2020-05-02T10:47:32Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. Really? I remember my parents wouldn’t cross pick lines to patronize businesses with strikers back in the early 1970’s > [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > That’s definitely a baffling assertion. I can’t fathom how it’s any of my business or any of my concern as a customer how well compensated the employees are. Sure, why would you care whether or not other human beings are treated humanely? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/49 "2020-05-02T11:21:13Z")
Good to see workers with a little spine, even in a modest action like this. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/50 "2020-05-02T12:24:35Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > THis ^ > > It’s about the balance of power, which has tipped a little too far in the direction of oligarchs the past few decades. A _ **little** _? The statistics say otherwise. I won’t shop at Amazon (or Whole Foods), period, and this is from long before the strike. Not just because of worker rights, but also how they trap and then bleed all the thousands of smaller businesses that now have to be their subsidiaries. Buying direct from those small online businesses will support the strikers and those businesses at the same time. If you welcome your lizard overlords, go ahead and shop at Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/51 "2020-05-02T13:31:54Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > A _ **little** _? The statistics say otherwise. > > I won’t shop at Amazon (or Whole Foods), period, and this is from long before the strike. Not just because of worker rights, but also how they trap and then bleed all the thousands of smaller businesses that now have to be their subsidiaries. > > Buying direct from those small online businesses will support the strikers and those businesses at the same time. > > If you welcome your lizard overlords, go ahead and shop at Amazon. I already had a negative view of Whole Foods, and it just got worse when it became part of Amazon. Amazon is all of the things people used to say about Wal-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/52 "2020-05-02T14:54:56Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > That article called it “the latest” in a series of anti-union actions I read the article in question. “Union-busting” is a pejorative term whose meaning is diminished when it’s applied to any company action intended to discourage workers from forming/joining a union, including memos and briefings by management. I do hope the NLRB is investigating the “playful” quinoa-tossing by the fired employee. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/53 "2020-05-02T15:25:27Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I read the article in question. > > “Union-busting” is a pejorative term whose meaning is diminished when it’s applied to any company action intended to discourage workers from forming/joining a union, including memos and briefings by management. > > I do hope the NLRB is investigating the “playful” quinoa-tossing by the fired employee. :rolleyes: Mandatory meetings with employees in which anti-union propaganda is distributed is classic union-busting. You claim that the meaning is diminished by including some of the most popular anti-union tactics is, to say the least, suspect. Had the quinoa-tosser been fired after tossing quinoa, it wouldn’t be newsworthy. He was fired after trying to organize workers. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/54 "2020-05-02T15:35:19Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > This is the first time I’m hearing “scab” with a negative connotation. I wasn’t aware people actually thought other people shouldn’t take available jobs. And it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it said that _customers_ ought to care about the management-labor relationship. That’s definitely a baffling assertion. I can’t fathom how it’s any of my business or any of my concern as a customer how well compensated the employees are. It seems to me you’re implying I’m supposed to side with the striking employees because…because…because they’re striking and that’s supposed to be a good thing? Because they say they deserve better pay so therefore they must? Scab has never been a positive thing. Ignoring any feelings about any particular picket line, if you take a job at a place with workers on strike, you take away their bargaining ability. If I treat my workers like garbage and pay them nothing so they strike, they’re counting on me not being able to fire them. If I can bring in scabs, I have no use for the people that don’t want to work. > [@](#): > > It’s like saying I need to support the home team in the championship game of a sport I don’t watch between two teams I’ve never heard of. It’s more like finding a way to help the opposing team win. Sure, you might not really care, but the people in your community might be annoyed with you if they find out you bought the away team lots of fancy training equipment. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/55 "2020-05-02T15:37:29Z")
