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How Labor Strikes Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: we'll see you soon, Brooklyn. Welcome to stuff you should
1:57
Speaker 1: know from House to Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
2:06
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant,
2:11
Speaker 1: and there's Jerry over there I can hear, and this
2:15
Speaker 1: is Deis. We're working and that means we're not on strike,
2:21
Speaker 1: that's right, strike, strike, Strike. Remember the flint Stones Betty
2:27
Speaker 1: Walma used to wander around shouting strike Why because they
2:30
Speaker 1: were tired of being no recollection of that. I just
2:34
Speaker 1: remember seeing them like pumping their hands in the air
2:37
Speaker 1: shouting strike. Interesting. So, uh, as a little background if
2:44
Speaker 1: you want to go listen first to our show from
2:48
Speaker 1: how labor unions work. Good one might be a good
2:51
Speaker 1: little precursor to this because they are tied together like
2:55
Speaker 1: ham and cheese. Yeah, because you really can't have a
2:58
Speaker 1: strike without a union, and you can, you can, but
3:02
Speaker 1: you're probably in trouble if you do. For the most part.
3:05
Speaker 1: I mean, technically, we could all that how stuff works,
3:09
Speaker 1: decided to go on strike and we're not in an union. Yeah,
3:14
Speaker 1: Like we could all walk out and say we want
3:17
Speaker 1: free lunch or we're not podcasting anymore. Free lunch would
3:21
Speaker 1: be great. So technically you could do it, but I
3:24
Speaker 1: don't know about the legalities of stuff like that. Um,
3:27
Speaker 1: well that's the thing, okay, So we could do it,
3:30
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, but we wouldn't be afforded the same
3:34
Speaker 1: legal protections that strikers who are striking under a labor
3:41
Speaker 1: union are. That's what that's what's our boss would probably say,
3:45
Speaker 1: let me see if we can work out free lunch.
3:47
Speaker 1: Would be like heyn, we burned a strike on that. Um.
3:52
Speaker 1: It would be a problem if we burned a strike
3:54
Speaker 1: on that because strikes are the they're the last um.
4:00
Speaker 1: They're basically the last resort of any labor union. Yeah,
4:04
Speaker 1: labor union doesn't say, uh, you know, I wish we
4:07
Speaker 1: were paid more, let's go on strike tomorrow. Yeah, I know,
4:10
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen like now. You try to work it
4:12
Speaker 1: out with your employer. First sit down at the negotiating table. Uh. Well,
4:17
Speaker 1: we're jumping ahead here. Okay, let's get to some history.
4:20
Speaker 1: You want to talk about this, the history of strikes. Yeah,
4:23
Speaker 1: not a lot is known about the very first strike. Um,
4:27
Speaker 1: but they do know that the word was used in
4:28
Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds. And it probably means because I kind
4:31
Speaker 1: of wondered what does that mean, it probably means came
4:33
Speaker 1: from like to strike a blow, Yeah, like a punch
4:36
Speaker 1: in the mouth from strike someone from labor to capital.
4:40
Speaker 1: That's right, just saying hey man, you can't push this around.
4:44
Speaker 1: And it was a it's a it's a really important
4:47
Speaker 1: right to be able the striker. It was for a
4:49
Speaker 1: very long time, because back in the day, if you
4:53
Speaker 1: UM worked in a town in Massachusetts or something like
4:57
Speaker 1: that in the late eighteenth century, there's probably one company
5:02
Speaker 1: in that town, and so therefore that company had what's
5:05
Speaker 1: called the monopsony, meaning that they were the only employer around.
5:09
Speaker 1: So they had a they could decide what they paid
5:13
Speaker 1: you and what were you gonna do. You can't take
5:15
Speaker 1: a horse fifty miles to work every day to the
5:19
Speaker 1: next town. So UM the to counteract this monopsony of
5:25
Speaker 1: the employer the ability for the workers to get together
5:30
Speaker 1: and say, hey, we are going to not work and
5:34
Speaker 1: you will not have the product that we make for
5:36
Speaker 1: you unless we come to some agreement over these labor
5:40
Speaker 1: conditions and wages and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, that's
5:43
Speaker 1: who they came from. One of one of the first
5:45
Speaker 1: strikes was in when some printers in Philadelphia said, you
5:51
Speaker 1: know what, we want to raise in The company said nope, no,
5:55
Speaker 1: thank you, We'll pay you just like you're paid. He said,
5:58
Speaker 1: all right, well you know what, we're not going to anything.
6:01
Speaker 1: And it worked. They quit working and they ended up
6:04
Speaker 1: getting their rays right. The owner was like, I haven't
6:07
Speaker 1: expected this outcome. How dare you so? Because it worked.
6:12
Speaker 1: Over the next few decades, other people said the same thing.
6:17
Speaker 1: If we're all in the same profession, let's some band
6:19
Speaker 1: together and say we want to be treated more fairly.
6:22
Speaker 1: We're making this company a ton of money. They're paying
6:25
Speaker 1: a squat. It's not safe, we're working too long. Oh yeah,
6:29
Speaker 1: little kids are working here. Yeah, child labor is going on.
6:32
Speaker 1: So this is we're powerless as an individual to walk
6:35
Speaker 1: in and say, you know, I want more paid, because
6:38
Speaker 1: they will say you're fired. But if we band together,
6:41
Speaker 1: we actually have some bargaining power, exactly. And that's what
6:44
Speaker 1: that's what a union is. It's an assemblage of workers
6:48
Speaker 1: who share some sort of commonality. Either they work for
6:51
Speaker 1: the same company. Usually they work in the same trade.
6:54
Speaker 1: So like electrical workers in a company plant, well, all
6:59
Speaker 1: the wong to one union, and the upholsterers will belong
7:02
Speaker 1: to another union, and so on and so forth. Right,
7:05
Speaker 1: so you have a bunch of different unions and in
7:07
Speaker 1: the same plant for working for the same company. Um.
7:10
Speaker 1: But so usually the thing that binds workers in a
7:14
Speaker 1: union is their trade, right, Um. And when they get
7:17
Speaker 1: together and they say no more, we're not working anymore.
7:20
Speaker 1: Until you guys do something that is power and that's
7:24
Speaker 1: the strike. But again they're supposed to be bargaining that
7:26
Speaker 1: comes before this. Yeah, strikes are a bit of a
7:30
Speaker 1: double edged sword. Uh, your company is going to very
7:33
Speaker 1: quickly cease to make money because things aren't being produced
7:38
Speaker 1: a lot of money, which is a big deal. But you,
7:40
Speaker 1: as strikers are also not making money. Um. You might
7:44
Speaker 1: have what's called a war chest built up when your
7:46
Speaker 1: union has set aside money in case of a strike,
7:49
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna carry you through a prolonged strike
7:52
Speaker 1: and it's not gonna be your regular paycheck. So a
7:55
Speaker 1: war chest is not going to solve your problem ultimately
7:58
Speaker 1: if if it becomes a battle of wills, both sides
8:01
Speaker 1: are dug in for months and even years. And apparently
8:04
Speaker 1: so Europe's very well known for strikes. UM, Like, it
8:07
Speaker 1: seems like France was striking like every couple of weeks
8:10
Speaker 1: for a while. They're right, Um, but it turns out
8:13
Speaker 1: that the US has struck gone on strike how about that? Um,
8:18
Speaker 1: about as often as Europe has from something like I
8:23
Speaker 1: think the eighteen eighties till the nineteen seventies, and um
8:28
Speaker 1: has actually had bloodier strikes and longer strikes, so that
8:31
Speaker 1: the mean number of days of strike lasts in the
8:35
Speaker 1: United States or did between eighteen eighty one and nineteen
8:38
Speaker 1: seventy four, was twenty days. So yeah, if you're like
8:42
Speaker 1: a wage laborer, that's three weeks paid that you're losing
8:46
Speaker 1: out on. That's the meat. You know. It could go
8:48
Speaker 1: longer than that. Yeah, and that's exactly what is going
8:51
Speaker 1: on in the in the boardroom for the company is there.
