Emotional autoworkers cross striking janitors' picket lines in Flint

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Phoebe Wall Howard,

FLINT — In an emotional scene Sunday morning, UAW autoworkers passed picketing janitors represented by the same union just hours after the maintenance workers went on strike in an escalation of already-tense contract talks.

"This isn't what solidarity looks like," one autoworker said as he dropped off food to the janitors before reporting for his shift, which started just before 7 a.m.

The autoworkers are General Motors employees and the UAW told them to report to work Sunday even though the union's contract with GM expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. The union's leadership was to meet at 10 a.m. Sunday in Detroit to decide on next steps.

The janitors work for Aramark, with which GM contracts for maintenance at five plants in Michigan and Ohio. About 850 UAW-represented Aramark workers sent on strike at midnight.


Striking janitors, who work for Aramark and are UAW members, picket outside General Motors’ Flint Assembly Plant early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019. (Photo: Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press)

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/09/15/uaw-autoworkers-striking-janitors-flint-gm-contract-talks/2333546001/

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FULL story & video at link.

[bluestarone]

1. Doesn't sound good. (crossing anothers picket line is not good)

Hope they get it worked out! Hope they have a plan.

[3Hotdogs]

2. Nice way to support your brothers and sisters.

[brush]

3. I don't know what to say about this except it's not solidarity. If you're in the union, act like it.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. How far down the rabbit hole

have Union Brothers and Sisters have fallen.

[demosincebirth]

5. Not good! Union leaders (UAW) should be ashamed

[iluvtennis]

12. + 1 nt

[Sherman A1]

14. Precisely

[turbinetree]

6. Just like what the pilots did at the airlines....................and if this "teen" gets it in this

article why don't adults...........................

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/strikes-and-picket-lines-explained

[MarcA]

7. Selfishness sometimes, and with some people, outweighs humanity.

Even if it self defeating in the end.

[NickB79]

8. Until the UAW' leaders of the auto workers call a strike, they have to cross

Or they'll be disciplined for missing work. They would have no legal protection until then, be and risk their jobs by not crossing the picket line. Apparently there has been piss-poor cooperation and planning between the auto and janitorial sectors of the UAW'.

The auto workers are only doing what their union reps have told them to do, which is to report to work.

[groundloop]

10. Add to that the fact that the UAW is likely striking GM starting tonight.

[Mc Mike]

9. AFL-CIO Union Picket Rights:

A Good Union Member Respects Picket Lines

A good union member is extremely careful when confronted with a Picket Line situation. When a picket line is established on a job where s/he is working:

S/he leaves. S/he does not talk -- just leaves.
S/he reads the picket signs as s/he leaves.
S/he does not hang around near the job.
S/he knows that once a picket line is established, her/his business agents and other union officials are legally gagged and handcuffed from giving advice pertaining to that job. They can only tell her/him if the picket is authorized.
S/he does not allow her/himself to be drawn into conversation with anyone at the job site.

A Good Union Member Knows Her/His Rights

S/he has the right not to work behind any picket line.
S/he has to right to decide for her/himself whether to walk off a job being picketed.
S/he understands that her/his trade may be under attack next.
S/he knows that a two gate system means a picket line and s/he has the right not to work, no matter how many gates the employer sets up.



Don't talk to the union about a union picket. Turn around and leave. Try again tomorrow. The boss and company will figure out real quick that you aren't coming in to work, and why. (The last para is my basic paraphrase and sum up.)

[BigmanPigman]

11. While subtitute teaching I walked the line with the striking teachers.

You NEVER cross a picket line!!! I was hired because the teachers remembered I did that when the school district was finally hiring teachers and requested me for their staff. I eventually became the union rep.

Now they are all going on strike I read. Glad to see unity. Without it unions have reduced power.

[Stonepounder]

13. I was never in a union. The jobs I worked didn't have them.

By the same token I deeply respect unions and I never in my life crossed a picket line. You don't have to be a union member to respect unions and know what a picket line means!

[demosincebirth]

16. Kudos to you!

[Maxheader]

15. You can't go wrong when your Union is strong...

Proud ex member of local 647..minneapolis..Boilermaker.

Sure..be nice if the corps played fair..kept wages up, health-care costs down..work in this country..

But they don't...They wouldn't be enjoying those big expensive homes and toys without the labor
of YOU AND ME!!!..

And some of the bastards just move their whole company out of the country..
#$@% $% the unions they say...I say let those corps that have done this..
go live in those countries..get the hell out of this one...

[elocs]

17. The sad & simple truth is that we are living in the twilight of unionism in America.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Just 10.5% of workers are union members. Just over 1/3 of public sector workers are union members compared to 6.4% of private sector workers.
These days, when it comes to strikes or slow downs, unions are not going to get much sympathy from the general public unless they have some personal connection to unions or a strong political belief about them.
That gets even worse if the public perceives striking workers as already being well paid and having good benefits in comparison to them.

As a retired union worker who is collecting a Teamsters retirement benefit, any prolonged strike hurts everyone--particularly the workers for whom it will take a long time for them to financially get back to where they were before the strike.
Plus, any kind of violence by union members as a result of those crossing the picket lines will be a PR nightmare for the union in the eyes of the public.

Reality may suck, but it is what it is.

[Maxheader]

18. Yes...

When I worked at boeing wichita..the iam would go out occasionally. The eagle..local newspaper..had a few comments to the editors about spoiled aircraft workers want more more more...