Mechanics Strike on Northwestern and are replaced by scabs....

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I have been on both sides of the fence (labor and management) so it can be difficult to maintain a consistent point of view when it comes to labor issues. I was surprised to see that Northwest's union pilots and union flight attendants chose to cross another union's picket lines, even if it is the AMFA.
The AMFA, in its short existence, has established a reputation of going for increases or maintaining it's members' pay scales at the expense of other job-related concerns. This may explain why other unions hold the AMFA at arm's length and are willing to cross their picket lines. One would have hoped that the AMFA leadership would have realized the futility of a job action when Northwest is teetering on the edge of Chapter 11.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098


You mean President Ronald Reagan, who was voted the greatest American, by the country.

Myself and a lot of others must have missed that vote. But I won't start another war that ends up in a deleted thread.

Hopefully L.C. will see this and straight us out. (about striking that is)

It was a show on the Discovery Channel, and people voted on line, you can see for yourself: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/greatestamerican/greatestamerican.html

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098


You mean President Ronald Reagan, who was voted the greatest American, by the country.

Myself and a lot of others must have missed that vote. But I won't start another war that ends up in a deleted thread.

Hopefully L.C. will see this and straight us out. (about striking that is)

[MP173]

Nate:

How is the dispatching going? Hope everything is going well. I have found myself listening to the Fostoria web. I think that is handled out of J'ville, so I wont be hearing you.

Management vs labor has been a long struggle. The interesting thing about the Northwest strike is the other unions (particularly the pilots) are not joining in. That is different than in the past. The pilots learned from United that bankrupcy will divistate their pension payouts. So there is a new card being played now...that of pensions.

It is times like this that I am very glad that I am not working for a large corporation and not in a union.

ed

[Anonymous]

You mean President Ronald Reagan, who was voted the greatest American, by the country. I read the article. Why are the mechanics striking? People are taking their jobs, and getting a raise in pay. I could understand the importance of unions way back when, now working conditions are much better. Unions now are little more than money collection devices for the Democrat party. Unions have far too much power, some jobs you have to be part on the union or you can't get the job, and other rules. I believe anything Reagan would have signed would have had to be passed by congress, same with President Bush.

[bobwilcox]

Railroad unions can strike, its just very difficult. The basic legislation covering railroad strikes goes back to the 1920s and the reaction to the shopmen's strike. Think Harding not Reagan.

[Anonymous]

I was under the impression that railroad union could no longer strike.

You can partically thank Mr. Reagan for that. [:(] [:(!]

With the current "guy" in the house, striking isn't a good idea.

[BNSFGP38]

I can see both sides. Laborers got familys to feed,bills to pay. Company needs mechanics to keep rolling, to make the money. Sometimes companys kill workers, sometimes workers kill companys.

No union struggle is ever easy.

[Anonymous]

From one of the labor websites:

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=23139

Being that the RR's are heavily relient on unionized labor, I found this article to be rather informative and alarming. It also led me to think twice about going on strike. These days unions are not as strong as they used to be. Of course the airline industry is in much harder times than the RR industry, but it still got me thinking. A question I had to ask myself was: "Would I take a pay and benefits cut to keep my job, or do we strike to try to protect what we have when we know that our employer can't keep up with the bills." This topic can bring up all kinds of scary thoughts and despair, but my point in bringing this up is what would YOU do? And.. what's your point of view on this subject?