8:55
Speaker 1: You know, how long can we wait them out? How
8:57
Speaker 1: long can they wait us out? There's a game of
8:59
Speaker 1: chess sent a lot of ways. Uh. And like you said,
9:02
Speaker 1: it is a last resort. A union can't just call
9:05
Speaker 1: a strike. Um, a union leader or the upper management
9:08
Speaker 1: of the union can't just say we're going on strike.
9:10
Speaker 1: You gotta put it to a vote. And it's not
9:12
Speaker 1: like like generally it's eight or up. Uh. People have
9:17
Speaker 1: to be behind it, and which is what you want,
9:19
Speaker 1: because if your your labor pool isn't strong and your
9:22
Speaker 1: union isn't strong, then you're gonna lose. Exactly, They're gonna
9:26
Speaker 1: start crossing that picket line. We'll get to all that,
9:28
Speaker 1: of course, but but even beyond that, the union leadership
9:32
Speaker 1: has to be smart enough to say, guys like, we
9:35
Speaker 1: know that eight percent of you are voting fists and
9:38
Speaker 1: that's the gender neutral guys. Stop your email now. Um,
9:43
Speaker 1: but this is a terrible time to go on strike, Like,
9:46
Speaker 1: we don't have public sympathy. Um, you have big time.
9:50
Speaker 1: The economics are against us. The brand recognition and brand
9:54
Speaker 1: loyalty of the company we work for is through the roof.
9:57
Speaker 1: It's a terrible time to strike. So if that happens
10:01
Speaker 1: and the workers are disaffected enough, um, they might they
10:06
Speaker 1: may say no, we're going on strike anyway without the
10:08
Speaker 1: blessing of the union. That's what's called a wildcat strike. Yes.
10:12
Speaker 1: And also I think the name of a Blackfoot album?
10:16
Speaker 1: Who's Blackfoot? What are they newish? Are they from the
10:21
Speaker 1: seventies eighties? They were one? They were a Southern rock band.
10:27
Speaker 1: Uh oh Atlanta Rhythm Section. No, I used to love
10:32
Speaker 1: them too, black Yeah, they were I think like either
10:35
Speaker 1: two thirds or three quarters of the band were Native
10:38
Speaker 1: American and so they were Blackfoot. And the lead singer
10:43
Speaker 1: was in a very early incarnation of Leonard SKINNERD and
10:47
Speaker 1: is now with Leonard Skinnerd again. I see Rickey Medlock Wow. Yeah,
10:52
Speaker 1: I've never heard of Blackfoot. Yeah, I'm sorry for that.
10:54
Speaker 1: Blackfoot guys they were they were a hard rock southern
10:57
Speaker 1: rock band. It sounds like something i'd like. Yeah, go
11:01
Speaker 1: listen to the Blackfoot. So on good morning, Okay, good morning. Uh.
11:08
Speaker 1: If you want to not strike, one of the first
11:10
Speaker 1: things you might do if you have a disagreement as
11:12
Speaker 1: file a grievance. Uh. And like I said, when it
11:15
Speaker 1: comes time to sit down, hopefully you can both work
11:17
Speaker 1: things out at the old bargaining table. Well, and the
11:19
Speaker 1: bargaining table. This is like, this is a very important point.
11:22
Speaker 1: Strikes occur almost across the board during contract negotiations. They
11:28
Speaker 1: don't happen during contracts or else you're in a major violation,
11:32
Speaker 1: usually of the contract itself. This is our contracts coming up,
11:37
Speaker 1: and we've been thinking, we really don't want mandatory tonsillectomies.
11:43
Speaker 1: We want that remove from this past contract. And the
11:46
Speaker 1: employer says, no tons electomies for everybody, and then you
11:50
Speaker 1: you have a problem. There's a there's an issue right here,
11:52
Speaker 1: it's at the bargaining table. It's contract related, and it
11:56
Speaker 1: can conceivably lead to a strike. So there's differ kinds
12:00
Speaker 1: of strikes. Um, there are a few that proceede the
12:04
Speaker 1: full on no one's coming to work strike. Uh, kind
12:08
Speaker 1: of like a warning shot strike, as you can have
12:11
Speaker 1: a sick out or sick in, and that is when
12:15
Speaker 1: you're just sort of saying, here's what could happen. Company owner,
12:19
Speaker 1: factory owner, we're all calling in sick today, and this
12:22
Speaker 1: is what it's gonna be like. Imagine this for days
12:25
Speaker 1: and days in a row. Yeah, you'd hate it, factory owner.
12:27
Speaker 1: But we're all not feeling well. Yeah, And there's actually
12:31
Speaker 1: some professions that legally give up the right to strike
12:36
Speaker 1: but could still conceivably do this. So, like cops sometimes
12:40
Speaker 1: come down with what's called blue flu, which is a
12:43
Speaker 1: structured sick out among cops, and it's still following the
12:48
Speaker 1: letter because each cop is saying, I'm taking a sick day,
12:51
Speaker 1: which I am legally afforded, but all of them are
12:54
Speaker 1: taking it at the same time. So it's a problem. Yeah,
12:57
Speaker 1: a lot of times, like, uh, if it's a public
12:59
Speaker 1: service that people really count on, fireman cops, Yeah, they
13:02
Speaker 1: can't take they can't go on strike, but they can't
13:05
Speaker 1: stick out. We can't strike, but we can stick out
13:07
Speaker 1: or we generally is what we've done is in our contract,
13:10
Speaker 1: we've agreed to arbitration as a means to settle disputes. Right,
13:15
Speaker 1: but we can just yeah, blue flu um. There's also
13:19
Speaker 1: a slowdown too, which I mean, this is the most
13:23
Speaker 1: passive aggressive any think it really is. It's like, oh,
13:26
Speaker 1: let me make sure that that bolt is on again?
13:30
Speaker 1: Where was that bolt? Where was that rich? Where did
13:34
Speaker 1: I put that? Right? It's where um everybody goes to work.
13:38
Speaker 1: But they do their work very slowly, and again they're
13:42
Speaker 1: able to get away with this because they're following the rules.
13:45
Speaker 1: So if you look at the rule book or handbook
13:48
Speaker 1: of an employee at say any kind of manufacturing plant,
13:53
Speaker 1: their job is probably on paper way more detailed and
13:57
Speaker 1: structured than the actual job they harry out. Is just
14:01
Speaker 1: a practical matter. Right. If they started to do their
14:05
Speaker 1: job strictly by the book, the amount of time it
14:09
Speaker 1: takes them to make a widget would slow down dramatically
14:12
Speaker 1: is compared to win. They cut the corners that they
14:15
Speaker 1: normally cut, and the company is like, yeah, cut those
14:18
Speaker 1: corners because we want to get more widgets out the door.
