April 7, 2016 • 53 mins
Labor strikes are the last resort of a workforce frustrated with low pay or dangerous working conditions. A big part of winning a wage war is having the public in your side. Learn all about strikes in today's episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tour, tour, tour, tour, live shows, live shows. That that
that a tour. It's baseball season. Yeah, that's right, it is.
That means we're going on tour, right, Uh, Josh, Seattle
and Portland are sold out. I know we'll see you
guys there. Denver, Colorado, you are very close to selling out.
Uh yeah, Colorado. Denver is like right there, right, And
(00:23):
then in houston's doing okay, it's respectable, but it's definitely
Denver was like, give us a ticket. Yeah. And I
gotta say, Houston, we really stuck our neck out for you.
After Dallas and Austin. We heard from a lot of
Houston nights about how big your city is, so prove it.
Oh what they called throwing on the gauntlet. Uh. And
we have two more shows to announce, Is that correct, sir?
(00:44):
That's right. We are doing Night one and Night to
at the Bell House in New York City. That's right
in Brooklyn, New York. Bellhouse has been our home there
for many years. And coming back home. Yeah, these are
very special shows because they're smaller, smaller than places we've
been playing, and we love it there and I think
it's it seems gonna be pretty great. Yeah, so that's June.
(01:07):
Tickets go on sale Friday Friday, that is correct, and
we will have links at our square space website s
y s K live dot com. Make sure you buy
tickets to the correct night that you want to go.
Oh yeah, and it's gonna be the same show both nights, right,
be the same show both nights. And now all I
need our tickets from Lynn Manuel Miranda to go see
(01:32):
Hamilton's on Broadway. Oh yeah, sure, sign me up for
those as well. Pleased. It's pretty tough ticket to get.
So if you're a listener, sir, you can come to
our show. Yeah, oh yeah, totally, even though it conflicts
with the Hamilton's performance. Yeah, that's what I so like,
we said, s y s K live dot com powered
by squarespace, where you can find all the tour deeds. Yeah,
(01:53):
we'll see you soon, Brooklyn. Welcome to stuff you should
know from House to Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant,
and there's Jerry over there I can hear, and this
(02:15):
is Deis. We're working and that means we're not on strike,
that's right, strike, strike, Strike. Remember the flint Stones Betty
Walma used to wander around shouting strike Why because they
were tired of being no recollection of that. I just
remember seeing them like pumping their hands in the air
(02:37):
shouting strike. Interesting. So, uh, as a little background if
you want to go listen first to our show from
how labor unions work. Good one might be a good
little precursor to this because they are tied together like
ham and cheese. Yeah, because you really can't have a
(02:58):
strike without a union, and you can, you can, but
you're probably in trouble if you do. For the most part.
I mean, technically, we could all that how stuff works,
decided to go on strike and we're not in an union. Yeah,
Like we could all walk out and say we want
free lunch or we're not podcasting anymore. Free lunch would
(03:21):
be great. So technically you could do it, but I
don't know about the legalities of stuff like that. Um,
well that's the thing, okay, So we could do it,
You're absolutely right, but we wouldn't be afforded the same
legal protections that strikers who are striking under a labor
union are. That's what that's what's our boss would probably say,
(03:45):
let me see if we can work out free lunch.
Would be like heyn, we burned a strike on that. Um.
It would be a problem if we burned a strike
on that because strikes are the they're the last um.
They're basically the last resort of any labor union. Yeah,
labor union doesn't say, uh, you know, I wish we
(04:07):
were paid more, let's go on strike tomorrow. Yeah, I know,
it doesn't happen like now. You try to work it
out with your employer. First sit down at the negotiating table. Uh. Well,
we're jumping ahead here. Okay, let's get to some history.
You want to talk about this, the history of strikes. Yeah,
not a lot is known about the very first strike. Um,
but they do know that the word was used in
(04:28):
the seventeen hundreds. And it probably means because I kind
of wondered what does that mean, it probably means came
from like to strike a blow, Yeah, like a punch
in the mouth from strike someone from labor to capital.
That's right, just saying hey man, you can't push this around.
And it was a it's a it's a really important
right to be able the striker. It was for a
(04:49):
very long time, because back in the day, if you
UM worked in a town in Massachusetts or something like
that in the late eighteenth century, there's probably one company
in that town, and so therefore that company had what's
called the monopsony, meaning that they were the only employer around.
(05:09):
So they had a they could decide what they paid
you and what were you gonna do. You can't take
a horse fifty miles to work every day to the
next town. So UM the to counteract this monopsony of
the employer the ability for the workers to get together
(05:30):
and say, hey, we are going to not work and
you will not have the product that we make for
you unless we come to some agreement over these labor
conditions and wages and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, that's
who they came from. One of one of the first
strikes was in when some printers in Philadelphia said, you
(05:51):
know what, we want to raise in The company said nope, no,
thank you, We'll pay you just like you're paid. He said,
all right, well you know what, we're not going to anything.
And it worked. They quit working and they ended up
getting their rays right. The owner was like, I haven't
expected this outcome. How dare you so? Because it worked.
(06:12):
Over the next few decades, other people said the same thing.
If we're all in the same profession, let's some band
together and say we want to be treated more fairly.
We're making this company a ton of money. They're paying
a squat. It's not safe, we're working too long. Oh yeah,
little kids are working here. Yeah, child labor is going on.
So this is we're powerless as an individual to walk
(06:35):
in and say, you know, I want more paid, because
they will say you're fired. But if we band together,
we actually have some bargaining power, exactly. And that's what
that's what a union is. It's an assemblage of workers
who share some sort of commonality. Either they work for
the same company. Usually they work in the same trade.
So like electrical workers in a company plant, well, all
(06:59):
the wong to one union, and the upholsterers will belong
to another union, and so on and so forth. Right,
so you have a bunch of different unions and in
the same plant for working for the same company. Um.
But so usually the thing that binds workers in a
union is their trade, right, Um. And when they get
together and they say no more, we're not working anymore.
(07:20):
Until you guys do something that is power and that's
the strike. But again they're supposed to be bargaining that
comes before this. Yeah, strikes are a bit of a
double edged sword. Uh, your company is going to very
quickly cease to make money because things aren't being produced
a lot of money, which is a big deal. But you,
as strikers are also not making money. Um. You might
(07:44):
have what's called a war chest built up when your
union has set aside money in case of a strike,
but it's not gonna carry you through a prolonged strike
and it's not gonna be your regular paycheck. So a
war chest is not going to solve your problem ultimately
if if it becomes a battle of wills, both sides
are dug in for months and even years. And apparently
(08:04):
so Europe's very well known for strikes. UM, Like, it
seems like France was striking like every couple of weeks
for a while. They're right, Um, but it turns out
that the US has struck gone on strike how about that? Um,
about as often as Europe has from something like I
think the eighteen eighties till the nineteen seventies, and um
(08:28):
has actually had bloodier strikes and longer strikes, so that
the mean number of days of strike lasts in the
United States or did between eighteen eighty one and nineteen
seventy four, was twenty days. So yeah, if you're like
a wage laborer, that's three weeks paid that you're losing
out on. That's the meat. You know. It could go
(08:48):
longer than that. Yeah, and that's exactly what is going
on in the in the boardroom for the company is there.
You know, how long can we wait them out? How
long can they wait us out? There's a game of
chess sent a lot of ways. Uh. And like you said,
it is a last resort. A union can't just call
a strike. Um, a union leader or the upper management
(09:08):
of the union can't just say we're going on strike.
You gotta put it to a vote. And it's not
like like generally it's eight or up. Uh. People have
to be behind it, and which is what you want,
because if your your labor pool isn't strong and your
union isn't strong, then you're gonna lose. Exactly, They're gonna
start crossing that picket line. We'll get to all that,
of course, but but even beyond that, the union leadership
(09:32):
has to be smart enough to say, guys like, we
know that eight percent of you are voting fists and
that's the gender neutral guys. Stop your email now. Um,
but this is a terrible time to go on strike, Like,
we don't have public sympathy. Um, you have big time.
The economics are against us. The brand recognition and brand
(09:54):
loyalty of the company we work for is through the roof.
It's a terrible time to strike. So if that happens
and the workers are disaffected enough, um, they might they
may say no, we're going on strike anyway without the
blessing of the union. That's what's called a wildcat strike. Yes.
And also I think the name of a Blackfoot album?
(10:16):
Who's Blackfoot? What are they newish? Are they from the
seventies eighties? They were one? They were a Southern rock band.
Uh oh Atlanta Rhythm Section. No, I used to love
them too, black Yeah, they were I think like either
two thirds or three quarters of the band were Native
(10:38):
American and so they were Blackfoot. And the lead singer
was in a very early incarnation of Leonard SKINNERD and
is now with Leonard Skinnerd again. I see Rickey Medlock Wow. Yeah,
I've never heard of Blackfoot. Yeah, I'm sorry for that.
Blackfoot guys they were they were a hard rock southern
rock band. It sounds like something i'd like. Yeah, go
(11:01):
listen to the Blackfoot. So on good morning, Okay, good morning. Uh.
If you want to not strike, one of the first
things you might do if you have a disagreement as
file a grievance. Uh. And like I said, when it
comes time to sit down, hopefully you can both work
things out at the old bargaining table. Well, and the
bargaining table. This is like, this is a very important point.
(11:22):
Strikes occur almost across the board during contract negotiations. They
don't happen during contracts or else you're in a major violation,
usually of the contract itself. This is our contracts coming up,
and we've been thinking, we really don't want mandatory tonsillectomies.
(11:43):
We want that remove from this past contract. And the
employer says, no tons electomies for everybody, and then you
you have a problem. There's a there's an issue right here,
it's at the bargaining table. It's contract related, and it
can conceivably lead to a strike. So there's differ kinds
of strikes. Um, there are a few that proceede the
(12:04):
full on no one's coming to work strike. Uh, kind
of like a warning shot strike, as you can have
a sick out or sick in, and that is when
you're just sort of saying, here's what could happen. Company owner,
factory owner, we're all calling in sick today, and this
is what it's gonna be like. Imagine this for days
(12:25):
and days in a row. Yeah, you'd hate it, factory owner.
