In 1970, my dad worked at the post office, and they went on strike. This wasnât permitted - the laws at the time didnât cover that kind of collective bargaining. But they struck anyway, and marched around with signs in front of the post office, and so on.
One woman started to head into the building, realized they were on strike, and stopped. And my dad told her, âyou can go in; thereâs people staffing the windows.â And she said, âoh no; my husbandâs a Teamster; heâd never speak to me again if I crossed a picket line.â And she left.
Thatâs how unions work. You support each otherâs goals. You donât casually break the picket line - you accept that the only reason people would be standing around outside waving stupid signs is that thereâs something very very wrong with this business, and the workers understand it better than an outsider could.
Even if youâre not in a position to strike, you can be supportive. I know, itâs all fucked-up now; you can be working in an office and your actual âemployerâ is six states away, and your cubemates are also working for a company somewhere else but a different one, so no amount of waving signs is even going to be noticed by the companies that might actually be able to grant you better pay and medical coverage and so on.
But you can say, Unions are awesome. You can be grateful that unions won the 40-hour workweek. That they won OSHA standards. That they organized to stop âcompany townsâ where youâd be paid in âscriptâ that was only good at company stores. (Imagine working for McDonalds and only being paid in McDonaldâs coupons.)
You donât have to join a union to support union efforts - speak out in favor of them, donât cross picket lines, and if you have the resources, help the strikes where you can: bring coffee, bring donuts, bring sunblock; let them know that the community has their backs.
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