14:20
Speaker 1: So is that what they're doing during a slowdown is
14:22
Speaker 1: they're technically following everything to the letter. That's what the
14:25
Speaker 1: Grabster says. This is a Grabster joint. Joint, by the way,
14:28
Speaker 1: that's right, the great Grabanowski. Yeah, the Grabsters suggests that
14:32
Speaker 1: that is the case for a slowdown usually, although you
14:35
Speaker 1: could also just do your job slower. But if you're
14:37
Speaker 1: doing it by the book, when your boss comes on's
14:40
Speaker 1: like what you better speed up? Hey, I'm making sure
14:43
Speaker 1: that we're following all the safety precautions. Uh. And then
14:48
Speaker 1: finally you can have a sit down. Well, there's a
14:50
Speaker 1: couple more you can have a sit down strike. That is, um,
14:53
Speaker 1: that may be the most aggressive. That's when you actually
14:55
Speaker 1: to go to work and you don't work and you
14:59
Speaker 1: don't leave right Like, you have people bring you food
15:02
Speaker 1: and water, and you're like, I'm gonna sit on my
15:05
Speaker 1: stool so no one else can sit on it and
15:07
Speaker 1: do that job. You're still not your stool. A good point. Yeah,
15:13
Speaker 1: I think that's the most aggressive. I have hardest core
15:16
Speaker 1: and then an arrow pointing out sit down strike here
15:19
Speaker 1: on my notes right. Uh. And but it also doesn't
15:23
Speaker 1: just um, it's not just the most aggressive. It actually
15:27
Speaker 1: affords some additional protections to the the worker on strike, right,
15:31
Speaker 1: so one nobody else can come in and do that
15:34
Speaker 1: work because they're in the way, are on the stool,
15:38
Speaker 1: um number two. It prevents them from violence in a
15:42
Speaker 1: lot of ways, or it protects them from violence because
15:46
Speaker 1: they're hanging around very expensive company machinery. It would be
15:49
Speaker 1: pretty stupid to come at somebody like that with a
15:51
Speaker 1: lead pipe because if they duck, you just broke the
15:53
Speaker 1: company's machine. And if that sounds crazy, will we will
15:57
Speaker 1: go in over the myriad examples of violence and strikes
16:01
Speaker 1: and strike busters just disgusting. Yeah. So if you think,
16:04
Speaker 1: what do you mean, no one would come after them violently, Yeah,
16:07
Speaker 1: it happens. Listen, Pollyanna, just the wait wake up. Uh.
16:11
Speaker 1: So it also keeps the person away from the elements,
16:16
Speaker 1: like you're not out picketing in the rainy weather of Flint, Michigan, right,
16:20
Speaker 1: You're just sitting there and in the nice plant. That's right.
16:25
Speaker 1: There can be sympathy strikes. That's when you um. That's
16:29
Speaker 1: when you either directly or just um, they decide to
16:34
Speaker 1: call on your brothers and sisters and other unions maybe
16:38
Speaker 1: in the same industry that feel your pain and they
16:42
Speaker 1: know it's good for them ultimately as well, so they
16:44
Speaker 1: will also go on strike to kind of help your cause,
16:47
Speaker 1: right exactly. And um, some some company may call the
16:51
Speaker 1: other company be like, dude, you're they're killing me over here.
16:54
Speaker 1: Give them those concessions please, or else I'm not going
16:58
Speaker 1: to be able to make dues this month at the
16:59
Speaker 1: billy An Airs Club. Buffy will kill me or um.
17:06
Speaker 1: It might also be sympathy strikes in a Remember I said,
17:10
Speaker 1: in the same plant, you might have an upholsters union,
17:12
Speaker 1: an electricians union, a plumbers union, um at the same company.
17:17
Speaker 1: Other non affiliated unions may go on strike as well,
17:22
Speaker 1: and that will really put some pressure on that company
17:24
Speaker 1: because they can be like, well, well, we'll catch up
17:26
Speaker 1: with our backlog of um of upholstery work while these
17:30
Speaker 1: guys are striking right. Nope, sorry, we're on strike. Two
17:34
Speaker 1: The company or is just like, oh my god. Well,
17:39
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into the very infamous nineteen eighties
17:42
Speaker 1: air traffic controller strike in great detail later. But one
17:45
Speaker 1: of the big reasons, uh it didn't work out is
17:48
Speaker 1: because they failed to get anyone else on board, like
17:51
Speaker 1: the pilots and the flight attendants and baggage chandelers. None
17:54
Speaker 1: of them, uh jumped on board with a sympathy strike,
17:58
Speaker 1: which did not help the air traffic controller. Then you've
18:00
Speaker 1: got a general strike, which is not usually directed at
18:04
Speaker 1: a company itself. UM, It's more directed at like a
18:08
Speaker 1: government because that means basically everybody who works in a
18:13
Speaker 1: country goes on strike, like we want minimum wage rays
18:17
Speaker 1: for everybody. And that's one reason why it seems like
18:19
Speaker 1: France is always striking. It's because when they go on strike,
18:22
Speaker 1: they go on strike. They typically have general strikes. When
18:25
Speaker 1: they do, I don't want to say typically, but they
18:28
Speaker 1: do undertake general strikes, which is basically unheard of here
18:33
Speaker 1: in the United States. UM, and it makes big news
18:37
Speaker 1: when it happens for UM. So there's just some time
18:41
Speaker 1: that types of strikes. Yeah, should we take a break,
18:43
Speaker 1: Let's all right, but we're coming back. We're not going
18:45
Speaker 1: on strike. Don't worry, so chuck. UM. We talked about
19:10
Speaker 1: different kinds of strikes. Right. One of the things that
19:13
Speaker 1: you think of when you, uh, when you go on strike,
19:17
Speaker 1: or when you think of strike is people picketing, like
19:21
Speaker 1: you'll very frequently see UM people around Atlanta especially. It
19:25
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of construction companies have aggrieved employees. Yeah, um,
19:31
Speaker 1: and so the people just be like marching out in
19:34
Speaker 1: front of the uh the like a building that's going up,
19:38
Speaker 1: headquarters maybe, or a construction site, and they'll say like,
19:40
Speaker 1: shame on whoever for employing non union workers or whatever.
19:45
Speaker 1: Because that's a big, big part of the UM the
19:48
Speaker 1: ability to go on strike is you need to have
19:51
Speaker 1: a solid union, right and one way, especially early on
19:55
Speaker 1: back in the seventeen or no eighteenth and early nineteenth
19:59
Speaker 1: century we're talking about in New England. UM, there was
20:02
Speaker 1: this idea that if you were not a part of
20:07
Speaker 1: the union, the union members would be like, I'm not
20:09
Speaker 1: working if that person is working here, like you have
20:12
Speaker 1: to fire that person. So if you didn't join a union,
20:15
Speaker 1: you had a hard time finding jobs. And so if
20:18
Speaker 1: you're a union, one of your big tactics is you
20:20
Speaker 1: need to make sure your membership is almost complete across
20:25
Speaker 1: the company or else you're not going to be able
20:27
Speaker 1: to put real pressure on that company if half the
20:29
Speaker 1: workers can still show up to work because they're not
20:32
Speaker 1: union members, so they are not going on strike. Good point.
20:36
Speaker 1: Picketing is one of the main reasons you picket is
20:38
Speaker 1: to draw. Like we mentioned earlier, get the public on
20:41
Speaker 1: your side. It's a big part of it. And and
20:43
Speaker 1: also to embarrass the company. Yeah, and this probably says
20:47
Speaker 1: a lot about who I am. But whenever I see that,
20:50
Speaker 1: I always think in my head, well, there's some employees
20:53
Speaker 1: that are clearly getting screwed by the man. What do
20:56
Speaker 1: they have to say? Which is exactly what they want?