But we're all not feeling well. Yeah, And there's actually
some professions that legally give up the right to strike
but could still conceivably do this. So, like cops sometimes
come down with what's called blue flu, which is a
structured sick out among cops, and it's still following the
(12:48):
letter because each cop is saying, I'm taking a sick day,
which I am legally afforded, but all of them are
taking it at the same time. So it's a problem. Yeah,
a lot of times, like, uh, if it's a public
service that people really count on, fireman cops, Yeah, they
can't take they can't go on strike, but they can't
stick out. We can't strike, but we can stick out
or we generally is what we've done is in our contract,
(13:10):
we've agreed to arbitration as a means to settle disputes. Right,
but we can just yeah, blue flu um. There's also
a slowdown too, which I mean, this is the most
passive aggressive any think it really is. It's like, oh,
let me make sure that that bolt is on again?
Where was that bolt? Where was that rich? Where did
(13:34):
I put that? Right? It's where um everybody goes to work.
But they do their work very slowly, and again they're
able to get away with this because they're following the rules.
So if you look at the rule book or handbook
of an employee at say any kind of manufacturing plant,
their job is probably on paper way more detailed and
(13:57):
structured than the actual job they harry out. Is just
a practical matter. Right. If they started to do their
job strictly by the book, the amount of time it
takes them to make a widget would slow down dramatically
is compared to win. They cut the corners that they
normally cut, and the company is like, yeah, cut those
(14:18):
corners because we want to get more widgets out the door.
So is that what they're doing during a slowdown is
they're technically following everything to the letter. That's what the
Grabster says. This is a Grabster joint. Joint, by the way,
that's right, the great Grabanowski. Yeah, the Grabsters suggests that
that is the case for a slowdown usually, although you
could also just do your job slower. But if you're
doing it by the book, when your boss comes on's
(14:40):
like what you better speed up? Hey, I'm making sure
that we're following all the safety precautions. Uh. And then
finally you can have a sit down. Well, there's a
couple more you can have a sit down strike. That is, um,
that may be the most aggressive. That's when you actually
to go to work and you don't work and you
don't leave right Like, you have people bring you food
(15:02):
and water, and you're like, I'm gonna sit on my
stool so no one else can sit on it and
do that job. You're still not your stool. A good point. Yeah,
I think that's the most aggressive. I have hardest core
and then an arrow pointing out sit down strike here
on my notes right. Uh. And but it also doesn't
(15:23):
just um, it's not just the most aggressive. It actually
affords some additional protections to the the worker on strike, right,
so one nobody else can come in and do that
work because they're in the way, are on the stool,
um number two. It prevents them from violence in a
lot of ways, or it protects them from violence because
(15:46):
they're hanging around very expensive company machinery. It would be
pretty stupid to come at somebody like that with a
lead pipe because if they duck, you just broke the
company's machine. And if that sounds crazy, will we will
go in over the myriad examples of violence and strikes
and strike busters just disgusting. Yeah. So if you think,
what do you mean, no one would come after them violently, Yeah,
(16:07):
it happens. Listen, Pollyanna, just the wait wake up. Uh.
So it also keeps the person away from the elements,
like you're not out picketing in the rainy weather of Flint, Michigan, right,
You're just sitting there and in the nice plant. That's right.
There can be sympathy strikes. That's when you um. That's
(16:29):
when you either directly or just um, they decide to
call on your brothers and sisters and other unions maybe
in the same industry that feel your pain and they
know it's good for them ultimately as well, so they
will also go on strike to kind of help your cause,
right exactly. And um, some some company may call the
(16:51):
other company be like, dude, you're they're killing me over here.
Give them those concessions please, or else I'm not going
to be able to make dues this month at the
billy An Airs Club. Buffy will kill me or um.
It might also be sympathy strikes in a Remember I said,
in the same plant, you might have an upholsters union,
(17:12):
an electricians union, a plumbers union, um at the same company.
Other non affiliated unions may go on strike as well,
and that will really put some pressure on that company
because they can be like, well, well, we'll catch up
with our backlog of um of upholstery work while these
guys are striking right. Nope, sorry, we're on strike. Two
(17:34):
The company or is just like, oh my god. Well,
and we're gonna get into the very infamous nineteen eighties
air traffic controller strike in great detail later. But one
of the big reasons, uh it didn't work out is
because they failed to get anyone else on board, like
the pilots and the flight attendants and baggage chandelers. None
(17:54):
of them, uh jumped on board with a sympathy strike,
which did not help the air traffic controller. Then you've
got a general strike, which is not usually directed at
a company itself. UM, It's more directed at like a
government because that means basically everybody who works in a
country goes on strike, like we want minimum wage rays
(18:17):
for everybody. And that's one reason why it seems like
France is always striking. It's because when they go on strike,
they go on strike. They typically have general strikes. When
they do, I don't want to say typically, but they
do undertake general strikes, which is basically unheard of here
in the United States. UM, and it makes big news
when it happens for UM. So there's just some time
(18:41):
that types of strikes. Yeah, should we take a break,
Let's all right, but we're coming back. We're not going
on strike. Don't worry, so chuck. UM. We talked about
(19:10):
different kinds of strikes. Right. One of the things that
you think of when you, uh, when you go on strike,
or when you think of strike is people picketing, like
you'll very frequently see UM people around Atlanta especially. It
seems like a lot of construction companies have aggrieved employees. Yeah, um,
(19:31):
and so the people just be like marching out in
front of the uh the like a building that's going up,
headquarters maybe, or a construction site, and they'll say like,
shame on whoever for employing non union workers or whatever.
Because that's a big, big part of the UM the
ability to go on strike is you need to have
a solid union, right and one way, especially early on
(19:55):
back in the seventeen or no eighteenth and early nineteenth
century we're talking about in New England. UM, there was
this idea that if you were not a part of
the union, the union members would be like, I'm not
working if that person is working here, like you have
to fire that person. So if you didn't join a union,
(20:15):
you had a hard time finding jobs. And so if
you're a union, one of your big tactics is you
need to make sure your membership is almost complete across
the company or else you're not going to be able
to put real pressure on that company if half the
workers can still show up to work because they're not
union members, so they are not going on strike. Good point.
(20:36):
Picketing is one of the main reasons you picket is
to draw. Like we mentioned earlier, get the public on
your side. It's a big part of it. And and
also to embarrass the company. Yeah, and this probably says
a lot about who I am. But whenever I see that,
I always think in my head, well, there's some employees
that are clearly getting screwed by the man. What do
they have to say? Which is exactly what they want?
(20:58):
That's why they're out there with the picket signs or
sometimes they're chanting something or singing a song. Uh, and
what they do they sing songs like you know, songs
about the picket they're not they're singing Stairway to Heaven
or like the Freddy Krueger nursery rhyme? What's that one? Yeah,
they should do that picket line. Ever, when two strikers
(21:22):
coming for you, uh, if you cross the picket line,
you literally have to. That's why they stand out in
front of the factory or the HQ. You have to
walk through them and literally crossed the picket line. To
be what's known as a scab. And you can be
a you can be part of that union and decided
to go back to work, or you can be just
(21:44):
an outside person who says I actually need work. And
I'm not in your union. I'm so, I'm just gonna
I don't know you guys, sorry, ladies, pardon me. I'm
a scab. Or you might be a professional from another
part of the country that the owner basically has shipped
in to replace you, which we'll get into all the
(22:05):
legalities of that later. But crossing a picket line is
not a shining moment for anybody who's doing it. No, um,
And where does the word scab come from? My friend?
Apparently it has to do with, um, how people used
to shun people with infectious diseases. The The sentiment was
that if you crossed the picket line, you would be
(22:26):
treated in the exact same way as if you had
the plague. Everybody's gonna keep you over there, no one's
gonna talk to You're not gonna be able to find
a job, You're going to be cast out of society.
You're you're yes, so you're it was shortened to scab,
Which is I mean like that that amount of pressure
is tremendous. Yeah, And um, picketing doesn't always mean you're
(22:49):
on strike. A lot of times it's another warning shot.
It's called informational picketing. When you sort of threatened and say, hey,
you know we're out here picketing. You know, this does
not look for you know, And that's that's the key thing.
Like if you go on strike, you want the public
to know you're on strike, because the public is like,
why you're on strike? What's the problem? I want to
(23:10):
know about that? UM. And it's gotten some some groups
have gotten a lot better at UM at manipulating the media,
using social media to get the message across, like the
Fight for fifteen where they they're trying to raise the
minimum wage fifteen dollars. They've been putting a tremendous amount
(23:31):
of pressure on McDonald's. They've got a study released that
found that UM like just a ridiculous percentage of fast
food workers, especially at McDonald's but in other other at
other fast food restaurants in the US, two are reliant
on UM welfare on public assistance, and that the way
(23:52):
the study framed it and the way that the news
reports framed it was that McDonald's was basically using your
text payer dollars to supplement the meager income they were
paying these people, rather than actually pay their employees a
living wage. They were just being like you handle it taxpayers,
We're not going to pay them that much. And it
worked big time, like it made all the news cycles.
(24:12):
That really changed a lot of people's perspectives. And it
went hand in hand with a strike in general strike,
well not a general strike, but a strike that was
um carried out I think in April of last year
across the world, and it really put a lot of
pressure on McDonald's. Didn't do anything, but it's still put
a lot of pressure on McDonald's and and I think
(24:33):
ultimately probably will lead to uh a change in the
minimum voyage. Yeah, that's all. That's a tricky subject. Have
we talked about that. No, we should do one on
that because I'm a champion of the people. I think
people should make a living wage too. But you know,
my wife as a small business owner, and it would
put her out of business. So like when you hear McDonald's,
(24:54):
you think huge corporation, they can afford it. But what
about when you're a small business has eight employees and
your your cost of what do you call it cost
of business? Not like cost of business, but your wages
go up. No, it's a very tough thing to say.
Across the board, everyone has to do this. But so
(25:16):
like with Obamacare, and if anybody knows what some solutions
are to that, we'd love to hear it because this
this fascinates me as well, and it it feels very important.
Um but it seems like with Obamacare, Uh, there was
a concession made where employers with X number of employees
are less weren't mandated to provide healthcare to their employees. Yea,
(25:40):
so maybe it would be like that revenue is less
than a certain threshold or whatever. Then small business can
be a lot of things like you should. There's no
reason that um, mama and McDonald's should be in the
same basket of considerations for just about anything that has
to do with wages or taxes or anything like that,
you know. And it's just so disingenuous to be like, well,
(26:02):
you know what about small business. It's like, well, let
the small businesses speak. You can't point to these guys
like that doesn't matter to you, international conglomerate. Yeah. Plus
McDonald's that just raised the price on everything on their
menu by one penny and it probably covers it. I
think I've heard a stat like that. I don't think
it's just a penny, but it's something very meager like that,
(26:24):
but good one. But as we'll learn as well, it
really is. As we'll learn though UM in this this episode.