Or maybe it’s a bad analogy because it isn’t a fucking game. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/56 "2020-05-02T18:45:10Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Or maybe it’s a bad analogy because it isn’t a fucking game. Eck-fucking-zactly. Chessic Sense is a bit of a sociopath. He’s never shown the slightest inclination to give a fuck about his fellow human beings. So his bafflement isn’t remarkable here, any more than a blind person who says, “I can’t see the painting” is remarkable. If he sees folks’ health and safety as a sports thing, that’s a commentary on his deep failure, not on the situation. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/57 "2020-05-03T00:20:22Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Chessic Sense is a bit of a sociopath. He’s never shown the slightest inclination to give a fuck about his fellow human beings. To be fair, he needs his fellow human beings so that he can feel superior to someone. I’m betting Jamal still has a job. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/58 "2020-05-03T02:32:08Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > Good to see workers with a little spine, even in a modest action like this. It takes courage to do what they’re doing, which is to potentially give up a source of income that they probably need. It took courage to do what they were doing, which is serving the public in a time of a deadly pandemic. I tip my hat to them and hope that that more people will just stop drinking the oligarch kool-aid. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/59 "2020-05-03T09:39:37Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > What a lot of people seem to want instead is for them to close the facility as Toyota (the other big local employer) did, which would let them qualify for unemployment benefits while staying home. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Your theory that they’re just lazy assholes looking for paid time off? Not buying it. And well you shouldn’t buy it - that’s nothing like what I wrote above. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954/60 "2020-05-03T15:08:25Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The real Casey Jones was not murdered. He died in a railway accident. A freight train hauling corn was stopped on the tracks where it wasn’t supposed to be. Casey told his assistant to jump to safety before the crash and laid on the brake to minimize danger to others around. His engine ran off the tracks when it crashed into the corn car and he got killed. He was the only fatality. There was no strike on. It was an accident. Casey Jones heroically sacrificed his life to try to protect others. > > Song lyrics say all kinds of untrue crap about him, including something about cocaine! He didn’t use cocaine either. [Casey Jones Union Scab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones%E2%80%94the_Union_Scab). It is on my Smithsonian Folkways disc. > [@](#): > > [Casey Jones - Union Scab](https://youtu.be/R-rZzKBOMbA) youtube video > > The Workers on the S. P. line to strike sent out a call; > But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn’t strike at all; > His boiler it was leaking, and its drivers on the bum, > And his engine and its bearings, they were all out of plumb. > > Casey Jones kept his junk pile running; > Casey Jones was working double time; > Casey Jones got a wooden medal, > For being good and faithful on the S. P. line. > > The workers said to Casey: “Won’t you help us win this strike?” > But Casey said: “Let me alone, you’d better take a hike.” > Then some one put a bunch of railroad ties across the track, > And Casey hit the river bottom with an awful crack. > > Casey Jones hit the river bottom; > Casey Jones broke his blessed spine; > Casey Jones was an Angelino, > He took a trip to heaven on the S. P. line. > > When Casey Jones got up to heaven, to the Pearly Gate, > He said: “I’m Casey Jones, the guy that pulled the S. P. freight.” > “You’re just the man,” said Peter, “our musicians went on strike; > You can get a job a-scabbing any time you like.” > > Casey Jones got up to heaven; > Casey Jones was doing mighty fine; > Casey Jones went scabbing on the angels, > Just like he did to workers of the S. P. line. > > They got together, and they said it wasn’t fair, > For Casey Jones to go around a-scabbing everywhere. > The Angels’ Union No. 23, they sure were there, > And they promptly fired Casey down the Golden Stairs. > > Casey Jones went to Hell a-flying; > “Casey Jones,” the Devil said, “Oh fine: > Casey Jones, get busy shovelling sulphur; > That’s what you get for scabbing on the S. P. Line.” I know there is a different non-union version, I believe I mentioned it in my original post. I commented that the union version has a murder within it. I can not condone murder or even physical violence towards someone who is simply trying to provide for their family. It is as upsetting to me as the asshats in a livejournal group I was a member of telling me that they hoped my husband would die on his military deployment simply because he was in the military. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-walmart-target-strike/852954.md?page=4)