A Union On Strike

Once again, no excuse for not posting. Nevertheless, happy 4th of July to everyone. I have been working a lot this past week (six ten hour days if weather permits. As you know from my previous post the unionized part of our company are on strike. Some months ago I volunteered to help out in other areas if a strike actually happened. For the past week that is what I have been doing. I have been apprehensive about posting this because I wasn't sure how the friends I have that are union members would take it if they found out. It is a huge deal if a union member crosses the picket line and comes back to work. I am not in a union shop but I am currently doing their job. I think I have finally figured out how I really feel about it. For me it comes down to preserving my own job. The connection is not an easy one but it is there. We are coming to the end of the current program. I believe the USA is doing its best to acquire new contracts and continue as the prime contractor for Americas manned space program. If our company were crippled by a strike we no longer look like an organized cohesive group that can perform this very complicated task. Therefore I volunteered to help out to keep things running smoothly. Things are running so smooth in fact that the shop I am working in has about one third the people it usually has and we have made up the majority of the backlogged jobs, supported everywhere we have been requested and have even gotten a little ahead on the regular preventive maintenance inspections (which were also behind) since the strike began just over two weeks ago. This efficiency is not isolated. I have heard similar stories from numerous other union shops. Talking to the other guys back in my regular shop, getting support has been easier and faster than the regular workforce and with just as much skill. It seems that all of USA is a great deal more efficient with the union on strike. Hopefully the union will realize its mistake and bring the workers back soon. Unfortunately for them I think the past couple of weeks have have been an eye opener for quite a bit of USA's upper management. Things will definitely change when and if they come back to work.

In case your curious about how a union runs a strike here is a link to a blog they set up to keep there members informed about what is going on and keep them motivated. It sounds more like continued brainwashing to me, but decide for yourself.