The history of strikes and of UM labor laws and
the treatment of employees and UM the government like backing
employers has has been a history of like huge, massive
(26:49):
radical acts and then like that changed everything, and then
that that that side one and then the other side
like bides its time and then bam they strike or
they carry out some crazy action and like it changes everything.
The history has been like kind of seesawed like that. Yeah,
and it's pretty fascinating. Maybe that provides balance in some way,
(27:09):
you know overall. I guess, uh, should we talk about
sports strikes? Yeah? Uh. They often are get way more
attention than other kinds of strikes because there's so much
money and people in the United States love their sports
value sports over say electricians, you know, of course they do. Uh.
(27:32):
The NFL, the Football League, UM, went on strike over
free agency, which if you don't know anything about football,
that means after your your first contract is up, that
means you are a free agent and you can say
I want to go sign with any other team in
the league. Yeah, I don't understand that. What what were
the like that makes total sense? Like, how would that
even be a term? Well? Free agency? What are what
(27:54):
were the teams wanting the owners? They wanted if you
for you to have the rights to control that player
for as long as you wanted that player. Oh god, Um,
all the sports leagues are so different and how they
handle things too, it's really interesting. Um, and I know
not many. We don't have a ton of sports fans
(28:17):
because historically our sports UH done poorly. But we'll go
over this real quick. They struck in strike in uh
in the middle of a seat and not in the middle,
but at the beginning of the players walked. After two
games into the eight seven season and uh for three games,
the NFL said, you know what, We're gonna bring in
(28:39):
scab replacement players. Yeah, and it was a disaster with
the cigarettes. Yeah. I mean people some college players, some
players and other like the Canadian League. Uh, some dudes
that were just like, hey, I used to play football,
Like we're literally out there out of shape. I mean
some ESPN is a great article that season, how like
(29:01):
you know, the quarterbacks run the huddle of being like
we just want to be in the huddle as long
as possible that nobody can catch their breath because there
you know, this guy was a fat corporate cat that
he wanted to be an offensive lineman scab Blair because
he played in college. So it was a disaster. UM.
They paid him about four grand a game, and um
the quality play was terrible, as you would expect. UH.
(29:24):
Some high profile profile players ended up crossing UH and
being scabs, like Joe Montana, Tony Dorsett, Lawrence Taylor, Steve
Largent and it was a big deal. Um And eventually
they returned to work uh and without any resolution, which
happens a lot of times. Thanks to Joe Montana baseball
and nineteen they've gone on strike a lot. UM. In
(29:47):
nine four though, the MLB Players Association said they said,
we don't want a salary cap on our team, which
if you don't know what that means, that means a
team can only spend so much money on its players.
Players hate that because they want as much money as possible.
Owners love it because they're like, oh, what am I
gonna do with all this extra money? Exactly? UH And
(30:09):
in UH in August, sort of late in the season,
they actually canceled the rest of the season in the
World Series. Yeah stunk because the Braves were that was
in the middle of their big run and they oh, yeah,
that's right, you know, like we lost an opportunity to
lose another World Series. We won that one though, right,
yeah one. So Um. Apparently this contract dispute was still
(30:33):
going on into spring training, and some players went and
reported to spring training despite the strikes still going on. UM,
and those players were banned for life for the Players Union,
I don't think for life, which means that even after retirement,
they weren't eligible for any royalties that you get from
(30:53):
like your number being licensed or being on like um
MLB or what retirement edition. Yeah. Um, but I mean
you can, you know, make some checks depending on how
great a player you were and how big your legend
was for many years after you retire. But if you
cross the picket lines and went to spring training, Nope,
(31:13):
you're out. I don't think I knew that Hockey National
Hockey League historically has only had one official strike, but
they have been locked out, which we'll get to lockouts shortly,
but they've been locked out a couple of times, and um,
the entire uh two thousand four season was canceled the
(31:35):
whole thing, and UM hockey in Major League Baseball had
a much more difficult time recovering from there canceled season
and canceled worst World Series than the NFL. Uh from
their scab issue. I got a scab issue. And in
two thousand twelve the referees NFL referees were locked out.
(31:56):
Remember that they had replacement referees that were just terrible.
Oh yeah, that's right, they were. They actually I think
must have won that concession for the regular referees because
it was that that got so much bad press. Everybody
was so mad, they were making so many bad calls.
I totally forgot about that, like high school referees out
(32:18):
there from NFL games. Yeah. Uh, should we take a break,
I think so. Man, All right, we'll talk about strike
busting and more right after this. No, so checkers. Um,
(32:49):
if you were an employer and your employees go on strike,
you don't just go, oh, fiddle sticks. I guess I'll
give them what they want. There are um plenty of
other things you can do, some legal, some sub legal,
and some in between. Right, Um. And one of the
first things that employers did when they were faced with
(33:11):
strikes early on was higher armed mercenaries to basically beat
up and threatened and harass the striking workers. Yeah, notably
the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They did a lot of detective work,
but they were also notable for being strike breakers. And
(33:31):
some of the things they do are legit, like uh,
guarding scabs as they go to work so they're not harassed,
or protecting the building itself. So it's not you know,
they're not throwing bricks through the windows, but there's also
you know, they're getting beaten up sometimes and intimidated. Well,
not just that, they also may serve as agent provocateurs.
(33:53):
Apparently the Haymarket riot of Costead in Chicago, it was
set off by a bomb, and they think that Pinkerton
detective undercover set that bomb off to like stir this
protest into an angry, violent mob. So they didn't do
anything for money. Yeah, and apparently I was reading that
um Pinkerton was hired to investigate the Occupy Wall Street
(34:15):
protesters in Zuccati Park. Still at it, Yeah, and so
Pinkerton for they deserve their own podcast episode for sure.
But very early on they were hired as basically armed thugs.
Like you said, they did do protective services, but they
also did a lot of violent and illegal stuff as
(34:36):
well on the behalf of these factory owners. And there
was one in particular where the um the factory owners.
It was Andrew Carnegie actually in Homestead, Pennsylvania. There's a
steel mill there, and at the steel mill and I
think four the workers went on strike. So Carnegie brought
(34:57):
in some Hungarian and Slava steel workers to replace them,
and in Hungarian and Slavic steel workers want on strike themselves,
and more workers were brought into replace them. And both
times Pinkerton detectives were there to escort the scabs across
the picket line, even when those scabs they escorted turned
(35:19):
into the striking workers themselves. But it's kind of like
one of those things where it's like, uh, maybe the
couple second time, it might be you right now with
the scabs you brought in go on strike. Two, maybe
we should pay them a little more. That's not what happened.
There was like a basically what's called the Battle of Homestead,
and it was a battle between the Pinkerton detectives and
(35:40):
these striking workers. And in this case, actually the Pinkerton's
suffered massive losses and casualties. They were beaten by the
town's folk in Homestead UM. Three of them died, and
it actually turned public opinion against the strikers in this case.
(36:00):
But it also taught Pinkerton that, like, it's probably not
good business to like send our boys off to die UM.
So they actually stopped providing strike breaking services over time,
and it it morphed and evolved into more um set
arranging for spies to attend union meetings and things like that.
(36:21):
They're still strike busting going on, it's just not as
overt and physically violent, a little more surreptitious and sneaky.
And then remember we said wake up Pollyanna earlier. That's
a good example of it. Another good example is um
the Great strike of eighteen seventy seven, which started in Martinsburg,
West Virginia, and actually spread very quickly to towns like
(36:43):
Baltimore and St. Louis, and it made its way to
to Pittsburgh, which was another which was so the Homestead
one was just a few years earlier. In eighteen seventy seven,
there was another strike and a bunch of townspeople were
out supporting the strikers and the UM. I think the
State National Guard came in and opened fire on the
(37:04):
supporters of the strikers and killed twenty people, including a
woman in three small children. So, like, strikes have gotten
very bloody, especially early on, and the fact that people
were dying over these labor disputes really kind of shaped
(37:26):
public sentiment towards violence during strikes, and um it helps
straighten things up a lot more, I think over time agreed. UM. Well,
I know we covered it in the Union's podcast, but
we should talk a little bit about the Wagner Act
and Taft Hartley because they play very heavily into strikes.
The Wagner Act a k a. The National Labor Relations
(37:49):
Act is it was what officially said you have a right,
among other things, you have a right to strike, you
can form unions, you can go on strike. And it's
specifically he says you have a right to strike. Yeah,
you are legally allowed to do so if you you know,
And they didn't specify like what kind of votes like
(38:10):
it was that was all up to the union, right,
but it said you are allowed to settle labor disputes
by striking. That's right explicitly that is right. And then
the Supreme Court came along and said, no, let's let's
weaken that a little bit. Yeah. N Supreme Court said, um,
you know what, you can't fire people for joining union
(38:30):
or going and strike, But what you can do is
permanently replaced them with another worker. Uh. And if you
want to know the difference, there isn't much. Technically, if
you are a replaced permanently replaced, you can go back
to that job. If the person who replaced you quits
or retires, are aspired, and that position becomes available again,
(38:52):
you have the right to go back to that position. Yeah,
and get your job. That could be twenty years from
now or never. Ye, like Framer with the bagel strike, remember, yeah,
and so it is legal to permanently replace somebody. And
and when it comes down to a strike, this um
weapon in the employer's arsenal is as good as being
(39:16):
able to fire striking workers in a lot of cases. Yeah. Absolutely,
So that was a big one. And a lot of people,
especially pro labor people, um point to this and say
what the heck Supreme Court like their Congress explicitly passed
an act that says, well, vertally, you have a right
to strike. There's nowhere in American law that says employers
(39:38):
have a right to replace their striking workers, and yet
the Supreme Court has aired on the side of employers rights. Well,
I think what the Supreme Court said was, sure, you
can go on strike, but we we're not gonna say
you can go on strike with no repercussions. Um taft.
Hartley Amendment came around in n and did a few things.