20:58
Speaker 1: That's why they're out there with the picket signs or
21:00
Speaker 1: sometimes they're chanting something or singing a song. Uh, and
21:05
Speaker 1: what they do they sing songs like you know, songs
21:09
Speaker 1: about the picket they're not they're singing Stairway to Heaven
21:12
Speaker 1: or like the Freddy Krueger nursery rhyme? What's that one? Yeah,
21:17
Speaker 1: they should do that picket line. Ever, when two strikers
21:22
Speaker 1: coming for you, uh, if you cross the picket line,
21:27
Speaker 1: you literally have to. That's why they stand out in
21:30
Speaker 1: front of the factory or the HQ. You have to
21:33
Speaker 1: walk through them and literally crossed the picket line. To
21:37
Speaker 1: be what's known as a scab. And you can be
21:40
Speaker 1: a you can be part of that union and decided
21:42
Speaker 1: to go back to work, or you can be just
21:44
Speaker 1: an outside person who says I actually need work. And
21:48
Speaker 1: I'm not in your union. I'm so, I'm just gonna
21:50
Speaker 1: I don't know you guys, sorry, ladies, pardon me. I'm
21:54
Speaker 1: a scab. Or you might be a professional from another
21:58
Speaker 1: part of the country that the owner basically has shipped
22:02
Speaker 1: in to replace you, which we'll get into all the
22:05
Speaker 1: legalities of that later. But crossing a picket line is
22:08
Speaker 1: not a shining moment for anybody who's doing it. No, um,
22:13
Speaker 1: And where does the word scab come from? My friend?
22:16
Speaker 1: Apparently it has to do with, um, how people used
22:19
Speaker 1: to shun people with infectious diseases. The The sentiment was
22:24
Speaker 1: that if you crossed the picket line, you would be
22:26
Speaker 1: treated in the exact same way as if you had
22:29
Speaker 1: the plague. Everybody's gonna keep you over there, no one's
22:31
Speaker 1: gonna talk to You're not gonna be able to find
22:33
Speaker 1: a job, You're going to be cast out of society.
22:36
Speaker 1: You're you're yes, so you're it was shortened to scab,
22:42
Speaker 1: Which is I mean like that that amount of pressure
22:44
Speaker 1: is tremendous. Yeah, And um, picketing doesn't always mean you're
22:49
Speaker 1: on strike. A lot of times it's another warning shot.
22:51
Speaker 1: It's called informational picketing. When you sort of threatened and say, hey,
22:57
Speaker 1: you know we're out here picketing. You know, this does
22:59
Speaker 1: not look for you know, And that's that's the key thing.
23:02
Speaker 1: Like if you go on strike, you want the public
23:05
Speaker 1: to know you're on strike, because the public is like,
23:08
Speaker 1: why you're on strike? What's the problem? I want to
23:10
Speaker 1: know about that? UM. And it's gotten some some groups
23:14
Speaker 1: have gotten a lot better at UM at manipulating the media,
23:20
Speaker 1: using social media to get the message across, like the
23:24
Speaker 1: Fight for fifteen where they they're trying to raise the
23:28
Speaker 1: minimum wage fifteen dollars. They've been putting a tremendous amount
23:31
Speaker 1: of pressure on McDonald's. They've got a study released that
23:35
Speaker 1: found that UM like just a ridiculous percentage of fast
23:39
Speaker 1: food workers, especially at McDonald's but in other other at
23:43
Speaker 1: other fast food restaurants in the US, two are reliant
23:46
Speaker 1: on UM welfare on public assistance, and that the way
23:52
Speaker 1: the study framed it and the way that the news
23:54
Speaker 1: reports framed it was that McDonald's was basically using your
23:58
Speaker 1: text payer dollars to supplement the meager income they were
24:01
Speaker 1: paying these people, rather than actually pay their employees a
24:04
Speaker 1: living wage. They were just being like you handle it taxpayers,
24:07
Speaker 1: We're not going to pay them that much. And it
24:09
Speaker 1: worked big time, like it made all the news cycles.
24:12
Speaker 1: That really changed a lot of people's perspectives. And it
24:15
Speaker 1: went hand in hand with a strike in general strike,
24:18
Speaker 1: well not a general strike, but a strike that was
24:20
Speaker 1: um carried out I think in April of last year
24:25
Speaker 1: across the world, and it really put a lot of
24:28
Speaker 1: pressure on McDonald's. Didn't do anything, but it's still put
24:30
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on McDonald's and and I think
24:33
Speaker 1: ultimately probably will lead to uh a change in the
24:37
Speaker 1: minimum voyage. Yeah, that's all. That's a tricky subject. Have
24:41
Speaker 1: we talked about that. No, we should do one on
24:44
Speaker 1: that because I'm a champion of the people. I think
24:47
Speaker 1: people should make a living wage too. But you know,
24:49
Speaker 1: my wife as a small business owner, and it would
24:51
Speaker 1: put her out of business. So like when you hear McDonald's,
24:54
Speaker 1: you think huge corporation, they can afford it. But what
24:57
Speaker 1: about when you're a small business has eight employees and
25:00
Speaker 1: your your cost of what do you call it cost
25:05
Speaker 1: of business? Not like cost of business, but your wages
25:08
Speaker 1: go up. No, it's a very tough thing to say.
25:13
Speaker 1: Across the board, everyone has to do this. But so
25:16
Speaker 1: like with Obamacare, and if anybody knows what some solutions
25:20
Speaker 1: are to that, we'd love to hear it because this
25:22
Speaker 1: this fascinates me as well, and it it feels very important.
25:25
Speaker 1: Um but it seems like with Obamacare, Uh, there was
25:30
Speaker 1: a concession made where employers with X number of employees
25:35
Speaker 1: are less weren't mandated to provide healthcare to their employees. Yea,
25:40
Speaker 1: so maybe it would be like that revenue is less
25:43
Speaker 1: than a certain threshold or whatever. Then small business can
25:47
Speaker 1: be a lot of things like you should. There's no
25:49
Speaker 1: reason that um, mama and McDonald's should be in the
25:53
Speaker 1: same basket of considerations for just about anything that has
25:56
Speaker 1: to do with wages or taxes or anything like that,
25:59
Speaker 1: you know. And it's just so disingenuous to be like, well,
26:02
Speaker 1: you know what about small business. It's like, well, let
26:05
Speaker 1: the small businesses speak. You can't point to these guys
26:07
Speaker 1: like that doesn't matter to you, international conglomerate. Yeah. Plus
26:11
Speaker 1: McDonald's that just raised the price on everything on their
26:14
Speaker 1: menu by one penny and it probably covers it. I
26:17
Speaker 1: think I've heard a stat like that. I don't think
26:19
Speaker 1: it's just a penny, but it's something very meager like that,
26:24
Speaker 1: but good one. But as we'll learn as well, it
26:29
Speaker 1: really is. As we'll learn though UM in this this episode.
26:33
Speaker 1: The history of strikes and of UM labor laws and
26:38
Speaker 1: the treatment of employees and UM the government like backing
26:44
Speaker 1: employers has has been a history of like huge, massive
26:49
Speaker 1: radical acts and then like that changed everything, and then
26:54
Speaker 1: that that that side one and then the other side
26:57
Speaker 1: like bides its time and then bam they strike or
27:00
Speaker 1: they carry out some crazy action and like it changes everything.
27:03
Speaker 1: The history has been like kind of seesawed like that. Yeah,
27:06
Speaker 1: and it's pretty fascinating. Maybe that provides balance in some way,
27:09
Speaker 1: you know overall. I guess, uh, should we talk about
27:13
Speaker 1: sports strikes? Yeah? Uh. They often are get way more
27:18
Speaker 1: attention than other kinds of strikes because there's so much
27:22
Speaker 1: money and people in the United States love their sports
27:26
Speaker 1: value sports over say electricians, you know, of course they do. Uh.
