The other end of the teeter-totter
Did you ever go on strike? The classic kind, with picket lines and funds from other interested parties and all the other, associated details. I was lucky. During my more than three decades of me against them (the employer) I spent a total of one afternoon standing outside my place of employment, trying to look like my effort was valuable. (It wasn’t). Based on a two hundred day working year, my time outside barely covered the eventual pay raise. I was in the public service, and this was performance theater.
But, I have seen the consequences, when a strike is real. My father had an unproductive summer, one year. The loss of a real pay cheque was felt by all of the family. Knocking that side of things, I do pay attention to the efforts of organized labor to improve their lot.
Have you ever noticed that employers don’t go on strike? Yes, I understand the tern “lockout”. In the real world, employers (typically owners) of a revenue producing company control one end of the teeter-totter. And their end has more leverage (remember that class in high school physics that gave you the equations for levers? In certain circumstances, one hand can move a mountain. I have learned about a strike in a coal mine that has gone on for more than twenty-three months. Now that the price of coal is climbing, there is exerted pressure to get people back to work.
Funny how the employer didn’t suffer, much. No missed meals. Perhaps a dip in personal finances, but nothing outrageous. Now contrast with the main on the picket line.