(39:59):
That a stab what's the National Labor Review Board, which
is a body that hears grievances on strikes and unions, Uh,
supposedly impartial to that. Yeah. After that, all of the like, um,
all the lawsuits are cases that have to do with strikes,
are all somebody versus the nlr B. Oh yeah, good point. Uh.
(40:23):
And the other thing it did was, um it did
weekend unions somewhat by saying you can't have a secondary boycott,
which is when you strike against another related business uh
in that industry. Uh that's original like that's targeted by
the original strike. Uh. You can't have a closed shop,
which is where you have to join a union as
(40:45):
terms of your employment immediately. Yeah, like right away. But
they did allow for what's known as a union shop,
which means you have to join a union within the
first within a time period thirty days of higher although
most states now have taken into their own hands in
some cases not most, but to uh to be a
right to work state, which Georgia is, which means the
(41:07):
union shop is irrelevant, right. I wonder how many right
to work states there are? Actually, I meant to look
that up. I don't know Georgia. It's so that's such
a um. It's such a cynical way to put it.
A right to work, like it's the workers right to
not join a union. Like that's not a pro um
employer law, you know. Um, so chuck. Another another tool
(41:29):
in the employers um toolbox. I guess yeah, that that
makes sense is the lockout, and it's apparently being used
more and more these days. Um. The lockout is like
the reverse strike. It's where the employer says you can't
come to work, even if you want to, even if
(41:50):
you want to stop striking. And there's rules and regulations
surrounding lockouts as well. Um. The Supreme Court or Taft Hartley,
one of the two, said uh uh, you can as
an employer lock your employees out once a contract is expired,
so you can't do it during the contract. But if
you're an employer and you're saying, I really really really
(42:13):
want to shove my terms down your throat, you have
to accept them, and the union saying no, we're not
going to accept that, you can sit there and negotiate
and negotiate and negotiate, and then once that contract expires
during negotiations, you can say you're locked out, you can't
come to work. And the Supreme Court also ruled that
you are, as an employer, allowed to temporarily replace those
(42:36):
workers that you've locked out. Right, so l very much so, right,
So you're allowed to replace them and continue on with
your business as usual. And then if you're you remember
you're faced with three options. One you can go find
work at another company. Two, you can accept the terms,
and then three what's becoming an increasing tactic is you
(43:00):
can vote to dissolve the union. Right that, even when
you come back and say, okay, well accept your terrible contract,
the employer can go you know what, I changed my mind.
I actually don't want this union in my company any longer.
So I'll tell you what. If you guys vote to
dissolve your union. UM, then we will UH will go
(43:21):
with this contract and the lockout will be over. That
happened very famously in Minnesota in August of two thousand eleven,
the American Crystal Sugar Company found that they their employers,
I'm sorry, employees found that they were locked out, and
UH it went on. It's one of the longest labor disruptions,
(43:41):
like major labor disruptions we've had, went on for twenty
two months. DRED employees were locked out. By the time
it was all over, only four hundred of those original
hundred came back those almost two years later, and it
took UH. Basically Crystal Sugar kept saying this is our
only offer, this is our only offer, every time they
(44:02):
went back to negotiate, this is our final offer. So
it took five votes over the course of almost two
years UM until they eventually relented and UM accepted that
same offer like they never changed the offer. UH. And
supposedly there was the CEO Dave Berg was caught on
(44:23):
audio tape at a shareholder conference saying basically admitting that
they were trying to bust the union and comparing the
union to a tumor that had to be removed. Yeah,
he said, we have to treat the disease, and that's
what we're doing here. And then in three months into
the lockout, he told shareholders, we mapped this out a
long time ago at some point that tumors got to
come out, and that's what we're doing. And it worked. Yeah,
(44:46):
it did, so then we should probably we should end
with the Reagan Air Traffic Controller strike. Man, I remember
this so in that air traffic controllers went on strike
because they felt that the f a A didn't value
their work enough, that their work week was too long,
that their pay was too low, and that they're working
(45:09):
conditions led to unsafe conditions for travelers, all legit stuff.
When all of them um thousand of the seventeen thousand,
five hundred and at the time they were the Professional
Air Traffic Controllers Organization pat CO. So um. We talked
earlier about how a good labor union leadership will say,
(45:32):
even though you guys want to go on strike, this
is a terrible time to do it. Well. Pat CO
did not do that. They went on strike at a
time when the economy was not doing that well, when
Reagan had about a percent approval he'd just been shot
and recovered, so it came back like a total hero
and um, he was riding high and felt pretty emboldened. Actually.
(45:54):
And the reason why the union went on strike anyway
was because they had supported Reagan. He had gotten their
support through negotiations and they didn't view him as somebody
who was an enemy. They've mishandled and misjudged this in many, many,
many ways. But supposedly there's a n law that says,
(46:18):
if you're a government agency, your your union can't go
on strike. The thing was in practicality and actuality. There
had been something like twenty two strikes over the last
few decades of government um unions, and it was just
kind of like an unsaid thing. Well, Reagan said, no,
this is illegal, and you guys are you're If you
(46:40):
don't return to work in forty eight hours, you're all fired. Um,
I'm going to arrest your union leaders for carrying out
an illegal uh strike. Yeah, I'm gonna arrest some of
the controllers themselves. Right, I'm gonna freeze the assets of
the union, and then I'm gonna get the union de certified.
And he did all these things. Yeah, I'm gonna put
the FBI is getting involved. If you're a striker, you're
(47:02):
gonna be on their list. Uh. And this was this
all came down to two money. Really it was UM
what they were after would have increased. UH had a
price tech of about seven seventy million. UH. The f
A A countered with a forty million dollar counter offer,
a little bit of a pay hike, UM, a shorter
work week, and pat Co said, now so when they
(47:23):
went on strike, UM, six thousand flights UH were immediately canceled.
And I think they just underestimated how hardcore UH the
f A and Reagan we're gonna be coming back at
them because they had a fan Immediately they said, you
know what, we're gonna have fift these flights back and
running very soon because your supervisors are gonna go to work.
(47:44):
We're gonna rush through matriculation and training school and military
air traffic control and then bring in these military folks
to come in and uh, we don't need you. And
I think within a few weeks UM, they had nearly
of the scheduled flights going, like prioritizing the the most
like trafficked routes and what they considered high priority routes,
(48:05):
which is a terrible irony because that is almost exactly
what the air traffic controllers were looking for, was stretched
out work is rather that they felt was safer, and
that's what that's what Reagan got it to with the replacements. Well, yeah,
and it ended up costing them, I think, twice as
much money as it would have cost them if they
(48:25):
had just agreed to those terms. A lot of people
point to that the fact that they they the f
A ended up changing to what the strikers wanted and
spending twice as much as what they would have just
conceding to it as Reagan changing, um, the the flow
between employer and employees, and he did dramatically after that.
(48:50):
It became much more difficult to strike. And I think
it's it's struck fear into the hearts of workers throughout
the country, Like, oh man, the president himself feels this
way about striking like that, clearly he's gonna back up
the employers in any kind of strike. And it changed
things for sure. Yeah. And I mean not only did
he say you're all fired, he said none of you
(49:12):
can ever work for the government again. Um. And then
Bill Clinton came along and reversed that and said, you
guys can get a job again if you want. He said,
well half of us are dead. Yeah. Well that was
twelve years later when that happened, so that's a good point.
But eventually they the newly hired air traffic controllers, formed
(49:34):
a new union, uh NATKA National Air Traffic Controllers Association,
and um, I think Robert Poley from pat CO said,
you know, ultimately, I think we sort of won because
it ended up costing them more and we got the changes.
But they all there were no winners really because they
lost because all those people got fired Capital one. Yeah,
(49:56):
and that was a big one. At the time. We
talked about getting the public sympathy, they did not have
it because air traffic controllers made more than the average person. Uh.
And like you said, it was a bad time for
the economy and people's flights were getting canceled and they
didn't have what do we call the the sympathy strikers,
so that they were they I don't think they thought
(50:18):
thought it through and they were very much surprised by
Reagan for sure. You're like, he said, what, We're all
fired in two days? So, uh, that's strikes. There's a
lot more too. There's a crazy history that we haven't
even touched on. Um, there's just so much stuff that
that's happened as far as strikes go. Um, you should
definitely if this flick your boat at all, you should
(50:40):
go look up the Flint, Michigan sit in strike of
I think nine eight. Yeah, it was pretty amazing what happened. Yeah,
and we we might should do a an entire show
in the Homestead strike in battle. Yes, that was a
big deal. Yes it is us. Yeah, I think it's
(51:01):
full enough for a show. Okay, Well, in the meantime,
if you want to know more about strikes, you can
type that word in the search bar at how stuff
works dot com. And I said search bar. So it's
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Navy lieutenant
reporting for duty. Hey guys, I'm a lieutenant in the
Navy and I've been listening to your show for a
few years, started listening a while with station in Japan
(51:23):
and have not stopped. You asked about ship name prefixes, UH,
specifically U S S, which indeed is United States ship.
It should be noted that this specifically refers to warships
of the U. S Navy and that. Prefixes for other
ships of the US government are legion. For instance, US
C g C United States Coastcard Cutter, U S N
S United States Naval Ship, non warship, U S A
(51:45):
S United States Armyship, U S A V United States
Army Vessel, and many more. Boutique prefixes that are limited
UH they're of limited use are no longer in use. UH.
Most navies around the world have their own prefix because,
like you said, h MS currently is Her Majesty's ship
or her Majesty's submarine. But when the monarch reigning monarch
(52:06):
is a man, the king would be His Majesty's ship.
Sense and how about these Josh h M C S
IS or Her Majesty's Canadian Ship or h M a
S Australian ship or h M n z S His
Majesty's New Zealand ship. UH. Civilian ships vessels can have
prefixes as well, according to their construction and propulsion, such
(52:29):
as S S I never knew that like S S
MINO sailing ship, wow or steamship or screw steamer. Yeah,
which is the dirtiest of all ships. UH M V
or M slash V for motor vessel. And then my
personal favorite that is Chris speaking n S for nuclear ship.
(52:50):
The number of them is staggering, guys, very respectfully, Chris,
lieutenant in the U. S. Navy. Well, holy Chris, thanks
a lot for that. UM and uh. If you want
to get in touch with us like Chris and shine
some light on some stuff we didn't really know about,
we love that. So you can tweek to us at
s y ESCP podcast. You can join us on Facebook
(53:10):
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us an email to you stuff podcast at how stuff
Works dot com and has always joined us at our
home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com
For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff Works dot com
Tour, tour, tour, tour, live shows, live shows. That that
that a tour. It's baseball season. Yeah, that's right, it is.