27:32
Speaker 1: The NFL, the Football League, UM, went on strike over
27:35
Speaker 1: free agency, which if you don't know anything about football,
27:38
Speaker 1: that means after your your first contract is up, that
27:43
Speaker 1: means you are a free agent and you can say
27:44
Speaker 1: I want to go sign with any other team in
27:45
Speaker 1: the league. Yeah, I don't understand that. What what were
27:48
Speaker 1: the like that makes total sense? Like, how would that
27:51
Speaker 1: even be a term? Well? Free agency? What are what
27:54
Speaker 1: were the teams wanting the owners? They wanted if you
27:59
Speaker 1: for you to have the rights to control that player
28:02
Speaker 1: for as long as you wanted that player. Oh god, Um,
28:09
Speaker 1: all the sports leagues are so different and how they
28:11
Speaker 1: handle things too, it's really interesting. Um, and I know
28:14
Speaker 1: not many. We don't have a ton of sports fans
28:17
Speaker 1: because historically our sports UH done poorly. But we'll go
28:23
Speaker 1: over this real quick. They struck in strike in uh
28:28
Speaker 1: in the middle of a seat and not in the middle,
28:29
Speaker 1: but at the beginning of the players walked. After two
28:32
Speaker 1: games into the eight seven season and uh for three games,
28:36
Speaker 1: the NFL said, you know what, We're gonna bring in
28:39
Speaker 1: scab replacement players. Yeah, and it was a disaster with
28:46
Speaker 1: the cigarettes. Yeah. I mean people some college players, some
28:49
Speaker 1: players and other like the Canadian League. Uh, some dudes
28:52
Speaker 1: that were just like, hey, I used to play football,
28:55
Speaker 1: Like we're literally out there out of shape. I mean
28:58
Speaker 1: some ESPN is a great article that season, how like
29:01
Speaker 1: you know, the quarterbacks run the huddle of being like
29:03
Speaker 1: we just want to be in the huddle as long
29:04
Speaker 1: as possible that nobody can catch their breath because there
29:09
Speaker 1: you know, this guy was a fat corporate cat that
29:12
Speaker 1: he wanted to be an offensive lineman scab Blair because
29:15
Speaker 1: he played in college. So it was a disaster. UM.
29:18
Speaker 1: They paid him about four grand a game, and um
29:21
Speaker 1: the quality play was terrible, as you would expect. UH.
29:24
Speaker 1: Some high profile profile players ended up crossing UH and
29:28
Speaker 1: being scabs, like Joe Montana, Tony Dorsett, Lawrence Taylor, Steve
29:33
Speaker 1: Largent and it was a big deal. Um And eventually
29:37
Speaker 1: they returned to work uh and without any resolution, which
29:40
Speaker 1: happens a lot of times. Thanks to Joe Montana baseball
29:44
Speaker 1: and nineteen they've gone on strike a lot. UM. In
29:47
Speaker 1: nine four though, the MLB Players Association said they said,
29:54
Speaker 1: we don't want a salary cap on our team, which
29:57
Speaker 1: if you don't know what that means, that means a
29:58
Speaker 1: team can only spend so much money on its players.
30:01
Speaker 1: Players hate that because they want as much money as possible.
30:04
Speaker 1: Owners love it because they're like, oh, what am I
30:06
Speaker 1: gonna do with all this extra money? Exactly? UH And
30:09
Speaker 1: in UH in August, sort of late in the season,
30:14
Speaker 1: they actually canceled the rest of the season in the
30:16
Speaker 1: World Series. Yeah stunk because the Braves were that was
30:19
Speaker 1: in the middle of their big run and they oh, yeah,
30:22
Speaker 1: that's right, you know, like we lost an opportunity to
30:25
Speaker 1: lose another World Series. We won that one though, right,
30:28
Speaker 1: yeah one. So Um. Apparently this contract dispute was still
30:33
Speaker 1: going on into spring training, and some players went and
30:38
Speaker 1: reported to spring training despite the strikes still going on. UM,
30:42
Speaker 1: and those players were banned for life for the Players Union,
30:47
Speaker 1: I don't think for life, which means that even after retirement,
30:50
Speaker 1: they weren't eligible for any royalties that you get from
30:53
Speaker 1: like your number being licensed or being on like um
30:58
Speaker 1: MLB or what retirement edition. Yeah. Um, but I mean
31:02
Speaker 1: you can, you know, make some checks depending on how
31:05
Speaker 1: great a player you were and how big your legend
31:07
Speaker 1: was for many years after you retire. But if you
31:10
Speaker 1: cross the picket lines and went to spring training, Nope,
31:13
Speaker 1: you're out. I don't think I knew that Hockey National
31:17
Speaker 1: Hockey League historically has only had one official strike, but
31:22
Speaker 1: they have been locked out, which we'll get to lockouts shortly,
31:26
Speaker 1: but they've been locked out a couple of times, and um,
31:29
Speaker 1: the entire uh two thousand four season was canceled the
31:35
Speaker 1: whole thing, and UM hockey in Major League Baseball had
31:40
Speaker 1: a much more difficult time recovering from there canceled season
31:44
Speaker 1: and canceled worst World Series than the NFL. Uh from
31:48
Speaker 1: their scab issue. I got a scab issue. And in
31:53
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve the referees NFL referees were locked out.
31:56
Speaker 1: Remember that they had replacement referees that were just terrible.
31:59
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right, they were. They actually I think
32:03
Speaker 1: must have won that concession for the regular referees because
32:09
Speaker 1: it was that that got so much bad press. Everybody
32:13
Speaker 1: was so mad, they were making so many bad calls.
32:16
Speaker 1: I totally forgot about that, like high school referees out
32:18
Speaker 1: there from NFL games. Yeah. Uh, should we take a break,
32:22
Speaker 1: I think so. Man, All right, we'll talk about strike
32:24
Speaker 1: busting and more right after this. No, so checkers. Um,
32:49
Speaker 1: if you were an employer and your employees go on strike,
32:53
Speaker 1: you don't just go, oh, fiddle sticks. I guess I'll
32:56
Speaker 1: give them what they want. There are um plenty of
32:59
Speaker 1: other things you can do, some legal, some sub legal,
33:05
Speaker 1: and some in between. Right, Um. And one of the
33:08
Speaker 1: first things that employers did when they were faced with
33:11
Speaker 1: strikes early on was higher armed mercenaries to basically beat
33:17
Speaker 1: up and threatened and harass the striking workers. Yeah, notably
33:23
Speaker 1: the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They did a lot of detective work,
33:27
Speaker 1: but they were also notable for being strike breakers. And
33:31
Speaker 1: some of the things they do are legit, like uh,
33:36
Speaker 1: guarding scabs as they go to work so they're not harassed,
33:40
Speaker 1: or protecting the building itself. So it's not you know,
33:42
Speaker 1: they're not throwing bricks through the windows, but there's also
33:46
Speaker 1: you know, they're getting beaten up sometimes and intimidated. Well,
33:49
Speaker 1: not just that, they also may serve as agent provocateurs.
33:53
Speaker 1: Apparently the Haymarket riot of Costead in Chicago, it was
33:58
Speaker 1: set off by a bomb, and they think that Pinkerton
34:00
Speaker 1: detective undercover set that bomb off to like stir this
34:03
Speaker 1: protest into an angry, violent mob. So they didn't do
34:07
Speaker 1: anything for money. Yeah, and apparently I was reading that
34:10
Speaker 1: um Pinkerton was hired to investigate the Occupy Wall Street
34:15
Speaker 1: protesters in Zuccati Park. Still at it, Yeah, and so
34:20
Speaker 1: Pinkerton for they deserve their own podcast episode for sure.
