It’s interesting that most of these posts come from this at a pro/anti union standpoint. I personally do support and believe unions are a good thing, but I would still cross the line at a supermarket.
There is exactly one supermarket within walking distance of my apartment, and I don’t have a car or a bicycle. To go to another supermarket from the same chain would require a 10-20 minute bus ride, and to go to a different chain would require either 2 bus rides or a 20 minute bus ride and a 10-20 minute walk. Hardly an option for a busy and impoverished grad student. I don’t keep a lot of food in my house, and I’m obviously not rich enough to eat out for an indeterminate length of time.
So yeah, I’d cross a picket line at a grocery store, because it’s a necessity. You gotta eat. Many people, especially those who live in food deserts, don’t have much choice when it comes to grocery stores. (My neighborhood is hardly a food desert, but living in the middle of the city and being carless is still very different than living in the suburbs.) If it was something else, like a CVS and I just wanted to buy some makeup, then no, I wouldn’t.
Since this is 2013 rather than 1973, and we’ve had more than a generation of successful top-down class war since then, the likelihood that a union’s strike isn’t justified is pretty damned small. So I’m gonna honor the picket line pretty much automatically.
Yeah, in that situation there’s no way I’d go somewhere else. Shit, I don’t make more money than these people and I have no benefits, so just how much time and money am I really supposed to spend on them?
I would cross it and I have done it before. I worked in a supermarket in high school (no union) and later in the corporate headquarters of two New England supermarket chains (partially unionized). I never had any sympathy for the unions there partly because it seemed like the people that got screwed the most by them were their newest members. Everything was based on seniority from pay, benefits, to vacation schedules. The only thing they cared about was how long each member had been paying dues, not how good a job they did or if an ambitious youngster might be better qualified for the more desirable positions than someone who had just hung around for a really long time.
The supermarket headquarters I worked in was constantly being picketed by some group or another for some bullshit reason. They probably thought we were cowering under our desks while they marched defiantly outside. In reality, we just got an e-mail telling us to use the back entrance for the day and we usually didn’t even know what people were protesting about or even notice that they were there at all.
I would cross. Unions have become elitist and corrupt.
I suspect I’m in the same area as the OP (Pacific Northwest). The irony of this strike is that in my city, the only grocery store not affected is Walmart. Interesting dilemma for those not wanting to cross picket lines.
Unions haven’t become corrupt, they always were corrupt. They are sometimes a milder version of organized crime, sometimes they are the direct instruments, search on Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters.
A strike is an organized shake-down of a company. Meet our demands or we will shut your business down. Knee-capping is now optional, but it is the same sort of threat.
Workers do not strike and lose pay for their own personal amusement, this is always the last resort.
I don’t care what the reasons are, and especially would never take any story as reported by the media, workers do not strike and lose pay for their own personal amusement.
I would not cross, workers do not strike and lose pay for their personal amusement.
There are no bad workers, only bad managers, workers do not strike and lose pay for their personal amusement.
One day I will need others to fight for my rights and support me, workers do not strike and lose pay for their personal amusement.
Seriously? You must not have met some of the ones I have. There are plenty of bad ones around here.
They might have their reasons but that doesn’t automatically mean that they are good or justified reasons. Even if they are, it still doesn’t mean that I am going to care it about personally. If I need something from a store, I am certainly not going to inconvenience myself or my family in a fake show of sympathy because I can promise it wouldn’t be genuine.
This is why I specified in my answer that we wouldn’t cross a union picket line, and I didn’t mean something like The Larry Johnson Grocery Employees’ Disgruntlement Corps but a recognized labor union like the SEIU, Teamsters, etc. We wouldn’t concern ourselves overmuch with the reasons for the pickets in particular.
I’m sure it’s out of style to hang on to ancient concepts like honoring picket lines, but we’ll stubbornly persist in doing what we consider to be the right thing.
Unions aren’t perfect, but there are very few circumstances under which I’d cross a picket line, and a strike for wages and benefits isn’t one of them.
While there is corruption in unions, there is probably just as much at the corporations and companies. No, I don’t have a cite but I think the banking debacle is a good example.
Employees shouldn’t have to sit back and take the constant cutting of their wages and benefits, while corporate profits become ever larger, and corporate executive paychecks and benefits become ever larger.
I am not a union member. I don’t plan on joining my union…ever. However, there is a time and place where unions come in handy.
I don’t always agree when various union organizations go on strike. I happen look at each situation and try not to just assume the worst of either side.
If I didn’t have any choice but the union stores for shopping, I’d regretfully have to cross the picket line. I can’t fault anyone for that. Luckily, I have choices and transportation.
In the end; there are no winners. Everyone pays in some way, shape or form, whether it’s the consumer, employee or corporation.
Since I already do the bulk of my grocery shopping at the chain for which smartpi works (though probably at a different store), the strike will not affect me significantly.
To answer the question, though, I would probably avoid crossing the line if possible. My ex-stepdaughter used to work for one of the chains involved, and it seemed she was always struggling to get her hours recorded and paid correctly.
(As a side note, if the strike happens I would not be a bit surprised if another of the chains used it as an excuse to pull out of the area. They’ve been closing stores piecemeal for a decade or so, and this might give them the rationale to complete the process.)
SuperValu was reducing the chain’s presence anyway, and I don’t think their dumping it on Cerberus — an investment firm, not a grocer — will slow the pace any. A strike might give Cerberus cover for pulling the plug.
who is we? and why do you speak on their behalf? Also, I find you cut-off point for legitimacy rather confusing and arbitrary. Why size does a union have to be before any action they take becomes automatically legitimate and worthy of support.
I gotta agree. Who cares how established the organization is, or how many people who don’t work at the place in question may be affiliated?
Hell, if it’s a strictly local group that just got organized–I’m impressed! Good for them! All the more reason to support them; these are my neighbors.
“We” is my husband and me. As I mentioned in my original post, he has benefited from union involvement during his career. I spoke on his behalf as well as my own because that’s what long-married people sometimes do when they hold identical views on a subject.
As far as this “cut-off point for legitimacy” you mention, I think your confusion is self-inflicted. There isn’t anything arbitrary about using the existence of an actual union as the criterion for choosing whether to cross a picket line. If a union that we recognize represents the striking workers, we will not cross the picket line. How is that unclear?
You will note that there is nothing in that statement that says the union must be of any particular age, size, creed, or sexual orientation. It must, however, exist as a union and not just as a loosely organized cluster of unhappy humanoids. If that doesn’t work for you, feel free to cross/not cross picket lines based on whatever criteria turn your particular crank.