That means we're going on tour, right, Uh, Josh, Seattle
and Portland are sold out. I know we'll see you
guys there. Denver, Colorado, you are very close to selling out.
Uh yeah, Colorado. Denver is like right there, right, And
(00:23):
then in houston's doing okay, it's respectable, but it's definitely
Denver was like, give us a ticket. Yeah. And I
gotta say, Houston, we really stuck our neck out for you.
After Dallas and Austin. We heard from a lot of
Houston nights about how big your city is, so prove it.
Oh what they called throwing on the gauntlet. Uh. And
we have two more shows to announce, Is that correct, sir?
(00:44):
That's right. We are doing Night one and Night to
at the Bell House in New York City. That's right
in Brooklyn, New York. Bellhouse has been our home there
for many years. And coming back home. Yeah, these are
very special shows because they're smaller, smaller than places we've
been playing, and we love it there and I think
it's it seems gonna be pretty great. Yeah, so that's June.
(01:07):
Tickets go on sale Friday Friday, that is correct, and
we will have links at our square space website s
y s K live dot com. Make sure you buy
tickets to the correct night that you want to go.
Oh yeah, and it's gonna be the same show both nights, right,
be the same show both nights. And now all I
need our tickets from Lynn Manuel Miranda to go see
(01:32):
Hamilton's on Broadway. Oh yeah, sure, sign me up for
those as well. Pleased. It's pretty tough ticket to get.
So if you're a listener, sir, you can come to
our show. Yeah, oh yeah, totally, even though it conflicts
with the Hamilton's performance. Yeah, that's what I so like,
we said, s y s K live dot com powered
by squarespace, where you can find all the tour deeds. Yeah,
(01:53):
we'll see you soon, Brooklyn. Welcome to stuff you should
know from House to Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant,
and there's Jerry over there I can hear, and this
(02:15):
is Deis. We're working and that means we're not on strike,
that's right, strike, strike, Strike. Remember the flint Stones Betty
Walma used to wander around shouting strike Why because they
were tired of being no recollection of that. I just
remember seeing them like pumping their hands in the air
(02:37):
shouting strike. Interesting. So, uh, as a little background if
you want to go listen first to our show from
how labor unions work. Good one might be a good
little precursor to this because they are tied together like
ham and cheese. Yeah, because you really can't have a
(02:58):
strike without a union, and you can, you can, but
you're probably in trouble if you do. For the most part.
I mean, technically, we could all that how stuff works,
decided to go on strike and we're not in an union. Yeah,
Like we could all walk out and say we want
free lunch or we're not podcasting anymore. Free lunch would
(03:21):
be great. So technically you could do it, but I
don't know about the legalities of stuff like that. Um,
well that's the thing, okay, So we could do it,
You're absolutely right, but we wouldn't be afforded the same
legal protections that strikers who are striking under a labor
union are. That's what that's what's our boss would probably say,
(03:45):
let me see if we can work out free lunch.
Would be like heyn, we burned a strike on that. Um.
It would be a problem if we burned a strike
on that because strikes are the they're the last um.
They're basically the last resort of any labor union. Yeah,
labor union doesn't say, uh, you know, I wish we
(04:07):
were paid more, let's go on strike tomorrow. Yeah, I know,
it doesn't happen like now. You try to work it
out with your employer. First sit down at the negotiating table. Uh. Well,
we're jumping ahead here. Okay, let's get to some history.
You want to talk about this, the history of strikes. Yeah,
not a lot is known about the very first strike. Um,
but they do know that the word was used in
(04:28):
the seventeen hundreds. And it probably means because I kind
of wondered what does that mean, it probably means came
from like to strike a blow, Yeah, like a punch
in the mouth from strike someone from labor to capital.
That's right, just saying hey man, you can't push this around.
And it was a it's a it's a really important
right to be able the striker. It was for a
(04:49):
very long time, because back in the day, if you
UM worked in a town in Massachusetts or something like
that in the late eighteenth century, there's probably one company
in that town, and so therefore that company had what's
called the monopsony, meaning that they were the only employer around.
(05:09):
So they had a they could decide what they paid
you and what were you gonna do. You can't take
a horse fifty miles to work every day to the
next town. So UM the to counteract this monopsony of
the employer the ability for the workers to get together
(05:30):
and say, hey, we are going to not work and
you will not have the product that we make for
you unless we come to some agreement over these labor
conditions and wages and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, that's
who they came from. One of one of the first
strikes was in when some printers in Philadelphia said, you
(05:51):
know what, we want to raise in The company said nope, no,
thank you, We'll pay you just like you're paid. He said,
all right, well you know what, we're not going to anything.
And it worked. They quit working and they ended up
getting their rays right. The owner was like, I haven't
expected this outcome. How dare you so? Because it worked.
(06:12):
Over the next few decades, other people said the same thing.
If we're all in the same profession, let's some band
together and say we want to be treated more fairly.
We're making this company a ton of money. They're paying
a squat. It's not safe, we're working too long. Oh yeah,
little kids are working here. Yeah, child labor is going on.
So this is we're powerless as an individual to walk
(06:35):
in and say, you know, I want more paid, because
they will say you're fired. But if we band together,
we actually have some bargaining power, exactly. And that's what
that's what a union is. It's an assemblage of workers
who share some sort of commonality. Either they work for
the same company. Usually they work in the same trade.
So like electrical workers in a company plant, well, all
(06:59):
the wong to one union, and the upholsterers will belong
to another union, and so on and so forth. Right,
so you have a bunch of different unions and in
the same plant for working for the same company. Um.
But so usually the thing that binds workers in a
union is their trade, right, Um. And when they get
together and they say no more, we're not working anymore.
(07:20):
Until you guys do something that is power and that's
the strike. But again they're supposed to be bargaining that
comes before this. Yeah, strikes are a bit of a
double edged sword. Uh, your company is going to very
quickly cease to make money because things aren't being produced
a lot of money, which is a big deal. But you,
as strikers are also not making money. Um. You might
(07:44):
have what's called a war chest built up when your
union has set aside money in case of a strike,
but it's not gonna carry you through a prolonged strike
and it's not gonna be your regular paycheck. So a
war chest is not going to solve your problem ultimately
if if it becomes a battle of wills, both sides
are dug in for months and even years. And apparently
(08:04):
so Europe's very well known for strikes. UM, Like, it
seems like France was striking like every couple of weeks
for a while. They're right, Um, but it turns out
that the US has struck gone on strike how about that? Um,
about as often as Europe has from something like I
think the eighteen eighties till the nineteen seventies, and um
(08:28):
has actually had bloodier strikes and longer strikes, so that
the mean number of days of strike lasts in the
United States or did between eighteen eighty one and nineteen
seventy four, was twenty days. So yeah, if you're like
a wage laborer, that's three weeks paid that you're losing
out on. That's the meat. You know. It could go
(08:48):
longer than that. Yeah, and that's exactly what is going
on in the in the boardroom for the company is there.
You know, how long can we wait them out? How
long can they wait us out? There's a game of
chess sent a lot of ways. Uh. And like you said,
it is a last resort. A union can't just call
a strike. Um, a union leader or the upper management
(09:08):
of the union can't just say we're going on strike.
You gotta put it to a vote. And it's not
like like generally it's eight or up. Uh. People have
to be behind it, and which is what you want,
because if your your labor pool isn't strong and your
union isn't strong, then you're gonna lose. Exactly, They're gonna
start crossing that picket line. We'll get to all that,
of course, but but even beyond that, the union leadership
(09:32):
has to be smart enough to say, guys like, we
know that eight percent of you are voting fists and
that's the gender neutral guys. Stop your email now. Um,
but this is a terrible time to go on strike, Like,
we don't have public sympathy. Um, you have big time.
The economics are against us. The brand recognition and brand
(09:54):
loyalty of the company we work for is through the roof.
It's a terrible time to strike. So if that happens
and the workers are disaffected enough, um, they might they
may say no, we're going on strike anyway without the
blessing of the union. That's what's called a wildcat strike. Yes.
And also I think the name of a Blackfoot album?
(10:16):
Who's Blackfoot? What are they newish? Are they from the
seventies eighties? They were one? They were a Southern rock band.
Uh oh Atlanta Rhythm Section. No, I used to love
them too, black Yeah, they were I think like either
two thirds or three quarters of the band were Native
(10:38):
American and so they were Blackfoot. And the lead singer
was in a very early incarnation of Leonard SKINNERD and
is now with Leonard Skinnerd again. I see Rickey Medlock Wow. Yeah,
I've never heard of Blackfoot. Yeah, I'm sorry for that.
Blackfoot guys they were they were a hard rock southern
rock band. It sounds like something i'd like. Yeah, go
(11:01):
listen to the Blackfoot. So on good morning, Okay, good morning. Uh.
If you want to not strike, one of the first
things you might do if you have a disagreement as
file a grievance. Uh. And like I said, when it
comes time to sit down, hopefully you can both work
things out at the old bargaining table. Well, and the
bargaining table. This is like, this is a very important point.
(11:22):
Strikes occur almost across the board during contract negotiations. They
don't happen during contracts or else you're in a major violation,
usually of the contract itself. This is our contracts coming up,
and we've been thinking, we really don't want mandatory tonsillectomies.
(11:43):
We want that remove from this past contract. And the
employer says, no tons electomies for everybody, and then you
you have a problem. There's a there's an issue right here,
it's at the bargaining table. It's contract related, and it
can conceivably lead to a strike. So there's differ kinds
of strikes. Um, there are a few that proceede the
(12:04):
full on no one's coming to work strike. Uh, kind
of like a warning shot strike, as you can have
a sick out or sick in, and that is when
you're just sort of saying, here's what could happen. Company owner,
factory owner, we're all calling in sick today, and this
is what it's gonna be like. Imagine this for days
(12:25):
and days in a row. Yeah, you'd hate it, factory owner.