34:25
Speaker 1: But very early on they were hired as basically armed thugs.
34:29
Speaker 1: Like you said, they did do protective services, but they
34:32
Speaker 1: also did a lot of violent and illegal stuff as
34:36
Speaker 1: well on the behalf of these factory owners. And there
34:40
Speaker 1: was one in particular where the um the factory owners.
34:44
Speaker 1: It was Andrew Carnegie actually in Homestead, Pennsylvania. There's a
34:49
Speaker 1: steel mill there, and at the steel mill and I
34:53
Speaker 1: think four the workers went on strike. So Carnegie brought
34:57
Speaker 1: in some Hungarian and Slava steel workers to replace them,
35:02
Speaker 1: and in Hungarian and Slavic steel workers want on strike themselves,
35:08
Speaker 1: and more workers were brought into replace them. And both
35:11
Speaker 1: times Pinkerton detectives were there to escort the scabs across
35:15
Speaker 1: the picket line, even when those scabs they escorted turned
35:19
Speaker 1: into the striking workers themselves. But it's kind of like
35:22
Speaker 1: one of those things where it's like, uh, maybe the
35:24
Speaker 1: couple second time, it might be you right now with
35:27
Speaker 1: the scabs you brought in go on strike. Two, maybe
35:31
Speaker 1: we should pay them a little more. That's not what happened.
35:35
Speaker 1: There was like a basically what's called the Battle of Homestead,
35:37
Speaker 1: and it was a battle between the Pinkerton detectives and
35:40
Speaker 1: these striking workers. And in this case, actually the Pinkerton's
35:45
Speaker 1: suffered massive losses and casualties. They were beaten by the
35:50
Speaker 1: town's folk in Homestead UM. Three of them died, and
35:55
Speaker 1: it actually turned public opinion against the strikers in this case.
36:00
Speaker 1: But it also taught Pinkerton that, like, it's probably not
36:04
Speaker 1: good business to like send our boys off to die UM.
36:09
Speaker 1: So they actually stopped providing strike breaking services over time,
36:13
Speaker 1: and it it morphed and evolved into more um set
36:17
Speaker 1: arranging for spies to attend union meetings and things like that.
36:21
Speaker 1: They're still strike busting going on, it's just not as
36:23
Speaker 1: overt and physically violent, a little more surreptitious and sneaky.
36:28
Speaker 1: And then remember we said wake up Pollyanna earlier. That's
36:32
Speaker 1: a good example of it. Another good example is um
36:35
Speaker 1: the Great strike of eighteen seventy seven, which started in Martinsburg,
36:39
Speaker 1: West Virginia, and actually spread very quickly to towns like
36:43
Speaker 1: Baltimore and St. Louis, and it made its way to
36:45
Speaker 1: to Pittsburgh, which was another which was so the Homestead
36:48
Speaker 1: one was just a few years earlier. In eighteen seventy seven,
36:53
Speaker 1: there was another strike and a bunch of townspeople were
36:55
Speaker 1: out supporting the strikers and the UM. I think the
37:00
Speaker 1: State National Guard came in and opened fire on the
37:04
Speaker 1: supporters of the strikers and killed twenty people, including a
37:10
Speaker 1: woman in three small children. So, like, strikes have gotten
37:14
Speaker 1: very bloody, especially early on, and the fact that people
37:21
Speaker 1: were dying over these labor disputes really kind of shaped
37:26
Speaker 1: public sentiment towards violence during strikes, and um it helps
37:31
Speaker 1: straighten things up a lot more, I think over time agreed. UM. Well,
37:38
Speaker 1: I know we covered it in the Union's podcast, but
37:39
Speaker 1: we should talk a little bit about the Wagner Act
37:42
Speaker 1: and Taft Hartley because they play very heavily into strikes.
37:46
Speaker 1: The Wagner Act a k a. The National Labor Relations
37:49
Speaker 1: Act is it was what officially said you have a right,
37:53
Speaker 1: among other things, you have a right to strike, you
37:56
Speaker 1: can form unions, you can go on strike. And it's
37:59
Speaker 1: specifically he says you have a right to strike. Yeah,
38:01
Speaker 1: you are legally allowed to do so if you you know,
38:07
Speaker 1: And they didn't specify like what kind of votes like
38:10
Speaker 1: it was that was all up to the union, right,
38:12
Speaker 1: but it said you are allowed to settle labor disputes
38:16
Speaker 1: by striking. That's right explicitly that is right. And then
38:20
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court came along and said, no, let's let's
38:23
Speaker 1: weaken that a little bit. Yeah. N Supreme Court said, um,
38:27
Speaker 1: you know what, you can't fire people for joining union
38:30
Speaker 1: or going and strike, But what you can do is
38:33
Speaker 1: permanently replaced them with another worker. Uh. And if you
38:37
Speaker 1: want to know the difference, there isn't much. Technically, if
38:41
Speaker 1: you are a replaced permanently replaced, you can go back
38:45
Speaker 1: to that job. If the person who replaced you quits
38:49
Speaker 1: or retires, are aspired, and that position becomes available again,
38:52
Speaker 1: you have the right to go back to that position. Yeah,
38:55
Speaker 1: and get your job. That could be twenty years from
38:57
Speaker 1: now or never. Ye, like Framer with the bagel strike, remember, yeah,
39:04
Speaker 1: and so it is legal to permanently replace somebody. And
39:08
Speaker 1: and when it comes down to a strike, this um
39:12
Speaker 1: weapon in the employer's arsenal is as good as being
39:16
Speaker 1: able to fire striking workers in a lot of cases. Yeah. Absolutely,
39:20
Speaker 1: So that was a big one. And a lot of people,
39:22
Speaker 1: especially pro labor people, um point to this and say
39:26
Speaker 1: what the heck Supreme Court like their Congress explicitly passed
39:30
Speaker 1: an act that says, well, vertally, you have a right
39:33
Speaker 1: to strike. There's nowhere in American law that says employers
39:38
Speaker 1: have a right to replace their striking workers, and yet
39:41
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court has aired on the side of employers rights. Well,
39:45
Speaker 1: I think what the Supreme Court said was, sure, you
39:47
Speaker 1: can go on strike, but we we're not gonna say
39:52
Speaker 1: you can go on strike with no repercussions. Um taft.
39:55
Speaker 1: Hartley Amendment came around in n and did a few things.
39:59
Speaker 1: That a stab what's the National Labor Review Board, which
40:02
Speaker 1: is a body that hears grievances on strikes and unions, Uh,
40:07
Speaker 1: supposedly impartial to that. Yeah. After that, all of the like, um,
40:15
Speaker 1: all the lawsuits are cases that have to do with strikes,
40:18
Speaker 1: are all somebody versus the nlr B. Oh yeah, good point. Uh.
