Lightning Strike

The UAW-GM strike lasted all of two days. However, that was enough time for the NY times to editorialize that the strike was a wake up call to the Government to provide health care and for Tyler to wonder why there are strikes at all.

In my limited but colorful experience as a union rep for the United Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (I worked night shift as a welder while in college), a strike was an imagined Xanadu for the line workers. Any management affront, real or imagined (and there were plenty of both) brought a stream of guys past my station urging us to "Wildcat!" or saying "lets shut this m%#$*f%*er down big K". When our contract expired, the rank and file was adamant that we strike, and strike we did, though the offer we ended up accepting was slightly worse than the initial offer the company had made. For the first few weeks at least, the strike was a big party.