But we're all not feeling well. Yeah, And there's actually
some professions that legally give up the right to strike
but could still conceivably do this. So, like cops sometimes
come down with what's called blue flu, which is a
structured sick out among cops, and it's still following the
(12:48):
letter because each cop is saying, I'm taking a sick day,
which I am legally afforded, but all of them are
taking it at the same time. So it's a problem. Yeah,
a lot of times, like, uh, if it's a public
service that people really count on, fireman cops, Yeah, they
can't take they can't go on strike, but they can't
stick out. We can't strike, but we can stick out
or we generally is what we've done is in our contract,
(13:10):
we've agreed to arbitration as a means to settle disputes. Right,
but we can just yeah, blue flu um. There's also
a slowdown too, which I mean, this is the most
passive aggressive any think it really is. It's like, oh,
let me make sure that that bolt is on again?
Where was that bolt? Where was that rich? Where did
(13:34):
I put that? Right? It's where um everybody goes to work.
But they do their work very slowly, and again they're
able to get away with this because they're following the rules.
So if you look at the rule book or handbook
of an employee at say any kind of manufacturing plant,
their job is probably on paper way more detailed and
(13:57):
structured than the actual job they harry out. Is just
a practical matter. Right. If they started to do their
job strictly by the book, the amount of time it
takes them to make a widget would slow down dramatically
is compared to win. They cut the corners that they
normally cut, and the company is like, yeah, cut those
(14:18):
corners because we want to get more widgets out the door.
So is that what they're doing during a slowdown is
they're technically following everything to the letter. That's what the
Grabster says. This is a Grabster joint. Joint, by the way,
that's right, the great Grabanowski. Yeah, the Grabsters suggests that
that is the case for a slowdown usually, although you
could also just do your job slower. But if you're
doing it by the book, when your boss comes on's
(14:40):
like what you better speed up? Hey, I'm making sure
that we're following all the safety precautions. Uh. And then
finally you can have a sit down. Well, there's a
couple more you can have a sit down strike. That is, um,
that may be the most aggressive. That's when you actually
to go to work and you don't work and you
don't leave right Like, you have people bring you food
(15:02):
and water, and you're like, I'm gonna sit on my
stool so no one else can sit on it and
do that job. You're still not your stool. A good point. Yeah,
I think that's the most aggressive. I have hardest core
and then an arrow pointing out sit down strike here
on my notes right. Uh. And but it also doesn't
(15:23):
just um, it's not just the most aggressive. It actually
affords some additional protections to the the worker on strike, right,
so one nobody else can come in and do that
work because they're in the way, are on the stool,
um number two. It prevents them from violence in a
lot of ways, or it protects them from violence because
(15:46):
they're hanging around very expensive company machinery. It would be
pretty stupid to come at somebody like that with a
lead pipe because if they duck, you just broke the
company's machine. And if that sounds crazy, will we will
go in over the myriad examples of violence and strikes
and strike busters just disgusting. Yeah. So if you think,
what do you mean, no one would come after them violently, Yeah,
(16:07):
it happens. Listen, Pollyanna, just the wait wake up. Uh.
So it also keeps the person away from the elements,
like you're not out picketing in the rainy weather of Flint, Michigan, right,
You're just sitting there and in the nice plant. That's right.
There can be sympathy strikes. That's when you um. That's
(16:29):
when you either directly or just um, they decide to
call on your brothers and sisters and other unions maybe
in the same industry that feel your pain and they
know it's good for them ultimately as well, so they
will also go on strike to kind of help your cause,
right exactly. And um, some some company may call the
(16:51):
other company be like, dude, you're they're killing me over here.
Give them those concessions please, or else I'm not going
to be able to make dues this month at the
billy An Airs Club. Buffy will kill me or um.
It might also be sympathy strikes in a Remember I said,
in the same plant, you might have an upholsters union,
(17:12):
an electricians union, a plumbers union, um at the same company.
Other non affiliated unions may go on strike as well,
and that will really put some pressure on that company
because they can be like, well, well, we'll catch up
with our backlog of um of upholstery work while these
guys are striking right. Nope, sorry, we're on strike. Two
(17:34):
The company or is just like, oh my god. Well,
and we're gonna get into the very infamous nineteen eighties
air traffic controller strike in great detail later. But one
of the big reasons, uh it didn't work out is
because they failed to get anyone else on board, like
the pilots and the flight attendants and baggage chandelers. None
(17:54):
of them, uh jumped on board with a sympathy strike,
which did not help the air traffic controller. Then you've
got a general strike, which is not usually directed at
a company itself. UM, It's more directed at like a
government because that means basically everybody who works in a
country goes on strike, like we want minimum wage rays
(18:17):
for everybody. And that's one reason why it seems like
France is always striking. It's because when they go on strike,
they go on strike. They typically have general strikes. When
they do, I don't want to say typically, but they
do undertake general strikes, which is basically unheard of here
in the United States. UM, and it makes big news
when it happens for UM. So there's just some time
(18:41):
that types of strikes. Yeah, should we take a break,
Let's all right, but we're coming back. We're not going
on strike. Don't worry, so chuck. UM. We talked about
(19:10):
different kinds of strikes. Right. One of the things that
you think of when you, uh, when you go on strike,
or when you think of strike is people picketing, like
you'll very frequently see UM people around Atlanta especially. It
seems like a lot of construction companies have aggrieved employees. Yeah, um,
(19:31):
and so the people just be like marching out in
front of the uh the like a building that's going up,
headquarters maybe, or a construction site, and they'll say like,
shame on whoever for employing non union workers or whatever.
Because that's a big, big part of the UM the
ability to go on strike is you need to have
a solid union, right and one way, especially early on
(19:55):
back in the seventeen or no eighteenth and early nineteenth
century we're talking about in New England. UM, there was
this idea that if you were not a part of
the union, the union members would be like, I'm not
working if that person is working here, like you have
to fire that person. So if you didn't join a union,
(20:15):
you had a hard time finding jobs. And so if
you're a union, one of your big tactics is you
need to make sure your membership is almost complete across
the company or else you're not going to be able
to put real pressure on that company if half the
workers can still show up to work because they're not
union members, so they are not going on strike. Good point.
(20:36):
Picketing is one of the main reasons you picket is
to draw. Like we mentioned earlier, get the public on
your side. It's a big part of it. And and
also to embarrass the company. Yeah, and this probably says
a lot about who I am. But whenever I see that,
I always think in my head, well, there's some employees
that are clearly getting screwed by the man. What do
they have to say? Which is exactly what they want?
(20:58):
That's why they're out there with the picket signs or
sometimes they're chanting something or singing a song. Uh, and
what they do they sing songs like you know, songs
about the picket they're not they're singing Stairway to Heaven
or like the Freddy Krueger nursery rhyme? What's that one? Yeah,
they should do that picket line. Ever, when two strikers
(21:22):
coming for you, uh, if you cross the picket line,
you literally have to. That's why they stand out in
front of the factory or the HQ. You have to
walk through them and literally crossed the picket line. To
be what's known as a scab. And you can be
a you can be part of that union and decided
to go back to work, or you can be just
(21:44):
an outside person who says I actually need work. And
I'm not in your union. I'm so, I'm just gonna
I don't know you guys, sorry, ladies, pardon me. I'm
a scab. Or you might be a professional from another
part of the country that the owner basically has shipped
in to replace you, which we'll get into all the
(22:05):
legalities of that later. But crossing a picket line is
not a shining moment for anybody who's doing it. No, um,
And where does the word scab come from? My friend?
Apparently it has to do with, um, how people used
to shun people with infectious diseases. The The sentiment was
that if you crossed the picket line, you would be
(22:26):
treated in the exact same way as if you had
the plague. Everybody's gonna keep you over there, no one's
gonna talk to You're not gonna be able to find
a job, You're going to be cast out of society.
You're you're yes, so you're it was shortened to scab,
Which is I mean like that that amount of pressure
is tremendous. Yeah, And um, picketing doesn't always mean you're
(22:49):
on strike. A lot of times it's another warning shot.
It's called informational picketing. When you sort of threatened and say, hey,
you know we're out here picketing. You know, this does
not look for you know, And that's that's the key thing.
Like if you go on strike, you want the public
to know you're on strike, because the public is like,
why you're on strike? What's the problem? I want to
(23:10):
know about that? UM. And it's gotten some some groups
have gotten a lot better at UM at manipulating the media,
using social media to get the message across, like the
Fight for fifteen where they they're trying to raise the
minimum wage fifteen dollars. They've been putting a tremendous amount
(23:31):
of pressure on McDonald's. They've got a study released that
found that UM like just a ridiculous percentage of fast
food workers, especially at McDonald's but in other other at
other fast food restaurants in the US, two are reliant
on UM welfare on public assistance, and that the way
(23:52):
the study framed it and the way that the news
reports framed it was that McDonald's was basically using your
text payer dollars to supplement the meager income they were
paying these people, rather than actually pay their employees a
living wage. They were just being like you handle it taxpayers,
We're not going to pay them that much. And it
worked big time, like it made all the news cycles.
(24:12):
That really changed a lot of people's perspectives. And it
went hand in hand with a strike in general strike,
well not a general strike, but a strike that was
um carried out I think in April of last year
across the world, and it really put a lot of
pressure on McDonald's. Didn't do anything, but it's still put
a lot of pressure on McDonald's and and I think
(24:33):
ultimately probably will lead to uh a change in the
minimum voyage. Yeah, that's all. That's a tricky subject. Have
we talked about that. No, we should do one on
that because I'm a champion of the people. I think
people should make a living wage too. But you know,
my wife as a small business owner, and it would
put her out of business. So like when you hear McDonald's,
(24:54):
you think huge corporation, they can afford it. But what
about when you're a small business has eight employees and
your your cost of what do you call it cost
of business? Not like cost of business, but your wages
go up. No, it's a very tough thing to say.
Across the board, everyone has to do this. But so
(25:16):
like with Obamacare, and if anybody knows what some solutions
are to that, we'd love to hear it because this
this fascinates me as well, and it it feels very important.
Um but it seems like with Obamacare, Uh, there was
a concession made where employers with X number of employees
are less weren't mandated to provide healthcare to their employees. Yea,
(25:40):
so maybe it would be like that revenue is less
than a certain threshold or whatever. Then small business can
be a lot of things like you should. There's no
reason that um, mama and McDonald's should be in the
same basket of considerations for just about anything that has
to do with wages or taxes or anything like that,
you know. And it's just so disingenuous to be like, well,
(26:02):
you know what about small business. It's like, well, let
the small businesses speak. You can't point to these guys
like that doesn't matter to you, international conglomerate. Yeah. Plus
McDonald's that just raised the price on everything on their
menu by one penny and it probably covers it. I
think I've heard a stat like that. I don't think
it's just a penny, but it's something very meager like that,
(26:24):
but good one. But as we'll learn as well, it
really is. As we'll learn though UM in this this episode.
