Picketing (Not Striking) At Work

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Note to Mods: This may be more of an IMHO thing, possibly even GD. Move it if you see fit! :smiley:

I work for my local government, the City of Flint (MI). We are in dire financial straits right now, and things just aren’t getting any better.

My union (AFSCME Local 1600) is planning a series of rallies, to be held during City Council meetings. We will be picketing (not striking–just picketing). Our intent is to inform the public that the problems we’re going through are not the fault of the employees, and to try and convince City Council to vote against privatization of some of our departments. We’re losing jobs right and left, (especially in vital city services, like police and fire) and right now, privatization is no solution at all, to anything.

Anyone here ever picket anything? Did it work? I’m a little nervous, because I’ve never done it before. It’s not as if I’m going to be alone–there’s going to be close to a hundred people there, maybe more if things go the way we want.

Share with me, people! :smiley:

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My only experience with picketing was at about third-hand. See if you follow this.

In the late 1980s, a new Cub Foods moved into town here. The local chapter of the grocery store workers union (the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the UFCW) picketed them, because they were hiring non-union grocery store workers.

So the National Association of Letter Carriers, in a show of some kind of solidarity, joined them on the picket line, and also in organized a city-wide boycott of Cub Foods. I was never able to grasp the exact connection between the two unions, but never mind.

Well, the boycott, needless to say, didn’t work. Day after day, there would be a couple of UFCW people standing out there in front of Cub Foods, with someone from the NALC, carrying signs, while people trampled each other in their haste to get into the store.

This went on for years. At least 10 years. After the first five years or so, they tapered off on the number of people picketing right in front, but there would still be somebody out there by the parking lot exit with a sign, and every so often there would be a big billboard somewhere in town saying, “Shop Union–Boycott Cub Foods”.

So last year, I was talking about this ‘n’ that with the Better Half, and the subject of grocery shopping came up, and he said, “Why don’t you go to Cub Foods for that (whatever it was)?” and I said, “I can’t, because we’re supporting the NALC boycott–aren’t we?”

He was, frankly, astonished. He had forgotten all about it. I said, “Well, is it off?” He said, “Well, actually, no, it’s still on, but I don’t think anybody from the NALC is walking the picket line anymore.”

And he gave me Official Permission to shop at Cub Foods. So I do, sometimes, but I hate having to bag my own groceries while people stand there in line and wait.

The point is, you ask if picketing will do any good. I say, no, because the people brushing past you to get into the building to run their errands quite literally don’t give a rat’s derriere about your “cause”, unless it means money out of their pockets. Failing that, you’re just blocking traffic.

Sorry to be so negative. :frowning:

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The only picketing I ever did was picketing AGAINST(mindyou) Fred Phelps. We live in the same city of Topeka Kansas and for a while it was kind of scary, because they would come and stand among us counter-picketers and ask if we put shaved gerbils up our, well, you know. Fred would go back and forth demanding WE be hauled off for harassing THEM! And pretending to be preaching while really cursing at us under his breath. Cross my heart, I was close enough to him to hear it. I also helped a local church “witness” against them outside of the church on their own sidewalk. Fred hated St. D------ because the rector spoke out against them. Father B-- once wrote a letter to our paper about how he saw a Phelps mother let her kid pee on the church flower bed,(a quote “Dear God, they desecrated the daylilies.”) but the paper wouldn’t publish it. Hateful as they are, he would have let the little tyke inside to go.

Gee, I’m sorry, I pushed my own button. You’ll be fine out there, especially if you really do have all those bodies. Keep a kit on hand, small first aid items, Kleenex, etc, and a BIG water bottle. The latter is an essential! And try to make something happen fast because peoples’ attention spans are none too long. I’ll hope for the best for you, but DDG may be right, if it’s not money out of their pockets most people don’t care.

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Thanks!

DDG, I can explain the connection between the letter carriers & the food workers–they’re both unionized. That’s it. Unions tend to back each other, and will picket for other unions, just to show support. For instance, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be having a much larger rally, and a few busloads of UAW workers will be coming up from Detroit to picket with us. Solidarity. :smiley:

Baker: Wow. I think I’d picket against that loser, too. And thanks for the advice! I shall write it down.

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Oops, two more things, sunscreen and a hat if you are going to be out for any length of time.