Please help a fellow union brother not SCAB.

[Diesel]

Afternoon all.

Our company is going through some interesting times where we might at one point strike. Unfortunately this will be the first time a lot of our members have dealt with a union much less the notion that they might have to strike. We are under attack for our pay, benefits, schedule and scope.

This thread we are trying to help a fellow union brother understand why being a SCAB is one of the lowest things a pilot can do. He doesn't have any union experience and is naive feeling that SCABS should not be shunned for the rest of their lives.

I ask that those that have dealt with scabs, strikes and other such union issues please help our union brother see the light. Who knows maybe we can save him from making one of the worst mistakes of his career when the decision comes.

Thanks in advance.

D

 

[Flopgut]

Is this Netjets?

 

[Diesel]

Yup. But major airline pilots have more experience with union strikes and helping new union members understand.

 

[ByeUSAir]

A scab by Jack London

Scabs have been called many things by many people during the course of labor history but Jack London?s description of the scab, ?written with barbed wire on sandpaper,? easily dwarfs all others.

?After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab.

A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of Hell to keep him out.

No man has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not.

Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust or corporation.

Esau was a traitor to himself: Judas Iscariot was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country; a strikebreaker is a traitor to his God, his country, his wife, his family and his class.?

 

[ultrarunner]

If you really want to convert your potential scab, have a union boss in Detroit, from the UAW, send one of their boys to have a face-to-face chat with him. I'll tell ya, it's likely to be quite a bit different than a white-collar union 'person' giving him a phone call asking for support....and probably more effective....

In the end, white-collar Union support is way behind the times. Support your membership 100%, and you'll get the same in return....

 

[SpauldingSmails]

Does he enjoy the protection and provisions of the CBA?
Will he be advantaged by any gains made as a result of a new CBA?
Can he fly the entire schedule single handedly?

The pragmatist will arrive at the conclusion that the scab is then using others sacrifice to unjustly enrich himself - whilst not appreciably impacting the outcome of the strike (at least based on what little I know about NJA). Or worse yet, if scabs break a strike, what will be left? I guarantee the pay structure and work rules won't remain in tact. Do you really want to say, "Yeah, I really helped Uncle Warren screw the pilots and lower the bar?" Is it really worth a couple weeks quid?

So, unless he's thick, he should just do the right thing and toe the line.

Whether, our "free marketeer" as he has branded himself would shun a scab or not is irrelevant - he would quickly become persona non grata. Once the strike is amicably resolved, as they often quickly are, he then becomes a stain on the carpet. Even management becomes annoyed by scabs, they're an additional complication to operations - with the inevitable whining about "they're not nice to me" and other crew conflicts.

 

[Diesel]

I would appreciate you clicking the link and posting in the thread so he can see what those around him talk about. He sees those that give scabs hard times as thugs.

 

[HowardBorden]

You're not a scab until you cross. A lot of folks like to blow hot air just to get a rise out of people and spool them up. In case you haven't heard, they're called trolls. Leave it alone and let the guy blow all the smoke he wants. I'm sure everyone has let it be known how scabs are viewed in this industry.

In the end if you do in fact strike and he does cross, then use the energy you are wasting here to make sure the scab label never leaves him wherever he turns for employment. Trying to talk sense to a troll is useless.

 

[Diesel]

Any friends of mine who mistreats me if I cross are friends I never needed, and shame on them. I will find out who my true friends are, I guess, and am fine with that. I would never mistreat anyone who strikes, even though I would strongly oppose them doing so, for jeapardizing my employer's survival and imperilling my job.. Funny how you hooligans don't even see the irony.

Sad to see his thought process but even more sad is he isn't trolling. He's an active line pilot who truly is a believer.

 

[HowardBorden]

Sad to see his thought process but even more sad is he isn't trolling. He's an active line pilot who truly is a believer.

If he doesn't get it, there is absolutely nothing you can do to help him.