The history of strikes and of UM labor laws and
the treatment of employees and UM the government like backing
employers has has been a history of like huge, massive
(26:49):
radical acts and then like that changed everything, and then
that that that side one and then the other side
like bides its time and then bam they strike or
they carry out some crazy action and like it changes everything.
The history has been like kind of seesawed like that. Yeah,
and it's pretty fascinating. Maybe that provides balance in some way,
(27:09):
you know overall. I guess, uh, should we talk about
sports strikes? Yeah? Uh. They often are get way more
attention than other kinds of strikes because there's so much
money and people in the United States love their sports
value sports over say electricians, you know, of course they do. Uh.
(27:32):
The NFL, the Football League, UM, went on strike over
free agency, which if you don't know anything about football,
that means after your your first contract is up, that
means you are a free agent and you can say
I want to go sign with any other team in
the league. Yeah, I don't understand that. What what were
the like that makes total sense? Like, how would that
even be a term? Well? Free agency? What are what
(27:54):
were the teams wanting the owners? They wanted if you
for you to have the rights to control that player
for as long as you wanted that player. Oh god, Um,
all the sports leagues are so different and how they
handle things too, it's really interesting. Um, and I know
not many. We don't have a ton of sports fans
(28:17):
because historically our sports UH done poorly. But we'll go
over this real quick. They struck in strike in uh
in the middle of a seat and not in the middle,
but at the beginning of the players walked. After two
games into the eight seven season and uh for three games,
the NFL said, you know what, We're gonna bring in
(28:39):
scab replacement players. Yeah, and it was a disaster with
the cigarettes. Yeah. I mean people some college players, some
players and other like the Canadian League. Uh, some dudes
that were just like, hey, I used to play football,
Like we're literally out there out of shape. I mean
some ESPN is a great article that season, how like
(29:01):
you know, the quarterbacks run the huddle of being like
we just want to be in the huddle as long
as possible that nobody can catch their breath because there
you know, this guy was a fat corporate cat that
he wanted to be an offensive lineman scab Blair because
he played in college. So it was a disaster. UM.
They paid him about four grand a game, and um
the quality play was terrible, as you would expect. UH.
(29:24):
Some high profile profile players ended up crossing UH and
being scabs, like Joe Montana, Tony Dorsett, Lawrence Taylor, Steve
Largent and it was a big deal. Um And eventually
they returned to work uh and without any resolution, which
happens a lot of times. Thanks to Joe Montana baseball
and nineteen they've gone on strike a lot. UM. In
(29:47):
nine four though, the MLB Players Association said they said,
we don't want a salary cap on our team, which
if you don't know what that means, that means a
team can only spend so much money on its players.
Players hate that because they want as much money as possible.
Owners love it because they're like, oh, what am I
gonna do with all this extra money? Exactly? UH And
(30:09):
in UH in August, sort of late in the season,
they actually canceled the rest of the season in the
World Series. Yeah stunk because the Braves were that was
in the middle of their big run and they oh, yeah,
that's right, you know, like we lost an opportunity to
lose another World Series. We won that one though, right,
yeah one. So Um. Apparently this contract dispute was still
(30:33):
going on into spring training, and some players went and
reported to spring training despite the strikes still going on. UM,
and those players were banned for life for the Players Union,
I don't think for life, which means that even after retirement,
they weren't eligible for any royalties that you get from
(30:53):
like your number being licensed or being on like um
MLB or what retirement edition. Yeah. Um, but I mean
you can, you know, make some checks depending on how
great a player you were and how big your legend
was for many years after you retire. But if you
cross the picket lines and went to spring training, Nope,
(31:13):
you're out. I don't think I knew that Hockey National
Hockey League historically has only had one official strike, but
they have been locked out, which we'll get to lockouts shortly,
but they've been locked out a couple of times, and um,
the entire uh two thousand four season was canceled the
(31:35):
whole thing, and UM hockey in Major League Baseball had
a much more difficult time recovering from there canceled season
and canceled worst World Series than the NFL. Uh from
their scab issue. I got a scab issue. And in
two thousand twelve the referees NFL referees were locked out.
(31:56):
Remember that they had replacement referees that were just terrible.
Oh yeah, that's right, they were. They actually I think
must have won that concession for the regular referees because
it was that that got so much bad press. Everybody
was so mad, they were making so many bad calls.
I totally forgot about that, like high school referees out
(32:18):
there from NFL games. Yeah. Uh, should we take a break,
I think so. Man, All right, we'll talk about strike
busting and more right after this. No, so checkers. Um,
(32:49):
if you were an employer and your employees go on strike,
you don't just go, oh, fiddle sticks. I guess I'll
give them what they want. There are um plenty of
other things you can do, some legal, some sub legal,
and some in between. Right, Um. And one of the
first things that employers did when they were faced with
(33:11):
strikes early on was higher armed mercenaries to basically beat
up and threatened and harass the striking workers. Yeah, notably
the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They did a lot of detective work,
but they were also notable for being strike breakers. And
(33:31):
some of the things they do are legit, like uh,
guarding scabs as they go to work so they're not harassed,
or protecting the building itself. So it's not you know,
they're not throwing bricks through the windows, but there's also
you know, they're getting beaten up sometimes and intimidated. Well,
not just that, they also may serve as agent provocateurs.
(33:53):
Apparently the Haymarket riot of Costead in Chicago, it was
set off by a bomb, and they think that Pinkerton
detective undercover set that bomb off to like stir this
protest into an angry, violent mob. So they didn't do
anything for money. Yeah, and apparently I was reading that
um Pinkerton was hired to investigate the Occupy Wall Street
(34:15):
protesters in Zuccati Park. Still at it, Yeah, and so
Pinkerton for they deserve their own podcast episode for sure.
But very early on they were hired as basically armed thugs.
Like you said, they did do protective services, but they
also did a lot of violent and illegal stuff as
(34:36):
well on the behalf of these factory owners. And there
was one in particular where the um the factory owners.
It was Andrew Carnegie actually in Homestead, Pennsylvania. There's a
steel mill there, and at the steel mill and I
think four the workers went on strike. So Carnegie brought
(34:57):
in some Hungarian and Slava steel workers to replace them,
and in Hungarian and Slavic steel workers want on strike themselves,
and more workers were brought into replace them. And both
times Pinkerton detectives were there to escort the scabs across
the picket line, even when those scabs they escorted turned
(35:19):
into the striking workers themselves. But it's kind of like
one of those things where it's like, uh, maybe the
couple second time, it might be you right now with
the scabs you brought in go on strike. Two, maybe
we should pay them a little more. That's not what happened.
There was like a basically what's called the Battle of Homestead,
and it was a battle between the Pinkerton detectives and
(35:40):
these striking workers. And in this case, actually the Pinkerton's
suffered massive losses and casualties. They were beaten by the
town's folk in Homestead UM. Three of them died, and
it actually turned public opinion against the strikers in this case.
(36:00):
But it also taught Pinkerton that, like, it's probably not
good business to like send our boys off to die UM.
So they actually stopped providing strike breaking services over time,
and it it morphed and evolved into more um set
arranging for spies to attend union meetings and things like that.
(36:21):
They're still strike busting going on, it's just not as
overt and physically violent, a little more surreptitious and sneaky.
And then remember we said wake up Pollyanna earlier. That's
a good example of it. Another good example is um
the Great strike of eighteen seventy seven, which started in Martinsburg,
West Virginia, and actually spread very quickly to towns like
(36:43):
Baltimore and St. Louis, and it made its way to
to Pittsburgh, which was another which was so the Homestead
one was just a few years earlier. In eighteen seventy seven,
there was another strike and a bunch of townspeople were
out supporting the strikers and the UM. I think the
State National Guard came in and opened fire on the
(37:04):
supporters of the strikers and killed twenty people, including a
woman in three small children. So, like, strikes have gotten
very bloody, especially early on, and the fact that people
were dying over these labor disputes really kind of shaped
(37:26):
public sentiment towards violence during strikes, and um it helps
straighten things up a lot more, I think over time agreed. UM. Well,
I know we covered it in the Union's podcast, but
we should talk a little bit about the Wagner Act
and Taft Hartley because they play very heavily into strikes.
The Wagner Act a k a. The National Labor Relations
(37:49):
Act is it was what officially said you have a right,
among other things, you have a right to strike, you
can form unions, you can go on strike. And it's
specifically he says you have a right to strike. Yeah,
you are legally allowed to do so if you you know,
And they didn't specify like what kind of votes like
(38:10):
it was that was all up to the union, right,
but it said you are allowed to settle labor disputes
by striking. That's right explicitly that is right. And then
the Supreme Court came along and said, no, let's let's
weaken that a little bit. Yeah. N Supreme Court said, um,
you know what, you can't fire people for joining union
(38:30):
or going and strike, But what you can do is
permanently replaced them with another worker. Uh. And if you
want to know the difference, there isn't much. Technically, if
you are a replaced permanently replaced, you can go back
to that job. If the person who replaced you quits
or retires, are aspired, and that position becomes available again,
(38:52):
you have the right to go back to that position. Yeah,
and get your job. That could be twenty years from
now or never. Ye, like Framer with the bagel strike, remember, yeah,
and so it is legal to permanently replace somebody. And
and when it comes down to a strike, this um
weapon in the employer's arsenal is as good as being
(39:16):
able to fire striking workers in a lot of cases. Yeah. Absolutely,
So that was a big one. And a lot of people,
especially pro labor people, um point to this and say
what the heck Supreme Court like their Congress explicitly passed
an act that says, well, vertally, you have a right
to strike. There's nowhere in American law that says employers
(39:38):
have a right to replace their striking workers, and yet
the Supreme Court has aired on the side of employers rights. Well,
I think what the Supreme Court said was, sure, you
can go on strike, but we we're not gonna say
you can go on strike with no repercussions. Um taft.
Hartley Amendment came around in n and did a few things.
(39:59):
That a stab what's the National Labor Review Board, which
is a body that hears grievances on strikes and unions, Uh,
supposedly impartial to that. Yeah. After that, all of the like, um,
all the lawsuits are cases that have to do with strikes,
are all somebody versus the nlr B. Oh yeah, good point. Uh.