40:23
Speaker 1: And the other thing it did was, um it did
40:25
Speaker 1: weekend unions somewhat by saying you can't have a secondary boycott,
40:29
Speaker 1: which is when you strike against another related business uh
40:33
Speaker 1: in that industry. Uh that's original like that's targeted by
40:38
Speaker 1: the original strike. Uh. You can't have a closed shop,
40:42
Speaker 1: which is where you have to join a union as
40:45
Speaker 1: terms of your employment immediately. Yeah, like right away. But
40:50
Speaker 1: they did allow for what's known as a union shop,
40:52
Speaker 1: which means you have to join a union within the
40:54
Speaker 1: first within a time period thirty days of higher although
40:58
Speaker 1: most states now have taken into their own hands in
41:01
Speaker 1: some cases not most, but to uh to be a
41:04
Speaker 1: right to work state, which Georgia is, which means the
41:07
Speaker 1: union shop is irrelevant, right. I wonder how many right
41:10
Speaker 1: to work states there are? Actually, I meant to look
41:12
Speaker 1: that up. I don't know Georgia. It's so that's such
41:15
Speaker 1: a um. It's such a cynical way to put it.
41:19
Speaker 1: A right to work, like it's the workers right to
41:21
Speaker 1: not join a union. Like that's not a pro um
41:24
Speaker 1: employer law, you know. Um, so chuck. Another another tool
41:29
Speaker 1: in the employers um toolbox. I guess yeah, that that
41:34
Speaker 1: makes sense is the lockout, and it's apparently being used
41:38
Speaker 1: more and more these days. Um. The lockout is like
41:43
Speaker 1: the reverse strike. It's where the employer says you can't
41:47
Speaker 1: come to work, even if you want to, even if
41:50
Speaker 1: you want to stop striking. And there's rules and regulations
41:53
Speaker 1: surrounding lockouts as well. Um. The Supreme Court or Taft Hartley,
41:57
Speaker 1: one of the two, said uh uh, you can as
42:01
Speaker 1: an employer lock your employees out once a contract is expired,
42:07
Speaker 1: so you can't do it during the contract. But if
42:09
Speaker 1: you're an employer and you're saying, I really really really
42:13
Speaker 1: want to shove my terms down your throat, you have
42:16
Speaker 1: to accept them, and the union saying no, we're not
42:19
Speaker 1: going to accept that, you can sit there and negotiate
42:21
Speaker 1: and negotiate and negotiate, and then once that contract expires
42:24
Speaker 1: during negotiations, you can say you're locked out, you can't
42:27
Speaker 1: come to work. And the Supreme Court also ruled that
42:31
Speaker 1: you are, as an employer, allowed to temporarily replace those
42:36
Speaker 1: workers that you've locked out. Right, so l very much so, right,
42:42
Speaker 1: So you're allowed to replace them and continue on with
42:45
Speaker 1: your business as usual. And then if you're you remember
42:48
Speaker 1: you're faced with three options. One you can go find
42:51
Speaker 1: work at another company. Two, you can accept the terms,
42:56
Speaker 1: and then three what's becoming an increasing tactic is you
43:00
Speaker 1: can vote to dissolve the union. Right that, even when
43:03
Speaker 1: you come back and say, okay, well accept your terrible contract,
43:06
Speaker 1: the employer can go you know what, I changed my mind.
43:10
Speaker 1: I actually don't want this union in my company any longer.
43:14
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you what. If you guys vote to
43:17
Speaker 1: dissolve your union. UM, then we will UH will go
43:21
Speaker 1: with this contract and the lockout will be over. That
43:24
Speaker 1: happened very famously in Minnesota in August of two thousand eleven,
43:29
Speaker 1: the American Crystal Sugar Company found that they their employers,
43:33
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, employees found that they were locked out, and
43:37
Speaker 1: UH it went on. It's one of the longest labor disruptions,
43:41
Speaker 1: like major labor disruptions we've had, went on for twenty
43:44
Speaker 1: two months. DRED employees were locked out. By the time
43:49
Speaker 1: it was all over, only four hundred of those original
43:52
Speaker 1: hundred came back those almost two years later, and it
43:55
Speaker 1: took UH. Basically Crystal Sugar kept saying this is our
44:00
Speaker 1: only offer, this is our only offer, every time they
44:02
Speaker 1: went back to negotiate, this is our final offer. So
44:06
Speaker 1: it took five votes over the course of almost two
44:08
Speaker 1: years UM until they eventually relented and UM accepted that
44:14
Speaker 1: same offer like they never changed the offer. UH. And
44:18
Speaker 1: supposedly there was the CEO Dave Berg was caught on
44:23
Speaker 1: audio tape at a shareholder conference saying basically admitting that
44:27
Speaker 1: they were trying to bust the union and comparing the
44:30
Speaker 1: union to a tumor that had to be removed. Yeah,
44:33
Speaker 1: he said, we have to treat the disease, and that's
44:34
Speaker 1: what we're doing here. And then in three months into
44:37
Speaker 1: the lockout, he told shareholders, we mapped this out a
44:40
Speaker 1: long time ago at some point that tumors got to
44:42
Speaker 1: come out, and that's what we're doing. And it worked. Yeah,
44:46
Speaker 1: it did, so then we should probably we should end
44:51
Speaker 1: with the Reagan Air Traffic Controller strike. Man, I remember
44:55
Speaker 1: this so in that air traffic controllers went on strike
45:01
Speaker 1: because they felt that the f a A didn't value
45:04
Speaker 1: their work enough, that their work week was too long,
45:06
Speaker 1: that their pay was too low, and that they're working
45:09
Speaker 1: conditions led to unsafe conditions for travelers, all legit stuff.
45:15
Speaker 1: When all of them um thousand of the seventeen thousand,
45:18
Speaker 1: five hundred and at the time they were the Professional
45:21
Speaker 1: Air Traffic Controllers Organization pat CO. So um. We talked
45:26
Speaker 1: earlier about how a good labor union leadership will say,
45:32
Speaker 1: even though you guys want to go on strike, this
45:33
Speaker 1: is a terrible time to do it. Well. Pat CO
45:36
Speaker 1: did not do that. They went on strike at a
45:38
Speaker 1: time when the economy was not doing that well, when
45:41
Speaker 1: Reagan had about a percent approval he'd just been shot
45:45
Speaker 1: and recovered, so it came back like a total hero
45:48
Speaker 1: and um, he was riding high and felt pretty emboldened. Actually.
45:54
Speaker 1: And the reason why the union went on strike anyway
45:58
Speaker 1: was because they had supported Reagan. He had gotten their
46:02
Speaker 1: support through negotiations and they didn't view him as somebody
46:06
Speaker 1: who was an enemy. They've mishandled and misjudged this in many, many,
46:13
Speaker 1: many ways. But supposedly there's a n law that says,
46:18
Speaker 1: if you're a government agency, your your union can't go
46:21
Speaker 1: on strike. The thing was in practicality and actuality. There
46:26
Speaker 1: had been something like twenty two strikes over the last
46:29
Speaker 1: few decades of government um unions, and it was just
46:33
Speaker 1: kind of like an unsaid thing. Well, Reagan said, no,
46:36
Speaker 1: this is illegal, and you guys are you're If you
46:40
Speaker 1: don't return to work in forty eight hours, you're all fired. Um,
46:44
Speaker 1: I'm going to arrest your union leaders for carrying out
46:47
Speaker 1: an illegal uh strike. Yeah, I'm gonna arrest some of
46:51
Speaker 1: the controllers themselves. Right, I'm gonna freeze the assets of
46:54
Speaker 1: the union, and then I'm gonna get the union de certified.
46:57
Speaker 1: And he did all these things. Yeah, I'm gonna put
47:00
Speaker 1: the FBI is getting involved. If you're a striker, you're
47:02
Speaker 1: gonna be on their list. Uh. And this was this
47:05
Speaker 1: all came down to two money. Really it was UM
47:09
Speaker 1: what they were after would have increased. UH had a
47:11
Speaker 1: price tech of about seven seventy million. UH. The f
47:14
Speaker 1: A A countered with a forty million dollar counter offer,
47:18
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pay hike, UM, a shorter
47:20
Speaker 1: work week, and pat Co said, now so when they
47:23
Speaker 1: went on strike, UM, six thousand flights UH were immediately canceled.
