Instead, I thought I'd discuss for a few moments what is at the root of the troubles those evil bastards face. If you look at the front page of today's mcNewspaper you will discover that the CWA is striking for "wages, benefits, and working conditions". Well that is not exactly it. In fact it's not really even close.
First we need to look at some history. Let's go back a few decades. We have the US in a boom before the depression. Some people are making money hand over fist. The stock market is soaring, and it is the age of industrial giants. A very few men control most of the nations resources. The people who work for them have serf-like lives.
At this point in history labor unions are mostly guerrilla/terrorist organizations. "give us fair wages and livable working conditions or we'll take possession of your plant and keep you from earning money till you do". They actually had to be able to back it up with almost military tactics because what they were doing was illegal, and the mighty industrialist would sic the police, national guard, or worst of all the Pinkertons on them as soon the union made a move. It was all cloak and dagger and esprit de corps back then.
Over the ensuing years the Unions had some notable victories and traded some of their power for respectability, job security, and health care (unintentionally getting us into the hellacious mess healthcare is now). The had public corruption scandals, image issues, and outright malfeasance in recent years. The have made poor long term decisions for short term gain. They have looked after the needs of current and high seniority members while all but forsaking the prospective and low seniority members. The end result of all this is that the unions have put themselves in a position where they still have to battle the same evil bastards while facing low public support, declining membership, few prospects for growth, and all while staring at battered rusty ploughshares that used to be shining swords. Not a real good place to be.
Now to the current situation. BellAtlantic has just pulled some cute chicanery/merger and changed the whole damn company's name to what used to be the wireless division. Neat trick, and some people made a killing on the deal. As we all know, immediately following a merger companies do some nasty stuff to their employees. They fire as many redundant positions as they can. The ones they can't fire outright they transfer across the country or destroy their QWL, or whatever it takes to make them go away. This is pretty much routine and somewhere there is a textbook describing howto in much more detail.
Well the CWA has read the book too, and they know how it ends. What they want is some involvement in who gets bent over. What they also want is access to the jobs in the wireless and tech sections of the business. When the company renames itself after the nonunion part of the business, it is pretty much saying that is where the growth is and we are now formally in union-busting mode. Just as sure as sending Pinkerton's in with lead pipe and sawed off shotguns.
The CWA has the opportunity here to be the first union to really get the tech economy. It also has the opportunity to make the same stupid mistakes it has been and ensure the death of the union and ultimate triumph of the robber barons.
Let's all hope it goes the right way.
Oh and if you are a union leader who got the message but aren't sure what to do next, email or page me. Let's talk.