(40:23):
And the other thing it did was, um it did
weekend unions somewhat by saying you can't have a secondary boycott,
which is when you strike against another related business uh
in that industry. Uh that's original like that's targeted by
the original strike. Uh. You can't have a closed shop,
which is where you have to join a union as
(40:45):
terms of your employment immediately. Yeah, like right away. But
they did allow for what's known as a union shop,
which means you have to join a union within the
first within a time period thirty days of higher although
most states now have taken into their own hands in
some cases not most, but to uh to be a
right to work state, which Georgia is, which means the
(41:07):
union shop is irrelevant, right. I wonder how many right
to work states there are? Actually, I meant to look
that up. I don't know Georgia. It's so that's such
a um. It's such a cynical way to put it.
A right to work, like it's the workers right to
not join a union. Like that's not a pro um
employer law, you know. Um, so chuck. Another another tool
(41:29):
in the employers um toolbox. I guess yeah, that that
makes sense is the lockout, and it's apparently being used
more and more these days. Um. The lockout is like
the reverse strike. It's where the employer says you can't
come to work, even if you want to, even if
(41:50):
you want to stop striking. And there's rules and regulations
surrounding lockouts as well. Um. The Supreme Court or Taft Hartley,
one of the two, said uh uh, you can as
an employer lock your employees out once a contract is expired,
so you can't do it during the contract. But if
you're an employer and you're saying, I really really really
(42:13):
want to shove my terms down your throat, you have
to accept them, and the union saying no, we're not
going to accept that, you can sit there and negotiate
and negotiate and negotiate, and then once that contract expires
during negotiations, you can say you're locked out, you can't
come to work. And the Supreme Court also ruled that
you are, as an employer, allowed to temporarily replace those
(42:36):
workers that you've locked out. Right, so l very much so, right,
So you're allowed to replace them and continue on with
your business as usual. And then if you're you remember
you're faced with three options. One you can go find
work at another company. Two, you can accept the terms,
and then three what's becoming an increasing tactic is you
(43:00):
can vote to dissolve the union. Right that, even when
you come back and say, okay, well accept your terrible contract,
the employer can go you know what, I changed my mind.
I actually don't want this union in my company any longer.
So I'll tell you what. If you guys vote to
dissolve your union. UM, then we will UH will go
(43:21):
with this contract and the lockout will be over. That
happened very famously in Minnesota in August of two thousand eleven,
the American Crystal Sugar Company found that they their employers,
I'm sorry, employees found that they were locked out, and
UH it went on. It's one of the longest labor disruptions,
(43:41):
like major labor disruptions we've had, went on for twenty
two months. DRED employees were locked out. By the time
it was all over, only four hundred of those original
hundred came back those almost two years later, and it
took UH. Basically Crystal Sugar kept saying this is our
only offer, this is our only offer, every time they
(44:02):
went back to negotiate, this is our final offer. So
it took five votes over the course of almost two
years UM until they eventually relented and UM accepted that
same offer like they never changed the offer. UH. And
supposedly there was the CEO Dave Berg was caught on
(44:23):
audio tape at a shareholder conference saying basically admitting that
they were trying to bust the union and comparing the
union to a tumor that had to be removed. Yeah,
he said, we have to treat the disease, and that's
what we're doing here. And then in three months into
the lockout, he told shareholders, we mapped this out a
long time ago at some point that tumors got to
come out, and that's what we're doing. And it worked. Yeah,
(44:46):
it did, so then we should probably we should end
with the Reagan Air Traffic Controller strike. Man, I remember
this so in that air traffic controllers went on strike
because they felt that the f a A didn't value
their work enough, that their work week was too long,
that their pay was too low, and that they're working
(45:09):
conditions led to unsafe conditions for travelers, all legit stuff.
When all of them um thousand of the seventeen thousand,
five hundred and at the time they were the Professional
Air Traffic Controllers Organization pat CO. So um. We talked
earlier about how a good labor union leadership will say,
(45:32):
even though you guys want to go on strike, this
is a terrible time to do it. Well. Pat CO
did not do that. They went on strike at a
time when the economy was not doing that well, when
Reagan had about a percent approval he'd just been shot
and recovered, so it came back like a total hero
and um, he was riding high and felt pretty emboldened. Actually.
(45:54):
And the reason why the union went on strike anyway
was because they had supported Reagan. He had gotten their
support through negotiations and they didn't view him as somebody
who was an enemy. They've mishandled and misjudged this in many, many,
many ways. But supposedly there's a n law that says,
(46:18):
if you're a government agency, your your union can't go
on strike. The thing was in practicality and actuality. There
had been something like twenty two strikes over the last
few decades of government um unions, and it was just
kind of like an unsaid thing. Well, Reagan said, no,
this is illegal, and you guys are you're If you
(46:40):
don't return to work in forty eight hours, you're all fired. Um,
I'm going to arrest your union leaders for carrying out
an illegal uh strike. Yeah, I'm gonna arrest some of
the controllers themselves. Right, I'm gonna freeze the assets of
the union, and then I'm gonna get the union de certified.
And he did all these things. Yeah, I'm gonna put
the FBI is getting involved. If you're a striker, you're
(47:02):
gonna be on their list. Uh. And this was this
all came down to two money. Really it was UM
what they were after would have increased. UH had a
price tech of about seven seventy million. UH. The f
A A countered with a forty million dollar counter offer,
a little bit of a pay hike, UM, a shorter
work week, and pat Co said, now so when they
(47:23):
went on strike, UM, six thousand flights UH were immediately canceled.
And I think they just underestimated how hardcore UH the
f A and Reagan we're gonna be coming back at
them because they had a fan Immediately they said, you
know what, we're gonna have fift these flights back and
running very soon because your supervisors are gonna go to work.
(47:44):
We're gonna rush through matriculation and training school and military
air traffic control and then bring in these military folks
to come in and uh, we don't need you. And
I think within a few weeks UM, they had nearly
of the scheduled flights going, like prioritizing the the most
like trafficked routes and what they considered high priority routes,
(48:05):
which is a terrible irony because that is almost exactly
what the air traffic controllers were looking for, was stretched
out work is rather that they felt was safer, and
that's what that's what Reagan got it to with the replacements. Well, yeah,
and it ended up costing them, I think, twice as
much money as it would have cost them if they
(48:25):
had just agreed to those terms. A lot of people
point to that the fact that they they the f
A ended up changing to what the strikers wanted and
spending twice as much as what they would have just
conceding to it as Reagan changing, um, the the flow
between employer and employees, and he did dramatically after that.
(48:50):
It became much more difficult to strike. And I think
it's it's struck fear into the hearts of workers throughout
the country, Like, oh man, the president himself feels this
way about striking like that, clearly he's gonna back up
the employers in any kind of strike. And it changed
things for sure. Yeah. And I mean not only did
he say you're all fired, he said none of you
(49:12):
can ever work for the government again. Um. And then
Bill Clinton came along and reversed that and said, you
guys can get a job again if you want. He said,
well half of us are dead. Yeah. Well that was
twelve years later when that happened, so that's a good point.
But eventually they the newly hired air traffic controllers, formed
(49:34):
a new union, uh NATKA National Air Traffic Controllers Association,
and um, I think Robert Poley from pat CO said,
you know, ultimately, I think we sort of won because
it ended up costing them more and we got the changes.
But they all there were no winners really because they
lost because all those people got fired Capital one. Yeah,
(49:56):
and that was a big one. At the time. We
talked about getting the public sympathy, they did not have
it because air traffic controllers made more than the average person. Uh.
And like you said, it was a bad time for
the economy and people's flights were getting canceled and they
didn't have what do we call the the sympathy strikers,
so that they were they I don't think they thought
(50:18):
thought it through and they were very much surprised by
Reagan for sure. You're like, he said, what, We're all
fired in two days? So, uh, that's strikes. There's a
lot more too. There's a crazy history that we haven't
even touched on. Um, there's just so much stuff that
that's happened as far as strikes go. Um, you should
definitely if this flick your boat at all, you should
(50:40):
go look up the Flint, Michigan sit in strike of
I think nine eight. Yeah, it was pretty amazing what happened. Yeah,
and we we might should do a an entire show
in the Homestead strike in battle. Yes, that was a
big deal. Yes it is us. Yeah, I think it's
(51:01):
full enough for a show. Okay, Well, in the meantime,
if you want to know more about strikes, you can
type that word in the search bar at how stuff
works dot com. And I said search bar. So it's
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Navy lieutenant
reporting for duty. Hey guys, I'm a lieutenant in the
Navy and I've been listening to your show for a
few years, started listening a while with station in Japan
(51:23):
and have not stopped. You asked about ship name prefixes, UH,
specifically U S S, which indeed is United States ship.
It should be noted that this specifically refers to warships
of the U. S Navy and that. Prefixes for other
ships of the US government are legion. For instance, US
C g C United States Coastcard Cutter, U S N
S United States Naval Ship, non warship, U S A
(51:45):
S United States Armyship, U S A V United States
Army Vessel, and many more. Boutique prefixes that are limited
UH they're of limited use are no longer in use. UH.
Most navies around the world have their own prefix because,
like you said, h MS currently is Her Majesty's ship
or her Majesty's submarine. But when the monarch reigning monarch
(52:06):
is a man, the king would be His Majesty's ship.
Sense and how about these Josh h M C S
IS or Her Majesty's Canadian Ship or h M a
S Australian ship or h M n z S His
Majesty's New Zealand ship. UH. Civilian ships vessels can have
prefixes as well, according to their construction and propulsion, such
(52:29):
as S S I never knew that like S S
MINO sailing ship, wow or steamship or screw steamer. Yeah,
which is the dirtiest of all ships. UH M V
or M slash V for motor vessel. And then my
personal favorite that is Chris speaking n S for nuclear ship.
(52:50):
The number of them is staggering, guys, very respectfully, Chris,
lieutenant in the U. S. Navy. Well, holy Chris, thanks
a lot for that. UM and uh. If you want
to get in touch with us like Chris and shine
some light on some stuff we didn't really know about,
we love that. So you can tweek to us at
s y ESCP podcast. You can join us on Facebook
(53:10):
dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You can send
us an email to you stuff podcast at how stuff
Works dot com and has always joined us at our
home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com
For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
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