47:28
Speaker 1: And I think they just underestimated how hardcore UH the
47:33
Speaker 1: f A and Reagan we're gonna be coming back at
47:35
Speaker 1: them because they had a fan Immediately they said, you
47:38
Speaker 1: know what, we're gonna have fift these flights back and
47:41
Speaker 1: running very soon because your supervisors are gonna go to work.
47:44
Speaker 1: We're gonna rush through matriculation and training school and military
47:48
Speaker 1: air traffic control and then bring in these military folks
47:51
Speaker 1: to come in and uh, we don't need you. And
47:54
Speaker 1: I think within a few weeks UM, they had nearly
47:57
Speaker 1: of the scheduled flights going, like prioritizing the the most
48:01
Speaker 1: like trafficked routes and what they considered high priority routes,
48:05
Speaker 1: which is a terrible irony because that is almost exactly
48:10
Speaker 1: what the air traffic controllers were looking for, was stretched
48:13
Speaker 1: out work is rather that they felt was safer, and
48:18
Speaker 1: that's what that's what Reagan got it to with the replacements. Well, yeah,
48:22
Speaker 1: and it ended up costing them, I think, twice as
48:24
Speaker 1: much money as it would have cost them if they
48:25
Speaker 1: had just agreed to those terms. A lot of people
48:29
Speaker 1: point to that the fact that they they the f
48:33
Speaker 1: A ended up changing to what the strikers wanted and
48:37
Speaker 1: spending twice as much as what they would have just
48:39
Speaker 1: conceding to it as Reagan changing, um, the the flow
48:45
Speaker 1: between employer and employees, and he did dramatically after that.
48:50
Speaker 1: It became much more difficult to strike. And I think
48:53
Speaker 1: it's it's struck fear into the hearts of workers throughout
48:56
Speaker 1: the country, Like, oh man, the president himself feels this
49:00
Speaker 1: way about striking like that, clearly he's gonna back up
49:04
Speaker 1: the employers in any kind of strike. And it changed
49:07
Speaker 1: things for sure. Yeah. And I mean not only did
49:10
Speaker 1: he say you're all fired, he said none of you
49:12
Speaker 1: can ever work for the government again. Um. And then
49:16
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton came along and reversed that and said, you
49:19
Speaker 1: guys can get a job again if you want. He said,
49:22
Speaker 1: well half of us are dead. Yeah. Well that was
49:25
Speaker 1: twelve years later when that happened, so that's a good point.
49:29
Speaker 1: But eventually they the newly hired air traffic controllers, formed
49:34
Speaker 1: a new union, uh NATKA National Air Traffic Controllers Association,
49:39
Speaker 1: and um, I think Robert Poley from pat CO said,
49:43
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately, I think we sort of won because
49:47
Speaker 1: it ended up costing them more and we got the changes.
49:49
Speaker 1: But they all there were no winners really because they
49:52
Speaker 1: lost because all those people got fired Capital one. Yeah,
49:56
Speaker 1: and that was a big one. At the time. We
49:58
Speaker 1: talked about getting the public sympathy, they did not have
50:01
Speaker 1: it because air traffic controllers made more than the average person. Uh.
50:07
Speaker 1: And like you said, it was a bad time for
50:09
Speaker 1: the economy and people's flights were getting canceled and they
50:12
Speaker 1: didn't have what do we call the the sympathy strikers,
50:15
Speaker 1: so that they were they I don't think they thought
50:18
Speaker 1: thought it through and they were very much surprised by
50:21
Speaker 1: Reagan for sure. You're like, he said, what, We're all
50:24
Speaker 1: fired in two days? So, uh, that's strikes. There's a
50:28
Speaker 1: lot more too. There's a crazy history that we haven't
50:31
Speaker 1: even touched on. Um, there's just so much stuff that
50:34
Speaker 1: that's happened as far as strikes go. Um, you should
50:38
Speaker 1: definitely if this flick your boat at all, you should
50:40
Speaker 1: go look up the Flint, Michigan sit in strike of
50:44
Speaker 1: I think nine eight. Yeah, it was pretty amazing what happened. Yeah,
50:49
Speaker 1: and we we might should do a an entire show
50:52
Speaker 1: in the Homestead strike in battle. Yes, that was a
50:57
Speaker 1: big deal. Yes it is us. Yeah, I think it's
51:01
Speaker 1: full enough for a show. Okay, Well, in the meantime,
51:04
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about strikes, you can
51:06
Speaker 1: type that word in the search bar at how stuff
51:08
Speaker 1: works dot com. And I said search bar. So it's
51:11
Speaker 1: time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Navy lieutenant
51:16
Speaker 1: reporting for duty. Hey guys, I'm a lieutenant in the
51:19
Speaker 1: Navy and I've been listening to your show for a
51:20
Speaker 1: few years, started listening a while with station in Japan
51:23
Speaker 1: and have not stopped. You asked about ship name prefixes, UH,
51:27
Speaker 1: specifically U S S, which indeed is United States ship.
51:30
Speaker 1: It should be noted that this specifically refers to warships
51:34
Speaker 1: of the U. S Navy and that. Prefixes for other
51:36
Speaker 1: ships of the US government are legion. For instance, US
51:39
Speaker 1: C g C United States Coastcard Cutter, U S N
51:42
Speaker 1: S United States Naval Ship, non warship, U S A
51:45
Speaker 1: S United States Armyship, U S A V United States
51:48
Speaker 1: Army Vessel, and many more. Boutique prefixes that are limited
51:53
Speaker 1: UH they're of limited use are no longer in use. UH.
51:57
Speaker 1: Most navies around the world have their own prefix because,
51:59
Speaker 1: like you said, h MS currently is Her Majesty's ship
52:03
Speaker 1: or her Majesty's submarine. But when the monarch reigning monarch
52:06
Speaker 1: is a man, the king would be His Majesty's ship.
52:10
Speaker 1: Sense and how about these Josh h M C S
52:14
Speaker 1: IS or Her Majesty's Canadian Ship or h M a
52:17
Speaker 1: S Australian ship or h M n z S His
52:21
Speaker 1: Majesty's New Zealand ship. UH. Civilian ships vessels can have
52:26
Speaker 1: prefixes as well, according to their construction and propulsion, such
52:29
Speaker 1: as S S I never knew that like S S
52:31
Speaker 1: MINO sailing ship, wow or steamship or screw steamer. Yeah,
52:37
Speaker 1: which is the dirtiest of all ships. UH M V
52:41
Speaker 1: or M slash V for motor vessel. And then my
52:44
Speaker 1: personal favorite that is Chris speaking n S for nuclear ship.
52:50
Speaker 1: The number of them is staggering, guys, very respectfully, Chris,
52:53
Speaker 1: lieutenant in the U. S. Navy. Well, holy Chris, thanks
52:57
Speaker 1: a lot for that. UM and uh. If you want
53:00
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us like Chris and shine
53:02
Speaker 1: some light on some stuff we didn't really know about,
53:05
Speaker 1: we love that. So you can tweek to us at
53:08
Speaker 1: s y ESCP podcast. You can join us on Facebook
53:10
Speaker 1: dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You can send
53:13
Speaker 1: us an email to you stuff podcast at how stuff
53:15
Speaker 1: Works dot com and has always joined us at our
53:16
Speaker 1: home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com
53:24
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
53:26
Speaker 1: it how stuff Works dot com